# Did you ever think about running away from home?



## Bretrick (Dec 4, 2021)

I did once. When I was 15.
Packed my bag, walked out up into the hills.
Only got about 2 miles from home.
Why? The only thing I packed was my LP Collection. About 60 of them.
Too heavy to carry


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## win231 (Dec 4, 2021)

Never before dinner.
Or breakfast
Or lunch


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## Ruth n Jersey (Dec 4, 2021)

I never tried to run away. From little on I had it good and I knew it.


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## dseag2 (Dec 4, 2021)

No, because I had it pretty good as a child.  I think about running away from home now.


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## mrstime (Dec 4, 2021)

I was raised by my grandparents, so one day I was mad about something so I decided to run away. Grandma said I couldn't go go my aunts house, about a mile away. I could only go to my fathers apt about 3 miles away. So I started walking, grandma sent my young uncle (her son) to make sure I was OK, so I made it about a mile , but saw my uncle walking behind me, so I went back told him I changed my mind. We walked back home.

Our oldest daughter decided to run away (she was 3 or 4 and saw it on TV) so I packed her an over night bag. I put a very heavy medical book in the bottom covered it with some PJ's, then I tied 5 pennies in a handkerchief, and handed her her doll and the pennies. Told her bye bye and off she went. I was hiding behind bushes as I followed her.. She got about 3 doors down the block when an airplane went over head ( loud noised really bothered her) at the same time a little dog rushed out of a yard barking at her. Then a very old lady came out of her house, so I had to show myself. I explained to the old lady that my daughter was running away so no problem. So I told my kid she could go home but I never wanted to hear her say she wanted to run away. So home we went , got to the door step and she said she wanted to run away again so I pushed her out the door step, She changed her mind real quick. She never said it again.

We had 3 teenagers at the same time, I often wished I could run away!


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## Murrmurr (Dec 4, 2021)

I had a great childhood, too, but I did run away once. I was 6 and my dad spanked me for throwing a dirt clod full force at my brother. It hit him in the eye and he had go to the doctor and have it irrigated and examined. The cornea was scratched a bit but the doc said it would heal just fine. Mom had to squeeze some kind of ointment into his eye 3 times a day, when she changed the bandage. 

The spanking came before the trip to the doctor and all that. Dad was super angry when he spanked me, so it hurt a lot, but when he saw my brother bandaged up, he was even angrier, so I packed a few things in a paper bag and sneaked out. I packed several items, but I only remember the underwear and an old tin truck that I liked. And I grabbed some cookies and a peach from the kitchen on my way to the back door.

We'd only lived on the farm for about a year, and I didn't have any idea about how to get to town so I went to the neighboring farm, about a 20 minute walk, and asked Mr. Gregory for a ride. While he drove, I told him all about what happened and why I was taking it on the lam. But I clammed up the second that traitor pulled onto the road that led up to our farm. 

I don't think I've ever hung my head so low as I did on the walk to our front door. I didn't get a second spanking but I heard a lecture I thought would never end.


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## win231 (Dec 4, 2021)

dseag2 said:


> No, because I had it pretty good as a child.  I think about running away from home now.


Uh......does your better half look at this forum?


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## dseag2 (Dec 4, 2021)

Nope, but I would take him with me.


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## win231 (Dec 5, 2021)

dseag2 said:


> Nope, but I would take him with me.


Good save!


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## hollydolly (Dec 5, 2021)

Yes I ran away several times when I was little, and once alone with my brother who is a year younger than me.. we were caught  and taken back..

When I was 15 my father locked me out of the house all night  when there was snow on the ground and was only wearing a thin sleeveless dress. I sat on the snowy dooorstep all night convinced I was going to die from the cold .. even my mother wouldn't allow me in.  This was my punishment for being 5 minutes late home.(My brother looked out of the upstairs window and called to me  he wanted to throw a blanket out to me but had been threatened by my father if he did..
A couple of days later I got on a train with the very  little money I had.. my friend who was also going through troubles at home came with me., we didn't know where we would end up, or what would happen to use but we had to go.. and we did.

Long story short, we ended up in the Salvation army hostel for women in Dundee Scotland ..without them I have no idea where my life would have ultimately ended up


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## Lewkat (Dec 5, 2021)

I did once.  Got as far as my cousin's house, had dinner and my father picked me up.  Got a lecture from my mother when I got home and that was the end of it.


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## Smiley Holly (Dec 5, 2021)

Nope never did. I thought about it a few times when I was really young, but always chickened out.


