TiddlyPom

I was reading about runaways on the BBC news site ...

This article in particular..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7149786.stm

What on earth is wrong with this lass and/or her family or upbringing that would cause her to do this?

Is this a case of something undiagnosed, or what?

Poor kiddy gets in stranger's cars and risks her life.

Anyone here ever run away from home?

Wendy

It's really awful that kids can feel so bad that they have to run away isn't it.

Lack of communication seems to be a big contribution in a lot of cases. I know when I was 15 I went and moved in with my boyfriend because my Step-Dad didn't approve of him. Instead of talking to me like a person, he just ordered me about - which I didn't appreciate.

I may have only been 15, but I was pretty grown up and also 6 months pregnant at the time. (I know that a lot of people will be horrified by that, but I really have always been older than my years (and no, my son wasn't an accident ))

If my step dad had have talked to me like a human being, then I would have probably stayed where I was.

jerzo

Its so sad that they feel like they can't talk to either parent (if there are 2 at home!) I also had my son at 15 (more horrified people now!) and I am forever telling him he can tell me (He is now 15 himself) Anything....not that he will ! but he certainly wouldn't do something like running away if there was a problem and I would be devastated if I as a Mother didn't realise that something was up with him or my other 3 boys before anything like that were to happen xx
Poor Kids where do their little lives go from there? Very Sad x

(and no I never ran away.....where to? was always the question I had.....Grans' or Aunties!! i'd never endanger myself ,I was waaay to aware for that.....comes from being a nosy newspaper reading kid!!)

TiddlyPom

It's terrible. The poor girl... dreadful. WTF is going on in her house that makes her want to jump ship like that?

Yeah, my dad did plenty of yelling and no communication too.

I have no doubt you knew what you were doing. I don't judge, Wendy. It's not my way.
I was pretty sure of myself when I was 15 too but couldn't have had a child then. ...
Serious kudos to you girl.

x

Machiavelli

This is very sad.

I'd have loved to have run away from my home as a young child and as a teenager, but fortunately, I'm a coward and was always too scared.

My sister was always running away. She'd climb out the bedroom window and I'd lie there thinking "they'll kill me if they find out she's gone".

I remember one time, after I was married, (thank God), she went in to the bathroom, locked the door, and climbed out of the bathroom window. My family lived in a flat one floor up!

When she came back to the door later that night and asked to be let back in my dad told her to come back in the way she went out. She'd to climb back up the down pipe at the side of the bathroom window and ripped off a couple of toenails in the process. Didn't stop her running.

I guess that if these kids are running that just maybe they're running from something like my childhood.

I'm beyond all that now, thankfully. but I do understand that some things in young peoples' lives are just so terrible to live with that the "unknown" is a better option. If your parents are like mine were, even the unknown has to be a better option.

And as for being pregnant at 15, one of my other sisters did just that so she could get a way from home. The best mother I ever knew had her first baby when she was 14. She has a family to be proud of to this day.

chris and farideh

I never done it, but sometimes when a child suffers from abuse, either mentally, physically, or sexually, the only way out is to run away, it doesnt really talk about her situation in details, it only says she was moved to a care home, because of behavioral problem, I do however feel very sorry for her, cause as soon as she would turn 16 all the attention will stop.

rabsody

What a sad story.

Yes, ran away myself to London when I was 14. At about midnight, met some middle aged bloke in Burger King at Piccadilly Circus, he twigged I'd run away and said did I want to crash the night on his boat in St Mary's Dock. I agreed (stupidly) and when we got back he tried to get me into bed with him (only one bed) saying he wouldn't lay a finger on me, to which I refused.

He kept saying he had a daughter my age, so he wouldn't touch me would he, and then changing his story and saying he didn't. Naturally I didn't sleep a wink that night on the boat, thinking he might do something to me in the middle of the night. Thankfully, I got away unscathed and returned home the next day. Never ran away again.

TiddlyPom

That sounds like a lucky escape, rabs.

rabsody

Yes, I'd say so.

Did you ever run away yourself then TP?

The OH

The article doesn't mention where her Dad is, yet an Uncle who died 4 years ago triggered the events....is she looking for a father figure?

.....................................

My folks had some right arguments, I wanted peace and quiet and jumped from the first floor balcony.....broke my leg please don't laugh

TiddlyPom

No, when I was 17, my dad kept yelling at me and I said it was time for me to leave. He told me it wouldn't happen.... to keep quiet about it... very scornful and full of the usual macho crap, trying to belitttle me.

So I left, moved above a room in a pub, got a grant to carry on college and a part time job to pay the bills, and then invited them over for sunday lunch.

He invited me to move back in a few weeks later.

Like 17 was any big deal anyway.

My sister threatened to run away when I was little. She was about 7. The thought of her going terrified me and I begged her not to do it.
She packed her bags and everything... It was a horrible feeling.

rabsody

[QUOTE=TiddlyPom;5684564]No, when I was 17, my dad kept yelling at me and I said it was time for me to leave. He told me it wouldn't happen.... to keep quiet about it... very scornful and full of the usual macho crap, trying to belitttle me.

So I left, moved above a room in a pub, got a grant to carry on college and a part time job to pay the bills, and then invited them over for sunday lunch.

QUOTE]

You feisty young thing you! Love the sunday lunch bit. I moved out at 17 too, couldn't wait to get out!

Wendy

It made me a better person having my son so early. I am so proud of him I could burst

I know you don't mate.

It was never easy, but I wouldn't change it for the world. He is such a brilliant, caring boy I'm amazed that he is mine sometimes

TiddlyPom

Yeah, cos you're so not caring or brill.

TiddlyPom

Yeah, that was fun.
I think he said something like 'And you won't be moving out. You wouldn't last 10 seconds without me.'

Ha!