To ask for help w/ 5yo running off?!

[MammaGump]

Hi,

My DS started reception in September and since then I’ve had a real problem with him running off on the walk home from school.
He used to be terrible for this when he was 2.5-3.5 and my heart was permanently in my mouth. He then grew out of it mostly and really seemed to understand the dangers of roads etc and was fine when we used to walk home from nursery.
But since school, he thinks he’s invincible. He will walk by me if there are no other kids but soon as he sees one of his friends he’s off. And he just will not stop no matter how much I shout him to in fact it seems to spur him on.

He seems to have lost all sense of danger. He ran far ahead and wouldn’t stop a few days ago and actually ran across a (side) road without me. He didn’t even look. Luckily no cars were coming. I was screaming at him to stop and running myself at this point but he carried on. I was extremely cross with him and couldn’t help but shout at him very sternly infront of other kids/parents. I made him hold my hand the rest of the way, and I thought I’d gotten through to him.

But, today he’s done it again. His friends stopped when shouted not to go too far by their parents. My DS heard me, looked behind him and carried on running. He is SO fast and was running towards a road again. He did stop before it (which he does know to do tbf - or so I thought until a few days ago) but I am at my absolute wits end.
I have taken his cars away from him tonight and he’s not allowed on the iPad which he usually goes on for 15 mins. I’ve showed him videos (from super nanny) of a child who nearly got hit by a car and he looked shocked. I’ve also told him I’m going to buy some reins because he clearly needs them behaving like a toddler. He HATES this idea but I’m thinking I might actually buy a wrist strap to keep in my bag?

In isolation I know I might be over reacting but this is getting worse with his running coupled with the refusal to listen to me and stop when I’ve told him to. He’s very well behaved in school and apparently is a ‘beautiful listener’ according to the parents evening we had last week! He’s a bright kid too but he is very hyperactive. I think having to keep it in all day in school doesn’t help.

Anyone had similar?!

He's old enough to know it's important, but perhaps not old enough to think of it when he's excited.

If you can use a discreet wrist strap, but hold hands so that it only comes into play if he lets go, that might be best, until you're sure he's remembering not to let go of your hand. Holding your hand has to be an absolute rule, I'm afraid.
Since we've got to colder weather, another possibility might be gloves, attached on a string to his coat like my mum used to do. Then if he starts to let go, hopefully you can hang onto the glove, and he won't get away.

Nobody wants to put a 5 year old on reins, but it's better than him being run over.

"not too far" is arbitrary.

"No further than the post box"
"Stop at the pink house" etc. may be more successful.

Reins would be my threat too

Reins.

Hand holding or reins for now. I would be tempted to go for the reins actually.

When you feel you can trust him, we had a rule that they could only be one tree in front of me at any time (lamp posts would work equally well - there were just lots of trees on verges on our walk home!). Try this out a few times perhaps at the weekend when he won't be distracted by other children walking home to get him used to the idea.