OCR Text |
Show t fi Hi I W Los Angeles Sunset Strip attracts runaway teens. Photo above shows a typical Strip teen gathering place, though none of those shown is a runaway. If such clergymen haven't already assisted a runaway sought by parents, they often enlist the cooperation of the church's youth groups. Usually raised in the neighborhood, these teen-agefrequently can determine whether or not a new child or runaway has appeared anywhere in the area. If a day or two passes after a teenager disappears, parents should remember that the child also is likely to be looking for them. Instead of plotting an elusive escape to a distant state, most children are as unprepared to live anywhere as the bespectacled small-tow- n youngster appearing in bedroom slippers one night at the Runaway House in Washington, D.C. Asked how she expected to live in the winter without shoes or money, the girl replied: "I hadn't thought of that." rs or adventure Onee the glamour fades, a sensible of youngrunning away faces he far greater ster realizes that, problems away from home than in it. Of the runaways reported to police, more than 55 percent voluntarily returned home within 24 hours. Seventy-fiv- e percent return within three days. Even many children still missing after ssveral days are trying to be "found" rather than meekly returning home and magnifying the problem that caused them to leave in the first place. Hoping that parents will discover "clues" to their whereabouts, runaways telephone or write friends and relatives. Two runaways telephoned police in Cambridge, Mass. to offer a "tip" that they had been seen on Harvard Square (though Cambridge police were not looking for them) . In Bethesda, Md., a homesick boy asked a policeman: "What do you do to runaway kids anyway?" When the missing youngster is not a teen-agor a preteener but a small child, police "missing persons" experts recommend that parents follow this course of action: 1) Check all closets in the house as well as the attic, garage, and basement. Open all chests, trunks, cartons, and cases large enough to hold a child. He may have fallen in and become dazed or may have inadvertently locked himself in. 2) Check the homes and backyards of neighbors. 3) Check candy stores or toy stores in the nearby area the child may have wandered into ont of them or have gone there deliberately while getting over a "mad" at his parents. 4) Notify the local police if this quick search fails to produce results. Even if you feel the child is just pouting somewhere and will come back on his own, the police should be called because someone may find him a mile or two away from home er and bring him to the police station. Many parents, once they learn their missing offspring are safe, insist on "welcoming" them home with severe punishment. But youth counselors say that the punishment formula proves just one thing to a runaway, be he a small child or a Boy, was I right about my parents; Next time, IH go where they can't find me and really teach 'em a lesson. teen-age- r: ost runaways are sincerely trou- bled. A study by the National Institute for Mental Health of 1,000 runaway in Prince George's County, Md., revealed that 75 percent of them left home because of "a plain forthright expression of dissatisfaction at home or school or a conflict within the family over such issues as the child's choice of friends and his rejection of family rules and values." In trying to call attention to their grievances, moreover, many young children run away in the hope that they will be caught before they leave their home or their yard. According to Clark Blackburn, general director of the Family Services Association, parents should remember three guidelines in dealing with all runaways except the incorrigible or persistent runaway, who may require psychiatric counseling: teen-age- rs ... -- 1. "Keep cool and don't 'shame' the child. Base your thinking on the premise that something is not right at home. Don't adopt the approach of 'How could you do this to us after all we've done and spent for you?' 2. "Get out of the punishment busiOverlook ness and into the past and improve on the present. Ask yourself, 'Am I giving my child a reason to feel that he has to take such an extreme step as trying to escape? Ask the police or whoever found your child what he said to cause him to run away. Convince the child that he or she is loved and can always discuss any problem with you. 3. "Don't be so strict or so permissive that a child thinks you're either 'too bossy' or 'don't care what I do. Set reasonable rules and provide consistent attention that gives a child security in you as a parent. Many children have run away after unexpectedly harsh punishment. Sure the 'generation gap' may be so wide that a child doesn't talk that you prowant a pose. But you can usually open a line of communication with patience and consistency. "The same consistency should be just as profitable even if your child hasn't run away," emphasizes Blackburn. "Preventing a runaway crisis is still better than solving one." self-righteo- us self-analys- is. man-to-m- an 7 |