Did you ever run away

mariaalice

Is it a bit of a thing with teenagers at the moment?

Where do they go do they sleep out for a few days and then reappear what are they getting out of doing it.

koumi

awaits explosion of smalltown boy lyrics.
I ran as far as the bus stop once. Next bus wasn't for another 4 hours so just went home. I was 36 at the time.

jeffy jefferies

mariaalice wrote: »

what are they getting out of doing it.

Attention?

Neyite

Yes. Well I tried to. But I couldn't find a red spotty handkerchief to bundle up my belongings on the end of a stick, so I gave up after about an hour. I was only 5.

I'd made jam sandwiches and everything.

Boom_Bap

It's one of these stupid f*cking challenges that teenagers are doing now.
See how long you can go missing for.
It's f*cking ridiculous.

There are legit cases but these are overshadowed by the ones taking part in the 'challenge'.

mariaalice

I wonder is it a social media thing they read about some other teen who has done it and sees the reaction and then decided to do it themselves.

I would hazard a guess at the motivation for most is to punish the parents and attention. For a minority, it's probably a mental health issue or an escape from something.

McMurphy

No. I was a teen in the 90s and it was practically unheard off then. Not saying it didn't happen, it's prob just to do with the lack of social media then - that it wasn't broadcast as much that you didn't get to hear about it.

Nowadays all you hear of is kids that run away only to turn up 4hrs later in the local supermacs - but mum's just received 288 likes on fb and as we all know a like = a prayer. So God intervened and made the kid order the burger instead of playing call of duty in his bedroom.

retro:electro

I think I made it as far as a field down the road before I realised nobody was actually looking for me and we were having bolognese for dinner.

razorblunt

mariaalice wrote: »

I wonder is it a social media thing they read about some other teen who has done it and sees the reaction and then decided to do it themselves.

I would hazard a guess at the motivation for most is to punish the parents and attention. For a minority, it's probably a mental health issue or an escape from something.

No! Is that an actual challenge nowadays? Jesus wept.



I threatened it once when I was 8. Packed my bags. It basically was just my favourite jacket and a book I was halfway through from the library. Parents called my bluff, drove right up the door of an orphanage/kids home.
I'm surprised I'm no emotionally scarred from it, still get a good laugh off it.
The place itself had been closed for 30 years but I didn't know that. I was walking our dog one day in the grounds about 8 years later when my Dad rang me. Told him where I was and he burst out laughing again. Fcukers.

Shenshen

Twice. First time I walked the 30km to my grandmother's house and got to stay with her for a few weeks after that.

Second time I knew she'd tell my parents again, so decided to head for the next town. It wasn't a clever choice, it was mid-winter, with snow on the roads. I walked for about 5 hours, in between a car had stopped an a man has asked me if I wanted a lift. I declined and he drove off again. After the 5 hours, I was so cold and miserable, when the same car pulled up and the same man asked again, I climbed in.
He was chatting with me, asking what I was doing out, where I was heading. I told him about my father, about my family, why I was running away. He asked me about other relatives, and I told him about my grandmother and how she was the only one in my family I trusted. Eventually, he somehow managed to talk me into agreeing to him taking me to my grandmother. He said he had been worried all day after he had first seen me, and driven out again to see if he could find me again and get me off that road somehow.
He turned the car around and drove all the way back and dropped me off outside her house.

I got to stay with her again for a while, and eventually, thankfully, my parents split up and life got better.
I've no idea who the man was, I never asked his name. And sitting here, I'm unbelievably grateful to him, I was only 10 years old and this all could have gone very differently indeed. I never actually got to say "thank you".

Boom_Bap

the wrong thread thing is hilarious.....but it makes no sense here.
I've deleted the posts. No cross thread posting please.

SusieBlue

I did when I was about 5, with my best friend who was our neighbour.

I brought all sorts of useful supplies such as half a jigsaw, a yoyo and a box of raisins, as well as my life savings from my piggy bank (I was in it for the long haul).

