SHOP SAFELY WITH WANDER WEAR (TM) New survey reveals that accidental wandering occurs most frequently at malls and stores and that parents are unprepared

ASHLAND, MA (PRWEB) December 4, 2003

Wander Wear Inc. (http://www.wander-wear.com), a parent-run company focused on products that help accidentally lost children and their parents reunite more quickly and easily, recently conducted a survey of parents regarding their experiences with accidental wandering. The survey revealed that parents recall an episode of temporarily losing their child in a mall or store more often than any other venue (45%) - places where droves of families will be visiting this holiday season. The Wander Wear survey also found that most parents don’t do anything to prepare themselves or their children for the chance of an accidental wandering incident when they visit a crowded venue such as a mall (43%). Despite expert advice from agencies specializing in child safety to include a safe form of contact information or ID on a child, only 9% of parents indicated that they do this.

Safe identification includes minimal but effective contact information such as a cell phone number that cannot allow a stranger to entice or track a child to the child’s home or other frequented location.

Wander Wear president Jen Tuttelman noted, “When a child gets lost, even for a few seconds, most parents and children panic and do not think clearly. The child will seldom remember a specific phone number and our survey indicates that most typically, the parent runs around screaming the child’s name. Yet the vast majority of parents do not give their child safe contact information to use which can assist the child without displaying potentially harmful information such as the child’s name or address.”

Of those parents who indicated that they had at one time been accidentally separated from their child, 97% said the episode was less than 30 minutes, while 50% of the episodes lasted under 5 minutes. According to the NISMART-2 study, a 2002 national study conducted by the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), over 198,300 children were lost due to unintentional circumstances in a 12-month period. The study, however, focuses on episodes that last for at least one hour. The study also found that roughly one third of these accidental lost child episodes are even reported. According to the Wander Wear survey, only 9% of the parents reported their incidences to a security guard or other official and only 2% reported it to the police. The difference perhaps due to the fact that though they cause significant trauma and an indelible memory, most every day accidental wandering episodes are common, short and result in a safe return.

CEO Alyssa Dver commented, “Even the most vigilant parent can lose a child accidentally in a crowd when the child wanders off to play hide and seek under a clothing rack or perhaps to look at a toy or other attraction. There are products now available such as Wander Wear that provides an inexpensive and easy way to assist parents and children should they become separated.” Dver continued, “In recent conversations with mall security personnel, one Boston area mall said that they recorded over 750 lost children last year alone. Given that most accidental wandering incidents go unreported, we expect that the actual number of temporarily lost children is much higher. From these statistics, it is clear that every parent has a high likelihood of temporarily losing a child, especially during the busy holiday season in a crowded store or mall.”

With so little media coverage of this quite common issue, seventy six percent (76%) of the survey respondents indicated they are interested in learning about products that can assist them in minimizing the effects of accidental wandering. Dver concluded, “It really is easy to give yourself a little peace of mind while you fight the crowds this holiday season. Wander Wear is one way you can feel that your children have a tool to help them in case they get lost. With all the great things you and your kids will get for the holidays, perhaps the best present we can give everyone is many happy returns – that is, to get children back to their caregivers quickly and safely when they get accidentally get separated.”

About Wander Wear

Wander Wear(TM) Inc. (http://www.wander-wear.com) is a parent-run, Boston-based company offering cost-effective and easy-to-use accessories and clothing that help parents and children minimize being accidentally separated when visiting crowded places such as malls, amusement parks, airports, or ballparks. With over 1,500 children accidentally wandering each day, Wander Wear Inc.’s mission is to develop products and educational resources for the public to address this underreported issue. Wander Wear’s products feature Whizzly (TM), a kid-friendly monster that is represented on the company’s parent locator tags and special easy-to-spot t-shirts. For additional information, call 508-881-5664 or email info@wander-wear.com.

Wander Wear(TM) and Whizzly (TM)are trademarks of Wander Wear Inc. All other trade names are the property of their respective owners.

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