Toddler Walking to McDonald’s While Mother Napped

Maris­sa Phif­fer was tak­ing a nap near her tod­dler twins’ cribs when she awoke to find her 3‑year-old son Aiden miss­ing from his. After search­ing inside and out, Phif­fer called the authorities. 

They soon locat­ed Aiden at a near­by McDon­ald’s with the help of an obser­vant com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber who had noticed the tod­dler walk­ing alone in that direction.

It seemed Aiden had wok­en hun­gry from his nap, put on his shoes inde­pen­dent­ly, and made his way to McDon­ald’s, drawn by menu items he enjoyed there in the past. When his moth­er arrived, Aiden hap­pi­ly greet­ed her.

To help pre­vent any sim­i­lar unsu­per­vised walks dri­ven by hunger, Phif­fer installed addi­tion­al home secu­ri­ty. Relieved the sit­u­a­tion end­ed safe­ly, she hopes Aiden will not feel com­pelled to under­take solo jour­neys to McDon­ald’s again while she naps. The inci­dent remind­ed Phif­fer of tod­dlers’ curios­i­ty and mobility.