Run Away!

[sharry]

My dd is going through a very difficult phase. She is 5 in July. Yesterday while at Granny's she wouldn't leave me along kissing swinging on my neck, etc etc. Asked her x3 to stop with little effect, eventually dh steps in an takes her away and plays hide and seek!
Because he said she couldn't go back in the room the next place she hides is.....yep you've guessed it she goes AWOL! We take the house apart looking for her eventually realise she isn't there husband starts to walk to our house some 2 miles away i go in the car. On arrival at home no daughter search high and low... go out to resume search in car when police turn up with her, a member of the public rang them.
Has this happened to you???

poor you

she sounds like a right character! how are you today, calmed down yet?

dd's too young for this yet thank god but i'm bracing myself!

er, it happened to me in the sense that I was a "runner". Luckily DS isn't so I have that to look fwd to with no 2!!

If it helps, I don't remember actually doing any of this maliciously, altho my Dad thinksthat it was because he & Mum weren't getting on and I was expressing that ... my Mum thinks that it was just cos I was a tinker & from when I could crawl was on a mission to "discover".

It must be v scary being on the receiving end of it though. I think I was in reins until I was about 5, then gradually improved after that. A couple of other thoughts: make sure your DD knows how to swim, because on my walkabouts I used to have a water fascination ... never came to any harm but increased the fear factor for parents!!

Also fit high locks to front & back door because I also disappeared when supposed to be napping. Try to make sure I can't escape with younger siblings in tow (another fave of mine), eg have baby monitor / safety gate in younger ones' room. Am sure that you are very safety conscious anyway, we all are now - v different with our parents' generation as they didn't have so mnay safety aids.

thinking back i used to wander off loads, quite a distance and quite young but my parents were never overly pushed i was an only child so quite independant, and things were safer back then so i never came to much harm. didn't even remember til i read MIAQs post

yes, ptulips, it may run in the family - just watch out!!!

OMG! Once is enough! She's very spirited, we took the bungalow to bits before we realised she had gone! I really didn't think she would have the bottle to do it. We play a game when I'm driving along like directions it goes something like this 'this is Preston Road, now turning left onto Kent street, left at sharples row now its Hill top, keep going up now were at no 3 and this is our home. The policeman said her directions were fantastic, that he'd never known a child like it....small consolation for the near throwing up I did! Feel extremely lucky that a safe person rang the police, but am anxious at her going again. We've had a chat about how important it is that this never happens again, but I'm still worried! But don't want to turn into a paranoid mum!

Oh bless her she sounds adorable!!! Hopefully she won't do it again, but if she is a natural risk-taker you might just find that she is not scared about it at all.

I don't know what else to suggest apart from keeping the house & garden safe. I suppose you could do some sort of training in a big park, lots of reinforcing the message about not going out of Mummy's sight, eg you can go to that big tree over there but then you have to come right back / wait for me to catch you up, then you get a big hug / "high five" (DS loves these).

I'm sorry I fail to see anything adorable in that at all

I think she deserves a very stern talking to and get the book 'stranger danger' just to make sure she understands

also I never allow DS (also 5) to open the front door unless he's asked me .. it has recently taken a lot of reminding to stop him doing it because he thinks he knows the other person

must have been very frightening

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/014130913X/qid=1149012891/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl/026-6157592-6291613\stranger danger .. its a story}

Twig - plse don't misinterpret.

The fact that she was clever enough to explain to the policeman where she lived was a positive.

Other than that, of course it was a stressful experience for the parents, which I hope sharry realised I understood from my earlier posts.

oh ok .. sorry .. I read it wrong .. skim reading foils me again

Apology accepted! Not a frequent poster so maybe not so good at getting what I mean across.

Your link didn't work twig... Who is the author? Then I can look on Amazon. Thanks!
Your right MuminaQ! She is adorable but spirited and this works to our advantage sometimes...like walking she's got to be first so she'll walk for miles or a disadvantage like going AWOL
It has also been said she has lots of character which is really the same label as spirited IMHO means she's a pain . I just wish she wasn't so trying and I am weary with all the emotional wrangling with her. There must be some mid ground where we can meet?

anne fine .. was recommended ages ago on here

(link is working for me though)

Sharry - just had another thought - do you have a good Health Visitor? Our's is coming to help with potty training & she has lots of sensible ideas, books etc.

Good luck anyway & hope things are improving.

Also, another thing that helped me to stop being so difficult as a child was lots of high adrenalin activities. Obviously you need to cater for the age of your DD, but I think my parents got me horse-riding by that age, riding a bike without stabilisers etc etc. It really helped as I had a focus for my energy.

Do you have any cheap / accessible activities locally, eg cycling, swimming, climbing wall at local gym, gymnastics? Wear her out & she won't have time to think about going AWOL!!