My Little Runaway

Acacia ran away yesterday.

I took her iPod Touch after a second discussion (this has happened once before) about leaving it unattended at sleepovers and having friends post things under her name - in this case an unflattering picture on Instagram of a mutual friend - and then changing the password so Acacia couldn't delete the photo instantly. Said mutual used-to-be-friend texted me much later to ask Acacia to remove it, even though Acacia had done so hours prior and had already told her that... i.e. ex-friend tried to get Acacia in trouble by involving me. Because I realised this, my intention was only to teach Acacia why it's so important not to share her password - even with good friends who thought it would be funny.

Instead she assumed I was going to lay into her and she flipped out and yelled rude things.

Well, then she was in trouble. I already had her iPod and now she had to do chores on top of it. When I mentioned we were having fish for dinner, that was it. There was no reason in her mind to stay.

She left at 5:30pm in a tank top, shorts and bare feet, so I wasn't terribly worried. It's been in the 60s during the day, but once the sun sets it gets chilly quickly. She talked the whole time she was leaving about how she'd rather sleep in the woods and get eaten by animals, blah blah blah.

She was gone an impressive hour and a half. She gets her tenaciousness from her Papa, but in this case it was her ability to fall asleep anywhere (that would be from me) that helped her out.

Of course, the seat cushion, sleeping bag and wool blanket she slipped into the shed (I looked in there!) helped as well.


I tried to make her homecoming less tail-between-her-legs with a big hug.

"Hey - how are you so warm? It's cold out there."

"Jumping jacks. I was freezing."



Tonight she made an awesome caramelized onion risotto for us for dinner, so I guess she's not too scarred?

Found out today Cayenne had been trying to sneak food out to her sister, but I started cooking, never left the kitchen and foiled the plan.

That makes me happy.

Social media? Not so much. I thought we were doing well by having middle-schoolers without phones or Facebook accounts, but I'm really not interested in keeping them completely cut off, either. These days that would be cause for therapy down the road, and I'll already be blamed for enough!

I guess all we can do is try to teach them the rules of this crazy techno age, most of which are still being written. Starting with #1:

Never click 'send' without rereading it and imagining the whole world seeing it - because that is possible every single time.