Yesterday morning, Greyson had already left for the bus stop and Reece was ready to go, but I still had to get my shoes and jacket on. Reece asked if he could start walking, and I've let him do this before because 1) he's quite a slow walker, so it's easy for me to catch up with him, and 2) I would be out in less than one minute - usually about the time he would be in front of our next-door neighbors' house. So I told him "Yes" and that I would be right out. I'm sure you're already anticipating where this is going, if you know Reece at all. I put my stuff on, grabbed keys, locked the back door, and walked at my usual pretty quick pace to the end of the driveway. There was no sign of the boy. Then I looked up the street toward the bus stop, and he was RUNNING and about one house away from the corner. I took off running, yelling his name and for him to stop. He turned around, looked at me, and KEPT RUNNING. I lost sight of him, immediately heard a honk, and saw my two neighbors, who had been at the bus stop with their kids already, running back across the cross-street. My thoughts - he's been hit and is dead and I wish I had learned to run much faster. Turns out the bus was already at the corner and saw him running and honked while simultaneously telling the other moms what she could see but they couldn't - Greyson's little brother running toward the road. He actually stopped at the stop sign, which he is 75% of the time very good at doing, but of course no one knew he would do that for sure.
So he and I had a very serious talk and he is no longer allowed to go out ahead of me. And I'm still trying to get my heart to stop beating out of my chest.
I think you should have taken a poll of your readers beforehand: "Should I let Reece, REECE, out the door ahead of me and tell him to walk in the general direction of the road? In case you need further clarification, I am asking about Reece."
ReplyDeleteThis all could have been avoided.
Things have in general improved so much since he turned four that I just completely let go of my senses. Funny thing - today we walked together to the bus stop, holding hands, and he came to a dead stop before we even got to the corner. Apparently that talk really affected him!
ReplyDelete