What would you do?

I ran into WalMart and saw a "Missing" poster it was of a 14yo boy who had been missing since yesterday morning. My heart sank! Whose wouldn't? I can't imagine the heartache the parents msut be feeling.

As I was leaving I wanted to look better at the boys face and catch his name. The poster was GONE! I went back in to ask the "greeter" about the poster. My immediate thought was it was "against rules" to post anything in that area. I wanted to look at it again. She told me he had been found!!!! He showed up at school that morning! YEAH he is safe!!!!!!!!!

He snuck out on Saturday night and went to a friends house. The friend's parents were out of town (the kid was THIRTEEN!). I don't know if he was with siblings or what, but goodness! ANyway, the parents had grounded him so he decided to leave and sleep over an his friend's house. (YEAH he is safe!!!!

So back to my question what would you do? I mean seriously, you ground your son and he ups and leaves in the middle of the night. Then non-chalantly shows up at school the following school day. (so he is gone 2 nights and a day. How do you act? Gut reaction would be (for me to never let him over at that friend's house. Ground him till he is graduated from high school. Yet, at the same time you are SO incredibly happy he is SAFE and not dead or gone forever. You are giving thanks to our loving Father. How would you react/act?

This could be a good parenting tool for me, seriously! WHAT do you say to that child?

******************
Side note, when Iw as a senior in high school a friend and I went dancing with a group and instead of driving home I stayed at her house. I called home and left a message with my BROTHER, instead of waking my parents. Stupid move! That led to 6 weeks of grounding. He didn't tell my parents. So when I woke up the next morning at 10 am at my friend's house it was to her parents telling me mine were on the phone. I didn't think anything of it, until I heard the tone in their voice. It was MY FAULT, even though I HAD left a message so they knew where I was. Moral, talk to the adult, not the older brother.

Of course I know better, now, as a parent myself.
*******************

Comments

Marilee said…
Sheesh! That's a toughy. Well I would definately keep the kid grounded for the first thing and then ground him longer for sneeking out. Then if there were expenses made in his behalf for his safe return, I would have him pay it back (to learn a lesson). All at the same time as letting him know that you LOVE them and try to help them understand that rules boundries are to help keep us happy and safe. Hopefully, this won't happen to us.
6:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Facial cellulitis

Image
Leave it to me to get the weird things! This is the second time in a mont that I have been "blessed" with this strange ailment! The last day of antibiotics (shot) last time was March 18th. I had started with Augmentin and that didn't work. They gave me a good shot of rochepin (a peanut butter shot) and that seemed to make a big difference quickly. I went back and got another, after the second I noticed remarkable improvement. I was SO excited! Then on Monday it started foming back. So it lasted two weeks. The next week we just did Rocephin shots. OUCH! I went round and round with the insurance company about an IV versus shots. The doctor recommended the IV because it would be less pain. I opted for the shot when I realized that the ER visit for 5 days would be about $400-500 a day. OUCH. So I got 5 rocephin shots that week. It was so much better by that Friday (18). YEAH! Fast forward to this past week. I was having similar pain and wrote it off as a sin
Read more

Goodbye Nala (graphic warning)

Image
  The past 22hrs have been excruciating. 22hrs ago we were sitting down to a late dinner after helping buck hay. Ramen Noodles, the dinner of champions, ya know. We heard this HORRIBLE noise. None of us had a clue what it was. Someone said "It sounds like someone is dieing. Little did we know it was OUR dog! Scott went out to investigate. He was gone for a few minutes and when he came in, he had this look. I said "Do I need to come?". "yes" was the answer I popped up and threw shoes on. When I went outside I saw a car in the middle of the road with a dog BEHIND it. My thought was it was Danny and Nala was sitting there worried. When I went up the boy (17) driving said "she ran out in front of us". It took a minute to realize he was refering to my dog. She was on the ground mangled. Her back legs were a twisted mess. Not much blood but you could hear her troubled breathing. I thought the problem was just her legs. Later I found out d
Read more

Brazil

Just over three weeks ago, I recieved a phone call as I was getting out of the car to pick up pizza. It was a interesting conversation.... Scott: Uh, Hon, they want me to go to Brazil. Me: REALLY!!!??? WOW! Scott: ya, the catch is it is for TWO WEEKS. Me: I WANNA GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Scott: you don't even have a passport. Scott served his mission in Sao Paulo South and came home 21yrs ago! He has forgotten a lot of his Portuguese. His company wants him to go set up a firm down there with their products. Scott is a no brainer chioce...been there done that type thing. I have asked him many times he wanted to go back. He was never very excited about it. When the phone call came and his voice was exuberant, I KNEW he HAD to go. Two weeks alone with the kids or not, he NEEDED to go. I thought I would solve the no passport issue fast and said "you can be there for work, then I'll meet up with you!". Sounded perfect! It would take me two weeks minimum to get my pa
Read more