Do you know about "runners"?

I have a friend whose child is a "runner" of sorts but mostly so far its when she is right there, but its amazing how quickly he moves and always straight for danger e.g. roads, water etc.

She did have one experience where she turned her back for not even a minute and he got out of the front door of a friends house and was walking along and actually on a main road luckily a passer by grabbed him off the road, and seconds later he was back in his mums arms. She is a great mum so its not like it was due to neglect just the fact that he is so dam quick!

You do hear other stories though like my Mum finding 3 kids playing on their bikes on a main road and when she found out who they belonged to after door knocking it turned out they were from a ladies house who was doing in home childcare (1 child was her own) and she was busy having a coffee with a visitor she had not realised the kids had got almost 100 metres away to the main road

oh yes children can move pretty fast.

I remember when my brother was 2 and we (my parents and I )couldnt find him..looked in the back yard nope not there...someone (probably me ooops ) had left one of the gates open.

we found hin about 500 metres up the road and he was probably only gone about 5 minutes.

and I know with my daughter if I didnt close the gate when we are at home she would take off down the driveway and onto the street.

Hehe, I used to race outside any chance I got apparently, only my target was always the nearest puddle. I used to lay face down in them and splash about. So a drowing risk in case I picked on deeper than I expected, and also my poor mum had to change me from head to toe every time. Apparently they got very good at keeping several doors shut between me and outside! I got especially good at this when mum was heavily pg with my younger sister and had to slow down a bit

My little brother (7 years younger) wasn't so much of a runner but more of a climber. He'd climb anything and was usually up and out of reach so fast. My mum had too many kids to watch him 24/7, so dad used to take just him all over the place, as he was often quite happy *helping* and without other kids to egg him on, he was a bit better behaved. Plus, I'm sure he still got up to all kinds of trouble, but my dad didn't panic as much as mum!

my kids aren't runners - well now they aren't. but they were pretty bad as toddlers.

my argument is that, sure you can watch them 24/7 and hey, you can even get them microchipped and GPS them. But why would you want to? Sure you'll have a "safe" klid, but you'll also have an adult who has no idea about boundaries, nbo idea about what is safe and what isn't and is who more likleyl than not, going to end up as some stat of boy racers.\

What happened to Lucas was a tragedy, but it happened, not because of neglect, but because a little boy had an accident.

I was with my cousin when her son went and hid (cause he'd had an accident in his pants) and we couldn't find him. We were at his grandparents house which doesn't have a fenced frontage and is open to the road.. quiet but still the road.

It was horrendeous, we called him and walked up and down the street trying to find him and he wouldn't come took about 15 minutes till we found him hidding, his poor mum was distraught. He would have only been around 3 at the time.

It could have so easily have been worse if he'd wandered a couple of houses down to the end of the street and the busier road.

Some kids go from standing to running, never mind the walking bit in between. They will take off.

The same people who can't understand runners probably hate reins too, can't tell you the amount of times the reins have saved my brother and even DH from getting lost or running out onto a busy road.

What happened to Lucas and Aisling is very sad and tragic, and shows doesn't matter how vigilant you are kids so easily wander off and have a nasty accident.
News like theirs always makes me hug my family tighter as it could so easily happen to anyone of us.


Edited by caliandjack

Ella used to be a "runner"- man she could run fast, especially in public. It was especially hard being pregnant and trying to run after her. I had a kiddy "leash" for her, but you can't have it on them all the time. Thankfully she is now growing out of it and I now actually take her to the mall without being worried that I am going to lose her.

I was a runner. Apparently I ran away at least once a day from when I could walk until I was about 4 or 5. Our street was relatively quiet but the next one was a very main road - the one time I made it that far a passing police car picked me up. My poor mother met them on the street as she was sprinting after me with rollers in her hair, lol!

Another time I had been missing for a few hours and my parents were really worried, called the police etc. Turned out I was stuck in the next door neighbour's cat door - they were away so I was only discovered when someone (a fireman who had been called to look down drains etc) happened to look out our kitchen window into their garden while having a cup of tea!

That story had a happy ending but it so easily could have gone another way. My parents were not neglectful by any stretch of the imagination - but every now and then you have to turn your back, whether it's to tend to another child or just to go to the loo, and that's all it takes.

crafty1 wrote: yeah i think it sucks to have a go at the parents/caregivers of kids in these cases. Of course it could have been prevented if the nana had had a time machine or the ability to see into the future but she did not. She was doing her best (as we all do) and he just got away (as they all do at some point in time). Very, very sad and i cannot imagine the guilt and grief that nana and her child (the parent) must be going through. Really cannot imagine it.

Agree totally with this. I don't think there is a single parent out there that can say they have an eye on their kid 100% of the time. I have given my kids a bag of chippies before to keep them occupied whilst I do stuff like get the groceries etc. It could have been anyone.

My oldest neice was a runner but in her case it was due to bad parenting ( not sure if she still is as we dont see them much now they live in a different city).
I know not all kids are runners due to bad parenting, and in some cases its just horrible that there children go missing.

Phew, so glad that other people know. My mum used to describe it like one of those cartoon characters who speed off, leaving their speech bubble hanging in the air behind them. I'd be talking to her as she was getting washing out of the washing machine or hanging it on the line. Suddenly, the conversation would stop and I'd be gone. They had a white leather harness and leash for when they went to town. I was also in a bed before 12months as I used to climb the cot rails using my toes (putting the round rail in between my big toe and second toe).... I bet she was glad I was the only runner out of the five! I was diabolical I gather from the stories she tells.....

I don't think Jude is a runner - he tends to stay pretty close to me even when all the doors are open or we are outside on the lawn. However, even though he isn't a runner - he has still had his moments. Like the other day he was with DP in the lounge playing happily, DP turned to do something for a minute or two only to find Jude had followed me outside to where I was doing horsefeed - I caught him going down the concrete stairs backwards and called out to DP. Luckily, he is very good at negotiating stairs (he's still only crawling) but I'd still rather be there when he is going down them on the concrete at the moment. And it was all good because we were there - he wasn't running away, he was just following me.

It is very ironic - everyone had been teasing me about how Jude was going to be a runner - even before he was born (I got a leash for my baby shower ) and he is very active but it turns out it may be my sisters boy who is two weeks younger than Jude who could be the runner! You put him down, he sees an open door and he bolts for it (Still only crawling as well). At Jude's party today there were a few cries of "There's a baby escaping out the door behind you!". My cousin (2 and a half) is also a runner but getting better.

For sure there are SOME cases where the parents are to blame for kids being out on the road or similar. But for someone to say they don't know how it can happen at all seems very bizarre to me - especially when they have kids themselves! Even if they don't have a runner - surely ALL kids still have had moments where they have scared the cr*p out of their parents!


Edited by Delli