Yesterday, after the pool, the unthinkable happened: a certain little boy who was supposed to meet me on the other end of the mans locker room ditched me and the baby and took off home by himself.
I didn't know right away that he went home by himself. I was calling into the locker room, making the male teenage lifeguards a little uncomfortable. They went in there and checked. No luck. I go back into the pool and I'm searching around, feeling like a huge failure. Everybody knows I lost a kid. I'm starting to panic.
So much can happen in those seconds when he is alone in the locker room, or went back into the pool, or was alone outside of the locker room. What if something happened? How would I explain this to the parents? All those horrible thoughts going on in my brain. I call the oldest brother, who has a cell phone, and he confirms that his brother is home. I'm shaking and starting to cry as I push the stroller home as fast as I can. The beach bag feels like there is an anvil in it!
I'm not sure how the best way to deal with this is. I feel like when I see him, I want to go berserk all over this little boy; what he did was soooooo serious. But despite my fury, I calmly enter the house, see him, and calmly ask him to retire to his bedroom. He can come down when his dad comes home (the three of us will talk about it together) or when dinner is ready; which ever comes first. He goes without a sound. The first sign he is guilty of deliberately leaving on his own. His brother tells me that he asked if I knew he was home, and there was no reply. Guilty!
Knowing his is safe and sound, the damn breaks and the floodgates open. My only regret is not sobbing outside his bedroom door so he can hear how scared and worried I was.
On my way to work! I know mom and dad had a talk with him. I will have a talk with him too. I'm not sure we are going to the pool today. What would you do? How would you handle that if it was your kid, or someone else's kid? Please feel free to comment and let me know. I can use all the advice/tips I can handle. Also, the parents have a little trick up their sleeve to try and scare him into good behavior. If it works out as planned, I will share it with you at the end of the week!
Not knowing anything about him,I think you handled it very well. You didn't have to work too hard to help him understand he did something wrong. That's a plus. Does he understand why it was wrong? Have you asked him why he did it, was he wanting to show you and his parents he's able to do some things on his own? Kids are so tricky, they want more freedom and parents are afraid to give it. What's a girl to do? Trust your gut and keep up a dialog with his parents. You'll figure it out. You love these kids and only want the best for them. What else can you do? Good luck with it all and keep God in your heart.
ReplyDeleteI think you should ask the Dad if you can purchase child locators:
ReplyDeletehttp://bestnannynewsletter.blogspot.com/2011/05/review-of-child-locators.html
Thank you! I definitely will.
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of you and how you handled it. Did you ever find out why he did it? I used to let Cory ride his bike around the block. I remember when he was little and took off. Its scary. i was looking everywhere for him, I found an officer on the street behind our house. He said he would keep an eye out for him. Cory showed up about 15 mins later, and the cop was right behind him. Boy was I upset and relieved when he got home. The officer asked if he could talk to Cory, "of course" I said. Thinking hes gonna scare the crap outta him. I walk to the cop car and Cory is sitting in the front seat, checking all the stuff out. They are talking about guns, radios, handcuffs and everything else boys love. But not one word about how dangerous it was to walk off. I asked the officer if he mentioned anything about it, he said no. I don't want to make him afraid of the police, I wanted to show him its OK to approach an officer. I guess he was right. The discipline should come from me. I asked Cory why he went off the block, he said the park was calling his name. I told him next time the park calls your name, you have to come home and ask mom to take you. I laugh now, not so much at the time. Oh BTW this is your auntie Caron.
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