I had one of those days today. Middle son (11) didn’t get home from school at 3.30pm as he usually does and at that time I wasn’t unduly worried. I sent him a text to find out where he was and awaited his reply – it didn’t come!
I tried not to panic when he still wasn’t home at 4pm – I reasoned with myself that he was probably involved in an in-depth chat with one of his friends about Halo or other such games.
4.30pm came and went and I was starting to panic. Still no answer from his phone and I started phoning his friends to see if they knew where he was – no one did!
Now flustered I phoned his dad (at work) to see if he had heard from him, or knew where he was. He had no idea either, but thought I was being silly to panic!
I am probably a little more aware than most as Sarah Payne was snatched just a few hundred yards from my parents home and I remember combing the fields looking for any sign of her.
After asking his big brother and sister to BBM him, his dad phoned to say he had got hold of him and he was trampolining at school and finally, in he walked at 5pm – a full two hours after he finished normal school!
I didn’t shout or scream, just gathered him up for a large cuddle and tried to remind him that if we don’t know where he is then we worry. When asked why he didn’t tell us about trampolining he simply answered “I forgot!”
Now I understand why my mum used to moan at me and make sure I had 10p for the phone. Now I need to make sure that a) his phone has credit, b) is fully charged and c) that he looks after it – the joys of modern parenting!!