-
Have you ever actually run away from home?
I started… -
How old were you?
Around 7 or 8 -
Why did you do it?
Just for something to do -
What did you pack, if anything?
I got a teatowel and put some food in it. Then I tied the teatowel up and tied it to a stick and slung it over my shoulder. -
What was the reaction of your family?
Didn’t even realise. -
How long did you stay away?
Probably half an hour. -
What made you come back?
I walked just outside our fence and decided I was hungry so I spread the teatowel on the ground and had a picnic. Then it started to get cold so I went back inside.
I was going to answer this thread, but then I saw it was all about kids running away from parents, not adults fleeing marital abuse… never mind.
- Have you ever actually run away from home?
Yup
- How old were you?
12
- Why did you do it?
I got punished severely for something, and in protest of the punishment, I ran away.
- What did you pack, if anything?
Nothing.
- What was the reaction of your family?
They actually saw things my way a little. It was an upsetting day. I was in a lot of trouble (since someone’s wondering. . .in Q&A day in Sunday school class, I asked our Parish priest if he’d ever had sex).
- How long did you stay away?
12-15 hours.
- What made you come back?
The cops.
- Where did you go when you ran away?
The arcade. They found me there, and my parents kept sending our neighbors down to talk me into coming home with them. I stayed until closing, and I think my dad had the cops come get me to put a scare in me.
I still remember the cops driving me home. We were driving past a wooded area and one of them says, “a kid about your age ran away a few weeks ago. They found him frozen to a tree right in there.”
My plan was to walk to an uncle’s house when the arcade closed.
It’s not like I became a street urchin selling pencils for dope, but it was a pretty big event in the household.
Never took off for a farm.
Couldn’t answer the percentage as it may vary depending on “run away” criteria.
But I took off before the age of two (taught my parents a thing or two about using tools to open latches or levers that appear to be “too high” to go play with a neighbor, took off as a pre-teen for various muddled reasons, never gone more than a few hours. Then ‘away’ at a summer camp as a late teen, which aided in recognizing and escaping an abusive* relationship.
- oddly enough, I don’t think, even to this day, he thinks, thought, or would realize it, though people who know/knew him post here.
Never took off on a farm animal.
Couldn’t answer the percentage as it may vary depending on “run away” criteria.
But I took off before the age of two (taught my parents a thing or two about using tools to open latches or levers that appear to be “too high”) to go play with a neighbor, took off as a pre-teen for various muddled reasons, never gone more than a few hours. Then ‘away’ at a summer camp as a late teen, which aided in recognizing and escaping an abusive* relationship.
- oddly enough, I don’t think, even to this day, he thinks, thought, or would realize it, though people who know/knew him post here.
Yes.
About 16.
My parents had forced me to move to a different state in the middle of high school, and I hated it there. I had no friends and my father was nasty and horrible about it. I was a socially awkward youth and it was very hard, and my father kept screaming at me because it was for my “own good” whenever I made the smallest comment about how depressed and unhappy I was.
Well, to be fair, my father was always nasty and horrible, and I had threatened to run away loads of times before we moved.
I think some clothes and stuff. I don’t remember. I had tried to take food, but my mom wouldn’t let me.
They went looking for me and got worried. Well, my mom and sisters did. Not my dad.
Maybe 3, 4 hours. I would have never gone back except for the fact that I had no money and no place to stay.
I had gone down to the park and was thinking about just killing myself. I didn’t really have anywhere to go – no family, no friends, no money. My mom heard from my sister that I was in the park and came down and talked to me. She cried, and I felt bad. I toughed it out for about six months until I got a job and a car, and then spent about 95% of the time away from the house and spoke to my father as little as possible.
My parents got divorced about 3 months after I went to college, when my mom realized it wasn’t me that was causing the “family problems”, it was him. It was then when a lot more information about abuse towards my mother from my father surfaced.
My father and I are now estranged in that I refuse to see him or talk to him. In typical fashion, he refuses to acknowledge this and tries to come talk to me on the very rare instances that we are in the same place (generally a graduation or another event for one of my sisters, who still talk to him). Maybe it’s petty, but I don’t want to talk to him, and I try to avoid him. I wrote him a letter telling him exactly what I thought of him after one final affront after college, when I was trying to be forgiving (stupid me). I endured some useless family therapy for awhile, then told him I never want to see him again.
I am much happier now that all of this is behind. I never loved my father and told him so when we had “family problems”. He didn’t believe me and always used to threaten me that I would die in the streets if I ran away. I meant it, I hate him.
- No.
- Have you ever actually run away from home?
Yes and No. The first time I was about five and I hid in the pantry closet. I had my blanket, pillow, books and some toys. I also had several snacks. I made a deal with my brother to make sure that he was always available to get anything from the pantry that my mom needed so she would not find me. I think that lasted about 3 hours until I got bored and packed up all my stuff and went back to my room. My mom never knew.
Second time I was about seven. I don’t remember if I actually packed anything. My mother still has the paper “while you were out” message that was left for her at work from my brother.
“Barb, your son called. He says that Tina ran away from home but he said he does not think that she will be gone long because it is too cold”
-
Why did you do it? Both times I think I just wanted attention.
-
What was the reaction of your family? They didn’t know about my first plot. To be honest I don’t remember if they reacted to the second one.
-
How long did you stay away? I hid three hours the first time. Second time I don’t remember
-
What made you come back? I got bored the first time. I don’t remember the second time. It probably was the cold.