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## Capt Lightning (Dec 5, 2021)

No, but I wish I had.  It would really have pi$$ed of my mother who would have worried herself sick about what people would think of her.  I contented myself by playing 'mind games' with her.   It was fun suggesting I should do things that she wouldn't approve of.  Oh dear, what would people have thought of her?


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## GeorgiaXplant (Dec 5, 2021)

Do you mean when I was a kid or since I've been grown?

I ran away once on the day after Christmas. We'd just come back stateside after the war and were living with my maternal grandparents. I don't remember why I was running away, just that I did. Took my new doll buggy and new dolly and wheeled them through the sNOw to my paternal grandparents' home, just a few blocks away.

It was time for lunch, and my grandfather always had lunch at home, so after Grandma called and let my mother know where I was and had fed us, Grandpa drove me back from whence I came! By then I'd had some exercise, had eaten, and just wanted a nap.

Since I've been grown? Oh, yeah! Especially when my kids were teens. 

Since they've been grown? Nope.

Since DH died and I moved here? Often. Except it wouldn't be called running _away_ from home, it would be running _to_ home. However, my _self_ knows that it's just not a great idea. I'm not about to live in a brutal climate where winter usually starts in mid-October and lasts until May, where the annual sNOwfall is between 150-200", where it's not unusual for the winter temps to dip below -30F, where nearly all of my old friends have already died.

So I stay. Besides, I don't have a doll buggy so what would I use to take my belongings along?


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## Remy (Dec 5, 2021)

Not really. But what I should have done was run the day I turned 18 but I had no confidence or esteem to do so.


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## Gaer (Dec 5, 2021)

Oh Yes.  Age four!  I took my lunch sandwich, my favorite doll a sweater for nighttime and a toy baby carriage.  Walked to the other side of town!  My Dad didn't catch up to me until it was getting dark.
i wasn't supposed to even cross the street yet.


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## Alligatorob (Dec 5, 2021)

Only as a very young kid.  In a tantrum, never got further than the closet...

I was very fortunate to have it pretty good.


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 5, 2021)




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## jerry old (Dec 5, 2021)

I ran away from home at age 21, when i got hungry and tried to go back home, my folks wouldn't let me in.


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## officerripley (Dec 5, 2021)

Only time I thought about it when I was a kid was when I was asleep and when I was awake.


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 5, 2021)




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## Tabby Ann (Dec 5, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> I got on a train with the very little money I had.. my friend who was also going through troubles at home came with me., we didn't know where we would end up, or what would happen to use but we had to go.. and we did.


I'm sorry to hear of your parents cruelty and hope life has given you some lovely moments since you left them.


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## Joe Smith (Dec 5, 2021)

Yes did it. I was very young. Wasn't my idea though but I went along with it. Was the oldest sibling of a family of 4 brothers (I was
friends with all of them) claim.

He said "Let's run away" and I agreed so we snuck back to his backyard and into the woods and made a trail so we wouldn't
be spotted by passerby's. We made it up into the local deli about 3/4 mile away, went inside and put our coins together to purchase
a loaf of bread and then asked Rocky (the store owner) what we could get with the rest of the change we had produced?
He went to his meat counter and sliced off 4 pieces of bologna, wrapped & handed it to us.

We went behind his delicatessen, back into the woods and found a big rock to sit on and divided our goods and ate them.
After we were done my older friend wasn't sure what we should do so we went back to his house. I went home.

I don't completely remember completely but I'm pretty sure nobody ever even noticed!


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## Tabby Ann (Dec 5, 2021)

I wanted to run away from home after being hospitalized after retirement. I was unable to care for my house, garage, car and yard. I wanted to run away from my house to some sort of senior apartment or assisted living where most of the maintenance is done for you. But I had all this stuff I had collected all my life and need to get rid off.  I'm not physically able to box the stuff up to donate and I sure don't want to take it with me to a new location.


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## Joe Smith (Dec 5, 2021)

LOCATIONS1-888-888-JUNK


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## Tabby Ann (Dec 5, 2021)

jerry old said:


> I ran away from home at age 21, when i got hungry and tried to go back home, my folks wouldn't let me in.


Sorry that happened Jerry. Parents should be loving enough to feed you and help you when you're hungry while still encouraging self responsibility and independent living.


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## Tabby Ann (Dec 5, 2021)

Joe Smith said:


> LOCATIONS1-888-888-JUNK


Thanks Joe.


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## bowmore (Dec 5, 2021)

Not quite a runaway, but a cute story. When my wife's sons would misbehave, she would threaten that she would run away to Tahiti if they did not behave.
Many years later, she got her opportunity to go to Tahiti.  She applied for a passport, and they needed the address of next of kin. She  had to call her son to ask for his address. He asked why she needed it, and she said she nedded it to get her passport. 
He said, "Mom, why do you need a passport?". She said," Because I am running away to Tahiti " and hung up.


