RUNNING AWAY

Becca had been having a rough week.
In general, just a bad attitude and having trouble being nice or respectful.
She'd been threatening to "run away" the whole week.

Over and over I told her how that wasn't the solution.
How much we loved her and didn't want her to leave.

But on Sunday, she was reprimanded for being unkind to Elizabeth.

30 minutes later she came out of her room with her backpack packed and her pillow.
She informed us she was running away.

to the front yard.
She knew enough to know there were "bad guys" out there so she'd be safe if she camped in our front yard.


We decided to call her bluff.
We gave her our rolling duffel bag and told her she could raid our pantry for food.

John got our tent out so she could have shelter.

she lasted outside about 45 minutes -coming in 2-3 times to "negotiate" with us.

She really didn't want to run away -we KNEW that.

She wanted her way.
She wanted to do what she wanted to do without any consequences.

She humbled herself and told us she wanted to stay after she learned we were going out to breakfast to Crack*er Barr*el ~one of our family's fav. b'fast restaurants. :)

At first she tried to negotiate us taking her out to breakfast and THEN she would run-away once we got home (we fear she might be a budding lawyer!).....but since we wouldn't give in on that request, she decided being part of our family wasn't so bad after all.

We're awfully glad she decided to stay. :)

We love her too much to have her away from us....even if it was just the front yard.