Two weeks ago I had my first experience with my children "running away". Let me tell you, it was SO funny!
It all started one day after school. I was on the laptop doing some online banking and was just about to get off as Benson needed to be fed. Marshall came up to me and asked if he could watch some basketball on the laptop (something him and Irish do on a regular basis...usually at breakfast time). I told him that I didn't have time to set it up for him, that I needed to feed Benson...AND that he hadn't earned it. Well apparently that was just the 'end of the world'. He got all pouty and whined "I hate this word" (I'm assuming the word he wasn't liking was 'No')
I replied saying "I'm sorry hunny, but you haven't earned it & I need to feed Benson" He stomps his foot, has his arms folded, and with a scowled look on his face and says "I'm so mad, I'm going to run away"
Me: Run away!? Where are you going to go?
Marshall: I don't know, I need a bag
So he goes around the house looking for a bag to 'pack' some items. He comes back into the living room and starts putting some toys into it.
I continue to ask him questions that will hopefully get him thinking and maybe realize that running away isn't the answer
Me: Marshall where are you going to sleep?
Marshall: By myself
Me: Who is going to feed you?
Marshall: I don't know, I'm just going to run away
He goes up stairs and comes back down with a stack of P.J's an puts them into his bag. Meanwhile Paisley is beside herself. In tears, crying "I don't want Marshall to leave". I'm trying to console her, and let her know that he's not actually going to leave...and then all of a sudden a switch flips and
She's going with him! So now she's looking for a bag. I ask the kids if I should give away their bunkbed, toys & other clothes...you know...since their running away. Marshall told me no, because they weren't going to run away forever!
As Marshall is getting his coat on he tells me "I have some of my toys, pajamas & my boots in case it snows"
I ask him "Hunny, where are you going to go? How are you going to keep warm? Who is going to feed you? Who will tuck you in tonight? Who is going to sing to you at Bedtime" He pauses for a minute and then tells me that they are going to run away to Mary-Pats (Our Grandma friend & neighbor who lives kitty corner to us).
Since they said they were going to go somewhere in particular I decided I would let them 'go' and hopefully get this whole running away thing out of their system.
I watched them go over to her house. Marshall knocked on the door, no answer, knocked again, no answer....put his bag down and knocked on the door a couple more times. They then walked down her side walk and around the side of her house, at this point I could no longer see them. I thought to my self 'oh I hope they aren't going to just sit there and wait for her to come home'!
After a couple of minutes they come walking back around the side of the house and look like they are heading home...when who comes driving down the road!? Yep, Mary-Pat! Great timing! They see her and turn around running back to her driveway.
I start laughing to myself just thinking of what Marshall is going to tell her, how he'll say it and what her reaction will be! I give them a couple of minutes to go inside and then give Mary-Pat a call. Luckily she's laughing at the whole situation as well!
Apparently Marshall told her that they were coming to
live with her!! Told her what days he goes to school, when he needs to be there and when he needs to be picked up! I tell her that I'm just in the middle of feeding Benson and I'll be over as soon as he's done!
Not too much later I see Marshall running back to our house. He bursts in the door and says "I forgot my backpack...and I need to get Paisley's coat" At this moment I am trying
so hard NOT to laugh! How cute & funny is it that he came back to get his backpack!? And with that he was gone back over to Mary-Pat's!
Once Benson is finished We get our coats on and head on over to Mary-Pat's. When Marshall sees me come in the door he just groans.
"Mooooom, what are you doing here? I told you that we are running away for two sleeps and then we will come back home"
I told him "I came to talk with Mary-Pat and then we are
all going home" He wasn't to pleased with the fact that I said we were all going home. I think he honestly thought they were just going to live there for two 'sleeps' and then come back home. As if Mary-Pat could just drop all her plans for the next two days and take care of them.
When we finally did go home we all had a nice chat about how we don't run away from our problems. Instead we need to talk about them, because running away wasn't going to fix anything.
Not that I can 'blame' this whole thing on a book...but I am! I blame a book on putting the idea of running away in his head. Not too long before this whole incident we read "Just So Mad" (one of the Little Critter books) throughout the whole book the critter wants to do certain things and he keeps being told 'No' by different people. So in the end he says he's going to run away. He packs some snacks and I think some toys and is about to run away when his friends show up and ask him to play. After reading that book to the kids I specifically mentioned how it was so silly that the Critter was going to run away just because he was upset...apparently Marshall didn't get the Memo!
All in all everyone involved (except the kids) had a good chuckle over it! They haven't mentioned running away again...yet!