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## Shero (Dec 5, 2021)

No need to run away. I was taught a set of rules and mostly kept to them. Life was quite good. I loved home!


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## DaveA (Dec 5, 2021)

Never gave it a thought. Lived with my folks and grandparents in the same home that I'm still living in 80 some years later.


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## Flaneuse (Dec 5, 2021)

I did.  When I was married.  But I had to take the bus and it was snowing and the bus was late, so I went home.


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## Joe Smith (Dec 5, 2021)

Do you ponder what might have been if the bus was on time?


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## Bretrick (Dec 5, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> Yes I ran away several times when I was little, and once alone with my brother who is a year younger than me.. we were caught  and taken back..
> 
> When I was 15 my father locked me out of the house all night  when there was snow on the ground and was only wearing a thin sleeveless dress. I sat on the snowy dooorstep all night convinced I was going to die from the cold .. even my mother wouldn't allow me in.  This was my punishment for being 5 minutes late home.(My brother looked out of the upstairs window and called to me  he wanted to throw a blanket out to me but had been threatened by my father if he did..
> A couple of days later I got on a train with the very  little money I had.. my friend who was also going through troubles at home came with me., we didn't know where we would end up, or what would happen to use but we had to go.. and we did.
> ...


I have often thought that parents who do this kind of stuff to their children should be charged with child abuse.
Because that is exactly what it is.
It is called tough love, no, it is child abuse.
We who went through it should have the right to charge them. Even if it is years later.
This kind of stuff is the reason I never sought out my Mother after she left. I detested her for her actions against me and my siblings.
I have never seen or spoken to her for over 52 years and I do not know if she is still alive.


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## hollydolly (Dec 6, 2021)

Bretrick said:


> I have often thought that parents who do this kind of stuff to their children should be charged with child abuse.
> Because that is exactly what it is.
> It is called tough love, no, it is child abuse.
> We who went through it should have the right to charge them. Even if it is years later.
> ...


I totally understand that.
When I told my ex husband that I didn't care nor want to know if my father was alive or dead ( after years of physical and mental abuse) and in fact if I heard he was dead I'd be relieved .. he said quote ''  you don't mean that , after all he _is_ your father''...

sadly,  people who haven't been seriously abused just don't understand


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## Bretrick (Dec 6, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> I totally understand that.
> When I told my ex husband that I didn't care nor want to know if my father was alive or dead ( after years of physical and mental abuse) and in fact if I herd he was dead I'd be relieved .. he said quote ''  you don't mean that , after all he _is_ your father''...
> 
> sadly,  people who have been seriously abused just don't understand


They do not understand that there can be no love directed towards those who seriously hurt their children. None at all.


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## hollydolly (Dec 6, 2021)

Bretrick said:


> They do not understand that there can be no love directed towards those who seriously hurt their children. None at all.


I'm so sorry you went through abuse as well


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## katlupe (Dec 6, 2021)

I ran away from home when I was 16. My boyfriend (my son's biological father) borrowed a car and stole it. We went to St. Simon's Island in GA where his father lived. I was pregnant and was afraid to tell my parents. That was in 1969.

Before I moved here in 2018, for about ten years, I dreamed of running away from home. In the end I didn't have to run away but left.


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## twinkles (Dec 6, 2021)

i have been dreaming of running away for the last 10 years-----i live with the kids


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## David777 (Dec 6, 2021)

Rather funny subject for starting on a senior community forum versus a forum for teenagers.


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## WheatenLover (Dec 6, 2021)

I ran away when I was 16 or 17. I took my pillow and a book and whatever money I'd saved from working, and left my mom a note under the vodka bottle in the freezer. I figured she'd need a drink, but she didn't find it.

A friend of mine took me to a house where some friends of his lived, and they welcomed guests. They turned out to be hippies - heroin addicts who stole fur coats to support themselves. One of them shot up right in front of me! Two others came home from a "shopping spree" with two full length, very expensive mink coats. The drugs, the stealing, the stories they told me about their lifestyle, all scared me to death.

Luckily my mother was a super detective. She figured out who I was with, even though she had never met him, and I doubt she knew his last name. She went to house and talked to his parents, and the boy told her where I was. She called the police, and they, she, and the boy's father went to the house. The police got me to come out by telling me my father was there. It was the boy's dad, and I was very mad about that. I hated living with my mother, and I was shocked when my parents got divorced and he wouldn't let me live with him. My mother told me about a decade ago that he said no because she told him she would take us away and he'd never see her again. At that point, my dad didn't know my mother was a bully, I guess. When I realized it, much later, I wasn't afraid of her any more. Mostly talk, little action except from her words.

