Co-parenting can be challenging, but nothing prepared me for what happened when I returned home from work to find my daughter and her babysitter missing. The empty house sent chills down my spine, and when the babysitter didn’t answer her phone, I knew something was wrong. Thankfully, I had placed an AirTag in my daughter’s backpack weeks earlier. When I checked the location, it showed they were at the airport—a place we had no plans to visit.
I rushed to the airport and found my ex-husband, his mother, and the confused babysitter about to board a flight with my daughter. They tried to claim it was just a spontaneous trip, but the packed bags and purchased tickets told a different story. The babysitter was horrified when she realized she had been manipulated into helping with what amounted to an attempted parental abduction.
With the help of airport security, I was able to keep my daughter safe and return home. The experience was a terrifying reminder that even people you think you can trust might have hidden agendas. It also showed me the importance of using available tools to protect our children in an increasingly complicated world.