Anyway we walked for hours and hours, and we were getting tired.
At this point we were starting to get nervous because it was getting late and we were hungry.

We noticed a "FOR SALE" sign on a nearby house. We went up and knocked on the door. A lady I had never seen before answered. We offered her my life savings (probably about £2) in exchange for her house. We told her we were looking for somewhere new to live and asked how long before she could move out.

She started laughing at us, gave us lollipops and walked the two of us back to our houses. Turns out she knew my family very well.
I thought we had travelled miles and miles, but we actually only went 3 streets away and didn't even leave our estate.
No one in my family even noticed I was missing.

Katgurl

Yes when I was sixteen. I ran away with my then-boyfriend. I was having a terrible time at home. I stole a wad of cash from my mum's office drawer and a load of food. We got a bus down the country and stayed in a hostel for about five nights screwing each other's brains out. To be honest both of us wanting to pop our cherries was probably a factor in the decision.

Anyway the cash inevitably ran out (despite us being complete misers) and we had to go back. I remember being at a cafe crying when the bus stopped for a break. I hadn't eaten since lunchtime the day before, we had no money and I desperqtely didn't want to go home. A man appeared and insisted on buying us both lunch. Eternal gratitude and I always now look out for teenagers in distress, they can be tough years.

We went back to the same hostel later but it was all a bit bland without the on-the-run element and we were getting bored with each other anyway.

The_Valeyard

I use to run away when I was three years old. Id take my teddy and Pjs and walk up the road (parents let me) then realise ive nowhere to go, then walk back home.


This would happen once a week.

biko

We were three 8yo's that ran away together on a lovely summer's day.
Made it as far as a forest a mile away
After an hour or two when we had eaten the biccies and drank the lemonade we returned home.
No-one had even noticed we were gone.

Good times

koumi

The_Valeyard wrote: »

I use to run away when I was three years old. Id take my teddy and Pjs and walk up the road (parents let me) then realise ive nowhere to go, then walk back home.


This would happen once a week.

you sound like you need a cuddle

The Backwards Man

Me and the dog ran away when I was six or seven. Thought we were like The Littlest Hobo and sidekick or whatever. My parents found us eventually though, Lassie was a great sheepdog and they didn't want to lose her.

riffmongous

It just seemed to be a tv thing when I was growing up, never heard of anyone actually doing it thank god.

I remember reading one of the famous american serial-rapist-killers used to hang around bus terminals to pick up runaways for victims, they'd be registered as missing in their home areas and no would would identify them or know they were missing in the city

jeffy jefferies

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Me and the dog ran away when I was six or seven. Thought we were like The Littlest Hobo and sidekick or whatever. My parents found us eventually though, Lassie was a great sheepdog and they didn't want to lose her.

We didn't force you to come back with us.

DanMurphy

Some mornings going to school (back in the 50s) meant 'wading' through herds of unsupervised gypsy ponies grazing the long acre. Mostly they were hobbled.
One morning, on a mad whim, "I picked me a good 'un, looked like he could run" which was not hobbled and mounted up.
I hadn't planned to run away, but it was a lovely early summers day, I was 10 years old, and those nearby mountains looked so inviting so I succumbed to the temptation to be Alan Ladd, and have a new life chasing rustlers and saving damsels in distress.
I spent about an hour on that bony-backed mustang before my legs felt like they would fall off and my ass felt like I was sitting on a bag of razor blades.
I guess I wasn't cut out for life in the saddle.

I let the 'cayuse' loose after about five miles, and took to walking home.
Never sat on a horse since.

El Weirdo

Boom_Bap wrote: »

It's one of these stupid f*cking challenges that teenagers are doing now.
See how long you can go missing for.
It's f*cking ridiculous.

