Hey everyone!!!
I'm at my wits end with my youngest now and I'm on here trying to get any help or advice from fellow mums!
I've got 5 children so I've experienced a whole lot of things as a mother over the last 19 years BUT my 4 year old son has recently started running off and it scares the hell out of me and I'm so worried that something dangerous will happen if it doesn't stop.
I've never had this with any of my other children and my son had only been doing this the past few weeks. He's gotten into a bad habit of just running off and doesn't seem to have any idea how dangerous it is and just laughs and finds it funny.
The first time it happened was when I was picking up him and his brother and sister from school. The 3 of them were playing together in the playground next to me and I was having a quick chat with my daughter's teacher. We were only talking for a maximum of 2 minutes and then my 7 year old came to me saying they couldn't find their brother. He was so quick!!
The panic and anxiety was overwhelming and I eas running around looking for hiim, as were school staff and some other parents.
It felt like an eternity but about 8 minutes later he came running towards me smiling without a care in the world. Another parent had found him on the other side of the school and he was about to walk out of the school gate towards a main road.
Of course, I spoke to him and explained the danger of what he did and that it is wrong. Even a couple of the teachers had a word with him telling him it's not ok to do that.
He hasn't done anything to that extreme since, thank goodness, but he does still try to run off and just laughs doing so.
Every time it happens I talk to him and I do punish him by taking away his time on his tablet or his after school sweets etc but he doesn't seem to understand or change his behaviour.
Aside from digging out the reins I used when he was a toddler, what else can I do to make him understand and stop this from happening again??
Thanks everyone