We had booked a holiday-of-a-lifetime to Florida and had been looking forward to it for more than a year. We fastidiously bought sun creams, mozzie sprays, UV protective swimsuits, oodles and oodles of shorts & t-shirts and of course brushed up on how to travel stress-free with a toddler. We were ready! Then, the week before we were set to fly my sister-in-law phoned me up in a panic saying “but what if we lose the children in Disneyland!”. Slightly melodramatic perhaps (!) but it was one thought that hadn’t crossed my mind. When one is in the throes of planning for a huge family holiday, worries like this can perhaps be magnified somewhat and I was suddenly unnerved with thoughts of my (non-speaking) toddler aimlessly wandering around an enormous theme park or airport crying and wondering where his mamma was. How on earth would anyone identify him and help him find his family? My niece and nephew (9 and 5 years respectively) would of course be able to verbally tell a stranger what their parents looked like, but how would anyone find the adults to reunite everyone?
We racked our brains before coming up with the ingenious idea of ordering some personalised shoe labels and luggage labels to help abate our worries. That way, the children would have discreet labels in their shoes bearing their name and a parent’s phone number and, if they happened to get lost, we could teach them to show the helpful staff member the labels in their shoes depicting our contact details. Genius! We were rather proud of our lost child remedy and started searching online for bespoke name labels for shoes.
My Name Label looked like a perfect choice as it had brilliant online reviews and I had heard great things about the quality of the labels from friends who had also used the company before. We ordered a set of shoe labels for each child, as well as baggage label to attach to their Trunkis. My little boy most often wears Croc sandals – especially when it’s hot like as we hoped it to be in Florida. As soon as the shoe name labels arrived I could have kicked myself for not checking, but the Croc heel where the label would go is dimpled and extremely concave – I thought that the labels would never attach securely and would screw up and be illegible within the hour. Darn, I wish I’d thought about that beforehand! I was angry with myself for not pre-empting this potential problem so close to our holiday…
But, as I set about securing the shoe label in the way in which the (very clear and concise) instructions guided me, I realised that it had not only stuck down firmly but looked set to stay! I ensured that I also applied the clear label overlay as advised, and cautiously slid the Croc sandals on to my excitable toddler (he was thrilled to have dinosaurs in his shoes!). We walked to the park, he found puddles, he ran and crawled, he took his shoes on and off multiple times (a habit I’m fruitlessly trying to nip in the bud!) and much to my utter disbelief, the shoe name labels held fast. They not only held fast for our short muddy park walk, but they held strong and remained legible for the entirety of our two week Florida trip which consisted of sweaty days by the pool slathered in oily sun cream, multiple sandy beach walks looking for pelicans and turtles, hours of traipsing around theme parks, splashing around and climbing steps at water parks, jumping over numerous waves in the sea and (of course) innumerable removals of the Crocs in question. Not only did they hold fast for all of this, but they still remain in place today and don’t look set to budge any time soon! The image below is of the Crocs this morning- you can see how amazingly legible the shoe labels still are. Dumbfounded? Without doubt. Impressed? Most definitely. (Please note that the phone number hasn’t worn away, it has been blurred for privacy reasons)
The good news is that all of the children were brilliantly behaved, had the time of their lives and we didn’t lose any of them! Even though we were in hindsight perhaps a little over-cautious, the peace of mind afforded to my sister-in-law and I for having been able to label our children discretely in a new foreign land was priceless. Thank you so much My Name Label, your labels proved invaluable and we will be sure to stock up on your other labels for school clothes, sports equipment and more in the future!
