Every Caregiver's Worst Nightmare

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!