Hi,
My DS (5 at end of Jan) 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. I feel I must be getting a name for myself and the mum who’s always shouting at the top of her voice and trying to catch her kid up. It’s so embarrassing when he’s the only one not listening
Much more importantly though is the lack of any sort of sense of danger he has. 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.
Today he’s done it again. His friends stopped when shouted not to go too far. My DS heard me, 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 or so. 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. 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!
Any tips at all?