My younger son is a runner.
This, is a parent’s worst nightmare. He runs in the house. He runs in the yard. He runs on the sidewalk. He runs ONTO the street. He runs OUTSIDE of the schoolyard. And the little bugger is fast.
When he was younger, he would have to be within arms reach of teachers and caregivers. Whoever was responsible for him would have to be instantaneously quick to react to his running impulse because if they missed a beat, he would be gone. Faster than lighting and heading to, more often than not, danger. Yes, there were plenty of times I had to chase him down escalators, and grab him as he was about to bolt onto oncoming traffic. There were also a few times when I got the calls from school. And make no mistake. It doesn’t matter how many times you see the school name appear on your phone’s call display; each one makes your heart stop.
One of those calls advised me that he had been missing for 20 minutes earlier in the day but not to worry…he was now safe in his classroom. Apparently my youngest child had to go to the bathroom and the allocated one was in use so the logical child that he is, he decided to go to the basement floor washrooms. He had 2 partners with him, not just the usual 1, however because he fled so fast to attend to his bodily function, his little friends ‘lost him’. Not only was my child roaming this large school on his own (he did make it to the bathroom and then he decided to walk through the school and say hello to his brother and the older kids), there were two other lost children walking around aimlessly looking for him. Where were the teachers you may be wondering? The kids had been dismissed from gym outside in the school yard to go to the bathroom altogether. The gym teacher being outside wasn’t aware of the fiasco inside. The regular teacher was doing what she was supposed to be doing during that timeslot, so she too, was unaware of the situation. A seemingly simple situation of going to the bathroom turned into a manhunt for my son. The two partners eventually made it outside to alert the gym teacher and by the time all the students were collected and ready to go back into the school, my young boy had enough of his school travels and decided to go see what his class was doing outside. The adults didn’t find him. He brought himself back. Needless to say, all his teachers quickly learned to keep him within arms reach.
A second incident involved my youngest child, a soccer ball getting kicked over the school fence, and the retrieval of that soccer ball, now stuck under a car, diagonally across the corner of the school. He had managed to run out of the school property, past the fence, crossed two streets during the lunch hour and climbed under the car to rescue his ball. I didn’t know if I should be thrilled at my then grade 1’s capabilities, or horrified that he was so quick that no one saw the 6 year old outside the school fence other than my older son’s friend who happen to catch him run back into the school yard and report him to the yard duty staff.
In hindsight though I shouldn’t be surprised. In the orphanage, if the moons had aligned and the impulse hit, there would be many times during my month stay, that he would escape and run. Sometimes we would find him in the kitchen helping the staff. Other times he would be in the nurses station inquiring on the day’s injuries or sick children. It appears that running is the vehicle to get him to the answer to his question, or the solution to his problem. It’s never just random and it’s never just a game for someone to catch him. In fact, he hates running for long periods of time i.e. his ball hockey game, and prefers to play goalie on his soccer team so he can avoid running in the field.
So now after 4 years of being home, and doubling in age, yes, he will still run into the middle of the street if his frisbee is headed that way. He will still run to help out the crying child at the bottom of the stairs and he will still run to make it to the roller coaster line up to make it before everyone else does. To control him now though doesn’t require physically holding him back. He responds to my frantic screams of ‘LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING THE STREET’, and ‘STOP!!!!!’. Another day goes by, and another day I’m grateful for the lack of injuries. And as that day ends I pray that I’m one day closer to the end of the running….
The Single Mom Chronicles 