The Reason Parents have Grey Hair

Last week in class we listened as our Professor told us about the ways we can keep children, especially disabled or autistic children, safe.  What one can't prepare for though, when trying to keep your children safe, is when they disregard your directions.

On a recent family vacation, which I would classify as the trip of a lifetime, my two 12 year old girls walked away from my husband and myself.  We were in the most beautiful of forests, exploring exotic birds, monkey and all kinds of wildlife.  It is true that the day was hot and we had done a bit of walking.  This nature reserve in Central America, however, is not a place we will likely be visiting again anytime soon.

Our scare came when after a walk through the reserve, we arrived at an Ocean inlet.  My two children decided that they had enough of the flora and fauna and decided that they would walk back to our hotel without telling us.

What a scare when we realized they were no longer with us! They did not have I.D. either or a phone or ipod.  What they did have was the spare key to the hotel room which allowed them to return to the hotel, adjacent to the park, change into swimwear, and head to the pool.  

We were furious but relieved that all was ok.  We explained that you do not walk away unattended from adults in a foreign country and that while an independent mindset is nice, it can be life threatening.  I have earned every grey hair that I have!!!!!

The Scariest Day of my life as a Parent

Today we talked about how to prevent children who are autistic from leaving their premises. Lock the doors, put up gates, pay attention and put up alarms on the doors. 

You think that you are doing all the right things and then in seconds you have to re-think everything. There are a lot of nervous minutes that you have as a parent.  Some of these things that occur are things that you never gave a thought to.  For instance, I have two 12 year old pre-teens that chose to walk away, without telling me,  while we were away on vacation at a National park.  The park was  within walking distance of our hotel.  It only took 2 minutes for me to go down to the water's edge for them to decide they had had enough of the park and wanted to go to the hotel. 

It was a frightening 10 minutes.  Once we realized they were gone, we retraced our steps to the hotel.
I stayed inside the gates of the park while my husband made his way back to the hotel.  We had given them an extra key so they could move back and forth around the hotel. 

Sure enough they were in the pool!  We had a long discussion about the risks of walking away from your parents without telling them.  This is the reason that parents have grey hair.