I say BOO!

Yesterday I was home and I went to pick up the kids from school. Emma stayed home with Mama and Gracie. As I was walking out the door Emma yelled "I say BOO!" I asked "What?" "I SAY BOO!" She said this as she was climbing behind the couch. Then it dawned on me what she meant. She was going into hiding so that she could jump out from behind the couch and say "BOO" and scare Ben and Sarah when they got home from school. I thought it was cute and added "you don't have to hide yet, I'll be home with the kids in a bit."

I picked up the kids and on my way home Nancy called and asked if Emma was with me. "No!" She said that she could not find Emma anywhere, and Nancy called for her while I was on the phone. (If she were next door she would have heard.) I asked if the front door was unlocked. (One of Emma's new skills is unlocking and opening the front door. She is quite pleased with her self, I am not so much. Oh well I guess it was bound to happen.) I just hate the feeling when you realize a child is missing or at least unaccounted for. Suppress the panic, suppress the panic, she has to be somewhere! At least the front door was locked. I then cycled through some of her favorite hiding places, and then it clicked. I asked if she looked behind the couch. She looked and the picture shows what she found. We both laughed. Emma is such a funny girl. Panic relieved in a millisecond! Whew!

I guess she just got tired waiting for her moment to jump and say BOO! The funny thing is after Ben and Sarah got home Emma walked in and said "BOO!" It did not have quite the impact I think she was hoping for, however she followed through with her plan.



















Reviewing this little incident I find it interesting that we have an automatic parental panic button that seems to trigger so fast when the whereabouts of our child/children are not known at all times. It seems like we mirror the homeland security warning. We are always on orange alert. You know the one just under RED ALERT!

I can not help but think that my parents were mostly at level green. (I know that they have been at full tilt RED ALERT a few times like the time I got "lost" at 6 or 7 yrs old at the Roadway Inn in Indianapolis as we traveled across country in our brown Ford LTD wood paneled station wagon. (Ah memories of the 70's) The Roadway Inn was pretty nice but it was full of truckers and other desirable folks. (It was right next to the interstate) I was "lost" for about a half hour or so. My parents did not know that I was perfectly fine watching TV in the lobby. I knew where I was the whole time, I did not understand what the big deal was. Oh well to be a naive kid again.)

Well having illuminated the red alert a few times in my day, the green light was on most of the time. I can remember my mom instructing us kids to have fun and come home for dinner. Ah those wonderful summer days! My mom usually had a general idea where we were, but there were times she did not have a CLUE where I was for hours at a time! The truth is that we always came home, and there was really no need to be that worried. We were always among friends and were considered safe.

I guess we live in a different world where we have to always be at high alert and have a need to know where our little ones are all the time. I guess the good thing is our kids will never know anything different.

Sadly we do... and what fun it was while it lasted.