The problem was that I'd been suspended from school for spending 3 days flying kites and climbing a mountain. It was my idea, which made me the ringleader. We were supposed to be at the legislature listening to arguments about the Equal Rights Amendment. That got boring since most legislators were not interested in women having equal rights.

I figured I would be in a lot of trouble, so I left before she kicked me out or killed me. My mother the detective located me before I had to spend the night. I was more afraid of her than I was of the hippies. And I was really afraid of the hippies. In the end, nothing bad happened, except that I had to talk to my dad about it, which was fine with me, more than fine.


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## Tish (Dec 6, 2021)

Oh, I did, when my two eldest children were in their teens.  
I was ready to run away and never come back.


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## Colleen (Dec 6, 2021)

I got married at 19 instead to the first guy that came along. I should have run away instead. What a disaster!


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## Colleen (Dec 6, 2021)

David777 said:


> Rather funny subject for starting on a senior community forum versus a forum for teenagers.


Us old people like to reminisce.


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## Bretrick (Dec 6, 2021)

David777 said:


> Rather funny subject for starting on a senior community forum versus a forum for teenagers.


Has given members a chance to relate one aspect of their lives which they may never have spoken about.


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## Irwin (Dec 6, 2021)

I was living on my own when I was 18, but never thought about running away from "home" before that time. I knew I was too immature and lacked confidence, so even though home was hell, I never considered leaving without a means to support myself. I did stay away quite a bit, though. I'd often eat dinner at a friend's house and spend a lot of time there. They didn't seem to mind.


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## Ruthanne (Dec 7, 2021)

As a young teen I ran away many times, trying to flee abuse.  I had a friend who came with me.  We were quite the team.  Had some awesome times.


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## Trila (Dec 7, 2021)

GeorgiaXplant said:


> Do you mean when I was a kid or since I've been grown?
> 
> I ran away once on the day after Christmas. We'd just come back stateside after the war and were living with my maternal grandparents. I don't remember why I was running away, just that I did. Took my new doll buggy and new dolly and wheeled them through the sNOw to my paternal grandparents' home, just a few blocks away.
> 
> ...


I'm thinking that you probably have some kind of garden cart...you could use that.  Load it up, run away, come stay with  and me!  Today is cold (25° now, 46° for a high), but by Fri we will be near 80° again.


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## Pepper (Dec 7, 2021)

Everywhere I go I take me with me.


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## Trila (Dec 7, 2021)

hollydolly said:


> I totally understand that.
> When I told my ex husband that I didn't care nor want to know if my father was alive or dead ( after years of physical and mental abuse) and in fact if I heard he was dead I'd be relieved .. he said quote ''  you don't mean that , after all he _is_ your father''...
> 
> sadly,  people who haven't been seriously abused just don't understand


No....they don't.  Sending you hugs!


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## Trila (Dec 7, 2021)

Pepper said:


> Everywhere I go I take me with me.


I like that!!!


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## Pinky (Dec 7, 2021)

Fortunately for me, I had my girlfriend and her family to run to when things were difficult at home. They were so good to me. Without them, I shudder to think where I would have wound up.


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## Joe Smith (Dec 7, 2021)

Pepper said:


> Everywhere I go I take me with me.


That's a good thing to do.


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## Sassycakes (Dec 7, 2021)

I was thinking about running away today,but thank God my husband went over to my daughter's house. I know he was complaining about me because she just called to tell me he just left. Then she said, "Daddy said you are getting hard to remember things". So then she said I want to go to your next Doctors appt with you so you don't forget to tell her everything.


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## peppermint (Dec 7, 2021)

Sassycakes said:


> I was thinking about running away today,but thank God my husband went over to my daughter's house. I know he was complaining about me because she just called to tell me he just left. Then she said, "Daddy said you are getting hard to remember things". So then she said I want to go to your next Doctors appt with you so you don't forget to tell her everything.


Hi, my friend.....I just came back from my 5 friends for lunch...We haven't been together since a year ago....
So, I AM not remembering things....I hardly said anything with my friends....I was afraid I would stumble with
my mouth and they wouldn't know what I was talking about....So I said hello and goodby....I also had my friend started
talking to me outside before we got in our cars....Good thing she was the big talker....I just listened....Isn't that lovely...
I try only to talk to my kids....They understand....hUBBY WANTS ME TO GO TO THE DOCTOR.....ugh.......ok....i USE TO BE A LOAD MOUTH!!!!!
tHAT WAS A FUNNY.....................................


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