I usually walk my 5 year old daughter to kindergarten in the morning and my 4 year old loves to come along and ride his balance bike. He usually zooms ahead and waits for us to get close before zooming ahead some more. He knows the drill and so do we.

It’s gotten to be routine enough that I expect my son to be zooming around the playground when we get to the school while I’m waiting for my daughter to file into the school. This morning was different however. I couldn’t find my son at all.

I asked a few parents if they saw a boy on a bike. They said no. Then my daughter asked where her brother was and I said I didn’t know, but she shouldn’t worry about it since she needed to go to class. She went into the school and when she was gone, I yelled as loud as I could to see if my son could hear me. There was no response and I then panicked and ran around the school looking for him. My wife called and I was immediately telling her I couldn’t find our son, but she said that he biked home and was crying!

Relieved, I told them I’d be back soon and hurried on home. Apparently, my son was zooming around the playground and didn’t see us walking in the playground towards my daughter’s classroom (even though that’s what we do every morning for school). He panicked and didn’t know what to do at first. I was actually impressed that in a moment of panic, my son eventually decided to backtrack and find his way home all by himself. Luckily, we live close enough to the school and the roads aren’t too busy, so he made it home without any issues. In the future X I’ll keep my eyes on my son a bit more closely and I also told him to just follow the routine we have because if we follow a routine, it’s easier to make sure the right results happen!