I had the scare of my lifetime yesterday! My mother was at my house yesterday and my wife, mother and I were hanging out when all of the sudden we notcied the kids were not around. I have a 9 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. Normally they are either in their rooms playing or in the backyard and sometimes they play in the front yard but they are not allowed to leave the front yard. When they play in the front they play on my utility trailer right outside the front door and we can see them. We live in a nice neighborhood and safety has never been an issue. The kids were playing in the backyard when I noticed they both walked out the front door and I didn't think anything of it. 2-3 minutes later my wife asked where they were and I told her they walked out the front. We checked the front yard and didn't see any sign of them so we checked their rooms and backyard and still no sign. We initially thought they were hiding from us as they sometimes do so we went around calling their names and didn't get an answer. After a couple of minutes of my wife screaming their names we began to panic! I jumped in my truck to go around the block and told my wife to check at the neigbors across the street because they have a son that is my sons age and sometimes he plays there (but not without asking us first). My son knows better to just leave our yard without asking us. He normally doesn't even walk to the corner (two houses down) without asking first. So I jump in my truck and I'm racing around the neighborhood asking the neighbors outside if they have seen two kids and everyone says that they haven't. Man I'm starting to panic!! My wife calls me and tells me that she found them. I have never had such a range of emotions... PISSED and RELIEF at the same time!! I go back home and my wife tells me that my son went across the street to one of our neigbors to sell his school fundraiser stuff. I know my neighbors well and they are great people; when my son went over there, they opened the door and my kids went inside to sell the fundraiser crap. Well to say that I was pissed is an under statement!!! Yesterday was my sons 9th birthday but I had to teach him that what he did was wrong. I took out the belt and gave him two across the butt (only the second time in his life that he got the belt) and punished him from TV for a week.... Then gave him a big hug and explained to him that what he did was unexeptable and that he knew better than to EVER leave our yard withour approval. It sucks that he had to get punished for his birthday but I didn't see any way around it. I ended up feeling bad and letting him have his TV just for yesterday afternoon because it was his birthday but for the next week, it will be unplugged. I believe my 4 year old daughter learned a lesson at the same time. She was sent to her room for a while kicking and screaming, scared and freaked out more than anything because she saw the concern in our faces when we found them.
I hope no one ever has to go through what I went through for those 5-10 minutes yesterday!!!
I hope no one ever has to go through what I went through for those 5-10 minutes yesterday!!!
