"I'm going to run away!"

This told to me today by my 2nd daughter, Ari, because she was angry with me. So I replied, "okay, why don't you go ahead and pack." in a calm and reasonable tone. She then went into her bedroom and proceeded to stuff clothing haphazardly into her backpack, her laptop tote, one of my cloth bags, and another tote. She also packed some toiletries into a shoebox and half a jar of peanut butter and a few slices of bread into a couple of paper bags. She took and stuffed a throw blanket into another bag. When she was all prepared, she headed out the door. I told her, "don't go on any busy streets" as she went out the door.

I watched her surreptitiously from the door as she walked down the road, laden with her bags and encumbrances. When she turned a corner, I decided to follow in the car, to be sure she was alright. I took my 3rd daughter, Aydi with me. We drove to the turn and I didn't see her. So around the block to her friend's house, where I spoke to his father, "Ari has decided to run away, if she tries to come by here, would you please send her along home?" He assured me that he would and I continued along the road, slightly concerned now that I didn't know where she'd gone. That was, until I caught a flash of her things in some bushes along the road to home.

Yep, my daughter ran away from home... to some bushes less than 100 yards from home! LOL I drove back home and Aydi and I walked back down to the bushes. I poked Ari, who was lying on the ground with a pair of pants over her face. She sat up and I realized she had tied the pants around her neck. When I asked her why she had done so she said the sun was hot. Aydi, having picked up a few sticks along the way, presented them to Ari. Ari began setting them up against the bush and then I helped her fold her blanket and she placed it on the sticks. Aydi then began going around collecting more sticks for Ari, who was encouraging her. I reminded Ari that she had school in the morning, to which she replied, "school?!" and I said, "yes, and dance on Tuesday." [hee hee] She then said she would bring Aydi along home in a bit if I wanted to head home, I agreed and went along. My eldest daughter, Jess was being quite nosy and laughing to herself about Ari's shenanigans, saying she wouldn't be giving her room back to Ari (yeah right).

Jess & I were sitting on the back of the van, I was talking to Jess and keeping an eye on the place where the other girls were. Then Ari started walking Aydi back home and Jess wanted to see where Ari would be 'staying' so we all walked back to the bushes. Jess was criticizing Ari's choice of locale a bit and suggested a better place. So I casually mentioned maybe I could take some of her things back to the house to store. She finally agreed and I kept suggesting things to 'store' back at the house... in case it rained. Finally I mentioned that we were going to go out shopping... would she like to come along perhaps. That's when she said, "I think I'll come on home now." and I helped her carry all her things home.

She said, "this was fun, I think I'll do it again someday. I hope Dad didn't think I was actually serious." To which I replied, "I think he did, but he'll get over it." I had known that she wasn't serious, it had been a rash statement on her part. She continued to follow through, not out of anger, but out of stubbornness because she had said she would and was determined to follow through, no matter what. I told her that next time perhaps she should wait for a warmer time of year, and maybe try doing it on a Friday or Saturday, rather than Sunday... because of school.