There are legit cases but these are overshadowed by the ones taking part in the 'challenge'.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that challenge story was completely made up bollocks.

freshpopcorn

I often notice that the same people seem to pop up over and over again.
If you do a little research either online or asking people from the area these teenagers aren't doing challenges but there family is split up and they can be with one or another parent another issue is kids running away from foster care and can have difficult family situations.
When I was in sixth class tough I got reported as a missing kid tough because of my father. I used go home for lunch and my mother used collect me some days I used just go to the shop with her. My mother couldn't collect me so my father was sent to do it. It was agreed between all of us that if he wasn't there by X time I'd go to the shop by myself with another guy who'd used met his mam who worked there.
Their was no sign of my father so I headed to the shop I returned about twenty minutes later to find priests/teachers all in a major panic over the missing student. It was highly embarrassing the principal asked me were my parents talking or having trouble at home.

MilesMorales1

Boom_Bap wrote: »

It's one of these stupid f*cking challenges that teenagers are doing now.
See how long you can go missing for.
It's f*cking ridiculous.

There are legit cases but these are overshadowed by the ones taking part in the 'challenge'.

Wait what? Is this an actual thing?

Hoboo

mariaalice wrote: »

Is it a bit of a thing with teenagers at the moment?

Where do they go do they sleep out for a few days and then reappear what are they getting out of doing it.

They're getting to do whatever they want/planned without telling you are asking your permission. Party in a free house for the weekend.....go missing. Want to go to a festival but won't be allowed.....head off anyhow.

Time to take out the whip.

El Weirdo

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Wait what? Is this an actual thing?

No.

zcorpian88

I see these posts all over facebook of kids going missing for 2 or 3 days and the kid is always found safe and well, every time I see the pictures all I think is "Another little wanker that needs the boot up their hole for wasting the Garda's time and resources"

All part of this f**king social media challenge.

Clearly a lot of these yuppie new age parents didn't give their kid a good kick up the arse before they turn into a disrespectful little knobhead. If I did that my folks would have killed me. A little fear wouldn't do them any harm.

mariaalice

Remembered this poem about family life.

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Robert Hayden.

Canis Lupus

zcorpian88 wrote: »

I see these posts all over facebook of kids going missing for 2 or 3 days and the kid is always found safe and well, every time I see the pictures all I think is "Another little wanker that needs the boot up their hole for wasting the Garda's time and resources"

All part of this f**king social media challenge.

Clearly a lot of these yuppie new age parents didn't give their kid a good kick up the arse before they turn into a disrespectful little knobhead. If I did that my folks would have killed me. A little fear wouldn't do them any harm.

I've been wondering about facebook and does it just make the issue worse? I've seen some where it's so n so has gone missing after school and hasn't been seen for a few hours blah blah blah and it's being shared by loads and loads of people. Back in the day that was just life as you went off with your mates somewhere and your parents likely wouldn't care until it went dark and you weren't home for dinner (and you got a clip around the ear for it). Nowadays your face is plastered all over facebook within half an hour of not replying to a text as best I can make out.

mariaalice

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I've been wondering about facebook and does it just make the issue worse? I've seen some where it's so n so has gone missing after school and hasn't been seen for a few hours blah blah blah and it's being shared by loads and loads of people. Back in the day that was just life as you went off with your mates somewhere and your parents likely wouldn't care until it went dark and you weren't home for dinner (and you got a clip around the ear for it). Nowadays your face is plastered all over facebook within half an hour of not replying to a text as best I can make out.

That fella Jordan Peterson to paraphrase a bit concludes that one of the causes of young people not finding a place in life and becoming angry malcontents is precisely because of that sort of carrying on. They were helped too much.

Hector Savage

When I was 2 I took off.

I just have a memory of crossing the main road at Donaghmede (where McDonalds is now) near that junction by Holy Trinity School.
My mam tells me she was hyterical driving around looking for me and picked me up on the way back down Grange Road - so I had turned around crossed the main road again and was heading back to the estate.

I shiver when I think about how I wasn't hit by a car and killed.