“Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare” kind of story… almost

Saturday evening is pick-my-son-up-from-his-dad’s day, so that I did.

I’ve been seeing a pattern of defiance whenever my son does not get what he wants.  He will counter what I say with a negotiation, and if he does not get what he wants, out comes “the defiance game.”

This happened on our way home from dads and out the hitting, throwing back-pack at me, and kicking came. Like usual, I tell my son, “You can wait outside, and when you’re ready to respect mom, knock on the door and I’ll let you come in.” (Our basement suite door faces our backyard so I’m usually not concerned about him waiting there.) However this time things went a little differently, because when I opened the door, he was not there!

I ran to the front yard, and all around the house, and he was not there. Looked left and right on the sidewalk, and he was not there!!! (We live on a busy road.) Panic started to set in a little, however I knew he probably went to the school, which is the only logical place I could think he would go based on familiarity. I drove very slowly, looking for him down the streets. I couldn’t see him anywhere!!! I ran to the park and he was nowhere to be found! (The school is about a 7-10 minute walk from our house and to get there you have to cross one road.) This was quite worrisome for me because I know how careless my son can be when crossing the road.

At this point I called his dad and told him he needed to come help me look for him.

How in the world could things have gotten so bad?!? Now I really began to panic because I was sure he would be there! “Did someone take him?” was all that went through my head, as the guilt set in. I started walking down the sidewalk thinking maybe I missed him, and out I spotted his head running from one car to the next behind the cars parked on the side of the road. I hid behind one of the cars because I knew if he saw me he would run away. (This kind of thing becomes a game to him.) As he was running I saw that he kept looking behind him as though he was running fearfully from something or someone. He quickly ran behind a bush and my worry turned from panic to anger to an array of emotions. I saw a jacket of someone disappear a few houses down into another bush. Was that man  just chasing after my son?!!! An almost, “Parents Worst Nightmare” kind of feeling rushed through my body.

Before my son could spot me, I ran straight at him and yelled at the top of my lungs, “What the hell are doing!!! YOU’RE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!” (I probably swore a few times in there, if I’m honest, however I really don’t remember and “minding my language” would have been the last thing I was thinking about.)

I grabbed the kid by the wrist and marched him to the car and told him his dad was coming. A weird man came up close to us and just stood there staring at us. This made me really uncomfortable so I got on the phone with his dad and told him to come to the school. I was hoping he would stay on the line because this man standing by us kept staring at us in a very creepy, way-too-close-to-us kind of way, but his dad hung up the phone of course. The man asked if I saw something happen, and I responded telling him “Yes, I just finished yelling at my son because he just ran away from home.” The man began to tell me how there was someone who just stole the groceries that belonged to a lady sitting at the bus stop down the street. He asked if I saw anything and again just told him “I saw a man run in the bushes but I was so worried thinking about my son, that’s it.”

My son’s dad came and spoke to my son about his actions. My tears began to roll as my son’s tears started up. Although I don’t agree that instilling fear in a child is always healthy, my son surely needed a shakeup, wake up call.

My son “really, really, really” wanted to go to a friend’s house next weekend, however this was his consequence; he was no longer able to go.

Yes, fear, guilt, shame, anger, relief, sorrow and so many more emotions set in for both him and me. This is surely an event that I pray we will never have to go through again. Until then, my faith is in God as I continually put our lives in His hands and know that no matter what the enemy tries to throw at us, Christ in us is WAY stronger than he will ever be.

M.O.A.W.