Read this before taking your children to the Muscat Festival

Muscat: Young children visiting the Muscat Festival are being urged to wear wristbands so that they don’t get lost at the venues.

Amna Al Balushi, a member of the Municipal Council and a member of Muscat Festival Committee said: “It is better that the parents buy these wristbands from the children’s shop before visiting the festival. These bands will have their parent’s name and phone number. So it will be easy for us to track them if they get lost at the venue.”

The advice was given to the children below five years. “Children above 5 years of age can be given a mobile phone because they know how to use it,” she said.
She also said: “Children’s safety is everyone’s responsibility.

“It’s very important for the parents not to leave their children wandering around on their own. For example, if a family consists of five children, three can be with the father and two with the mother, so that every parent is responsible.”

This advice comes after many parents think of the festival’s reception offices as a “free” child care service, reassured that nothing will happen to their children even if they are lost for some time.

As a result, some children are being kept for hours at the reception, before their parents finally decide to check their whereabouts.
At times their rooms get packed with several children.