She Just Ran Right Out of the House

We were getting delivery one night and Bella likes to answer the door with me. As I was paying the delivery man Bella decided, for the first time, she was just going to bolt right out of the house. At first the delivery guy laughed but then as Bella kept running he stopped and walked quickly to his car. It was getting a little uncomfortable, because she wasn’t coming back.

So I chased my daughter who was of course trying to escape. She ran down the driveway and then across the lawn and then into the neighbor’s lawn where I finally caught up to her. She was laughing and thought it was a big joke, and then mentioned that I was gripping her arm a bit tightly.

This was something I was kind of expecting, and dreading. Mainly because short of an electronic collar (which isn’t as bad of an idea as it sounds) a three year old is really capable of going anywhere at anytime.

Everything ran through my head at once, like what if she ran out into the street and was hit by a car, ran and I couldn’t find her, ran and was plucked up into the sky by a giant raven, etc. It scared me and yet I knew those moments were coming. Somehow, that didn’t help.

So we had a talk with her about not running out of the house and while we were having this serious discussion with her we both knew in her head all she was hearing was the theme to The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Still we thought it was important to go through the motions.

The lesson here is that just because your child HASN’T done something doesn’t mean that today isn’t the day it all changes. If you’re quick you can spot the light bulb over their heads and hear the “ding” right before they do something new and most likely dangerous, but most of the time we’re always playing catch up. All I’m saying is always have your running shoes on.