Tonight I thought I heard something in my hallway. I got up, looked, checked the stairs to the second floor, but there was nothing there. And why would there be? Our front door was locked and the kids had been in bed for two hours.

A few minutes later I heard my front door close. I bounded into the foyer and found my 4-year-old son in his undies walking in from the outside.

10:30pm.

What?

When pressed for a reason, ANY reason, he couldn’t give me one. He probably just wanted to see what was going on out there. Or to look at the flowers. Who knows!?

This one has been keeping his guardian angel busy lately. A couple weeks ago I had terrible food poisoning. Food poisoning isn’t great ever, but at 9 months pregnant, it’s even worse. I was nearly catatonic. My husband was upstairs working in his office. I noticed, through the haze, my father’s car pull up outside and this same 4-year-old hop out.

Turns out that he’d left the house and tried to walk a half mile away, through our peaceful neighborhood towards a busy road to get to a local gas station. Just took off. His grandpa happened to leave early that day and spotted the wayward child almost as he reached the roundabout at the busy road. If I hadn’t of been so sick, I would have been a wreck--I guess I was just a different wreck.

You hear those stories on the news of a kid wandering down the highway, or found by herself near a grocery store. And we all think "Tsk, tsk, where is that child's mother?" You guys, I think I have that kid--I AM THAT MOTHER.

To answer your question: yes, he’s quick, quiet, independent, and can manage our deadbolt by himself.

I think I need to get one of those slide locks with a chain for the top of our door, right?

Have you had escapees at your house? How do you handle an independent child who thinks they can just take off whenever they get the urge? Any advice on corralling a child that doesn’t include a cage, some sort of chain, or a tracking device?