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Sixty seconds on the way in
Agree a meeting point within a minute of arriving anywhere busy, every time.
1Watch
Through the gates
Through the gates
A family walks into a fairground, all looking at different things. Nobody says anything about where to meet. The film stops with the kid turning to say something to her dad, and her dad already talking to somebody else.
20 secondsThis is the moment. It lasts about ten seconds and then the day starts.
2The idea
The plan is made before it is needed
When you get separated, you will not be able to ring, or hear, or think very clearly. There will be noise and legs and your dial will be on Twitchy. So the meeting point gets picked now, on the way in, while everybody is calm and in one place.
You are the one who asks. Parents forget. “If we get split up, where are we meeting?” One sentence, at the door, and they will answer every time.
3The idea
Four things a meeting point has
You can see it from far away. A sign over heads, a tower, a big colour.
It does not move. Not a person, not a ride that goes round.
It is near the entrance, so both of you can find it from anywhere.
It has staff. Somebody in a uniform or behind a desk, who can put a name over a loudspeaker.
Four things. If a place has all four, it is the point. A bench by a fountain has none of them: you cannot see it over a crowd, there are six benches, and nobody works there.
4The idea
The shopping centre, on the way in
Say you walk in through the main doors. On the left is the information desk: big sign above it, a woman in a lanyard behind it, and you can see it from the escalator. You say, “If we get split up, where are we meeting?” Dad looks round, sees the desk, says there.
Ten seconds. Now there is a plan, and it has all four things. If it had been the car, you would have to go outside alone to reach it. If it had been the first shop, you would have left it by the time it mattered.
5Decide
You have just walked into a big shopping centre. Which is the meeting point?
Pick one to carry on.
6Say it
The sentence on the way in
Say this out loud, to a parent, at the door
“If we get split up, where are we meeting?”
You say it, not them. Parents forget. It takes one sentence and they will answer every time.
7Find them
What makes a meeting point good?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
8Your turn
Four venues
Pick the point
Four maps: a fair, a beach, a stadium and a big supermarket. In each one, tap the meeting point. It tells you why yours works, or what it is missing.
The beach is the hard one. Nothing on a beach has a sign. Look for the lifeguard station or the ice cream kiosk, and agree which.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Next time you walk into anywhere busy, and a supermarket counts, ask the question before you have gone ten steps. Point at the answer. Then tell a parent later that you did it, without being asked.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Pick the meeting point on the way in. Every time. Before anything else.
Next lesson: The first minute