Yes, I'd want to help, but how do you go about finding a lost parent while knowing that your child is late for something important? I don't mind prolonging a shopping trip or missing a coffee, but how to find the parent?

Also, what if the child approaches someone who isn't a Mummy, maybe a teenage babysitter? Yes, they are with children, but would you feel happy with that?

I wouldn't have a blind clue even now, short of taking the child into every shop in town and park and looking for someone who that child would identify as their mother.