If it’s not too painful, could you share?
Also, those of you who’ve run away and not come back…where did you stay during your initial period before you found a more permanent place to stay? Were you in contact with your folks during that time?
The first time I was probably about 5. I don’t remember why, but I got mad about something and announced I would run away. Mom told me to go ahead. She opened the door, I stormed out, she shut it. I sat down on the step and cried for a while, then she opened the door and let me in.
The second time I was about 16 and my grandma wouldn’t let me go on a date on a school night. I was head over heels in love with this guy, but he was pretty lukewarm about me, so I knew he would never ask me out again. After much drama, I ran out to the end of the dock (Grandma lives on a river) and vowed I would stay out there all night. Yes, all night on a school night! That’d fix Grandma! My brother came out a few times to talk to me and brought me some crackers and a blanket. Apparently Grandma decided it would be best to leave me alone. About midnight, I decided to give it up because I was freezing my ass off and I was afraid I’d roll off the dock if I fell asleep.
Yes.
Eleven years old.
I was doing very badly at school (several D’s, instead of the A’s and B’s that were expected). I’d already gone through a bad report card with my parents once, and I couldn’t face doing it again. I think on some level I figured that I was such an awful kid, they would be glad I was gone. On another level, I figured they’d be so upset, they’d forgive everything, including the bad grades.
Clothes, food, a book or two to read.
They never knew.
I waited for my father to go to bed (around 2 a.m.) and left, figuring I’d walk to the park next to school and stay there for however long. I got most of the way there and it suddenly hit me that I was doing The Stupidest Thing Ever. So I turned around, walked back, climbed into bed, and got up four hours later like nothing had happened.
Looking back on things, I’m fairly sure that was my first ever bout of depression. Within a couple of weeks, my body had just had enough stress, and I got sick - a fever just high enough to keep me out of school for the last two weeks. I stayed sick another four weeks, a big chunk of the summer, and then one day - poof - it was gone, and I felt fine.
I spent most of my teen years hitch-hiking around; bumming around the U.S. and Canada. I’d visit relatives now and then and they’d send me home, and I went back home a few times, but never for very long as things never improved.
I get along fine with my parents now; bygones are bygones.
TYM, where did you eat and sleep? Did you finish school?
-
Yes.
-
16
-
To escape 12 years of beatings at home, my alcoholic father, and getting beat up at school because someone started a rumor that I was gay.
-
Didn’t have anything but the clothes on my back.
-
I don’t know what they thought - as I came to learn, not long afterwards, my mother took the kids and ran away, too.
-
30 years now.
-
I’ve never been back. My parents are dead now, one brother lives on the other side of the continent, the other brother and my adopted sister are estranged from one another, she has been estranged from me practically forever, relations with the brother are strained, and I have no reason to go back.
-
I have no idea how many people have run away. I don’t think I’ve ever known anybody else who did, for real.
-
(where did I go?) I thought I’d hitchhike to California, but they wouldn’t let me across the border at Windsor or Niagara Falls without a destination or money. So I hitchhiked to Vancouver instead.
P.S.: I am the only member of my family who has achieved any kind of happiness or stability out of all that chaos.
-
of course, or else I wouldn’t be answering this.
-
all throughout my childhood nearly every time I got either scared or mad and again about… four months ago (age 18)
-
when I was a kid, it was always because I was mad and throwing a tantrum, really. The last time, it was more runing away from school (where I lived). I was in a very very bad state, half-dead, my eating disorder had totally taken over everything, and I knew my parents would not be okay with the idea of another trip to the hospital and/or missing school. So some friends came and got me (I have no car and lived 100 miles from anyone I could trust) and took me to the hospital.
-
As a kid, usually stuffed animals, sometimes clothes, and eventually some toiletries, money, and food. last time, clothing, toiletries, books, and whatever was in my purse. And eventually everything that was in my dorm room (I went back to get it)
-
They were mad at first. They don’t understand. Then they started begging me to come home. I don’t get it. they never wanted me there before. </bitter>
-
So far, I’ve been away from school for four months and haven’t seen my family in maybe five.
-
Nothing, yet. I suppose what will make me go back eventually is wanting to see my youngest sister (one year old today
) or wanting to see my cat or wearing out my welcome here. I intend to get an apartment before I do that, so I will hopefully never move back to my parents’ home.
Thanks for showing concern, dear <hug>, yes it is too painful, and I don’t think this is the thread for it. I’ve kept my marital troubles offline around here. Maybe one day I will say oh the heck with it and spill everything in MPSIMS, or the Pit if it turns really ugly…
I slept outside a lot, and in missions, and in cheap hotels. I was able to work - this was before the restrictions that exist nowadays - I could use a made up SSN for day labor that paid cash. People were generous with food, which helped. I’ll always remember one time at McDonald’s I counted out my 19 cents or whatever it was for a burger, turned around, and some lady handed me a bag full of food.
For perspective, this was in the mid to late 70s.
I got my GED when I was 19, and went to technical school for programming much later. (After I had settled.)
Okay. Finish healing, and don’t trip over anything behind you. 
Ran away once when I was five…got to the end of the porch. My mom packed my suitcase when I told her I was running away. Apparently, I sat on the porch until she announced we were having bologna sandwiches (my fave) then I came back in, put my suitcase away and told her I would stay until the next day.
Needless to say, all was forgotten and I never did it again.