Kyle is pretty much ready for his own place now

After school on Friday, Kyle decided that he didn't want to go to 'key kids' (that is the after school program where the boys go until we pick them up - it's right there in the school gym and art room). Anyway, he apparently didn't want to go, so he decided to leave school and walk home.

By himself.

He's 5.

Luckily, the crossing guard at the intersection near our house knows him and knows that he doesn't walk home, so she asked him why he was. And my child, whom I have raised since birth and to whom I have attempted to impart the value in telling the truth, told her "my mom told me I could."

Still suspicious, and seeing that Nick wasn't with him, she walked him to our house (thank God!) Once she confirmed that no one was there, she walked him back to school. In the meantime, the school was in a panic! The key kids staff, teachers and Lord knows who else were all looking for him. His poor teacher got in her car and was driving around town even! They were ready to call the police, seriously.

So I found out about this Friday evening from the boys' dad - he had the boys for the weekend. So I talked to Kyle about it on the phone and asked him why he did it. He said "because I didn't want to go to key kids." I asked why and he said "because I am FRUSTRATED there!" I have to admit that it's pretty dang cute when your five year old says "frustrated". I asked why he was frustrated and he gave me a long, run-on paragraph about the games he didn't want to play, the kids he didn't want to play with, he didn't like the snacks, yada yada yada.

So I began to try and convince my child that he is not old enough to be home alone without an adult. He had an answer for everything: He was going to go in the house and play. If he needed something he would call me....oh and then when he realized he didn't know how to call me at work the whole thing became MY fault. (He gets that from his dad). Anyway, he had it all planned out and I ruined his life (he gets that from his older brother).

Well, I was not able to convince him that he was not old enough to be home alone, so I brought out the big guns. We had a long talk when he got home today and I told him if he ever did that again he would lose tv for a week. What?!! How could I be so cruel and unreasonable? After all, he is more than capable of getting his own place and handling things all by himself.

I think I need to start hiding my keys.