Recently I experienced the fright of my life. A kind of raw terror that I have never had before and definitely do not want again. I thought I’d lost my Daughter. I thought she’d been taken.

It was 15:40 on a Friday, I was at work and my mind was starting to focus on the weekend ahead and what we would get up to.  Then my mobile phone rang. The number coming up was the school.  I stared at my phone  for a little while confused as to why they would be calling me.

Upon answering, the receptionist at the school greeted me and casually asked if I knew if my Daughter had been picked up ok after school finished at 15:10?  I told her I assumed so, my wife was on the pick up and I hadn’t heard anything in the last half an hour from her to suggest anything was up.  She continued:  “Well, we have iBears teacher here and she is sure she was picked up by your wife but we’ve since had a parent coming in saying they thought she saw your Daughter being driven away in a car shouting “Help, Help!”. I’m sure everything is fine but we’ve got to check these things out if they occur”.

Anxiety takes over

I could sense the immediate rising panic in me and told them I had to contact my wife immediately and then I would call them back to confirm. I dialled her number.  It rang out.  I dialled again. No answer. No answer on each of the next four attempts either. Well that was it,  I’ve never known a feeling like it.  My heart was beating out of my chest and I was struggling to breathe properly. I’d actually grabbed my car keys and was on my way out of the office when my wife rang back.  “IS iBEAR WITH YOU?!” I shouted down the phone before she even had a chance to say hello. She was.  Of course she was.

My wife then explained she’d just been on the phone to the school, which is why my calls hadn’t been getting through. Apparently they’d phoned her after they’d phoned me and that all was well.  What she thought had happened was a girl in iBears class had been shouting bye to her as she was driven away home.  The two girls look similar and the shouting may have been misconstrued as panic.

Despite this explanation I still needed to hear my Daughters voice, I was still up a height with anxiety.  She came on the phone having overheard some of our conversation and said “What’s happened Daddy, am I ok?!  This made me laugh. “Of course you are Sweetheart” I said, “Daddy’s just had a bit of a shock”.

After hanging up I sat down in my chair and just stared out of my office window for a few minutes.  I just couldn’t settle. It was only once I finally got home and gave my Daughter a big hug that I finally felt calm.

One Dads View

Reliving this with a rational mind shows that of course everything was always going to be ok.  The school receptionists light hearted voice and manner should have been a giveaway. The fact her teacher had confirmed that she has passed our Daughter over to my wife. Why would anyone doubt that?  But, the fact they’d phoned and asked in the first place, coupled with the failure of me to get hold of my wife immediately meant terror took over.

I don’t blame the school at all, they were only making absolutely sure all of their kids got home safe.  And I’m sure the parent who reported the potential crisis did so with the best of intentions. But I truly have never experienced a feeling like that before.  I now know what real panic feels like, and I’ll be thankful never having to experience it again!