I can clearly recall the summer day that my friend Bobby wanted me to come to his house to play. It wasn’t very often that I could go to Bobby’s house because it was outside of the boundaries that were in my neighborhood, layed down by my mother. These boundaries were for me to stay inside of and were very strictly enforced. Going outside of the boundaries resulted in serious consequences.
On this particular day I had asked my Mother if I could go to Bobby’s to play, and for whatever reason, she said “no”! I didn’t like the answer she gave so I went in my room and pouted awhile. As I was pouting I was thinking of ways to get even with her. The best I could think of was to run away, as she would miss me very much and be sorry that she had ever refused to let me go to Bobby’s house. I went over to the toy box and dug out my Babes in Toyland suitcase that I had received from Santa for Christmas the year before. I loaded my suitcase with socks and underware, threw in some cookies, and I was set for a life on my own. I remember going into the living room to tell my Mom that I was running away. She was reading a magazine at the time and without looking up said to me “ That’s fine, just don’t go outside your boundaries”. I hadn’t thought about the boundaries as I made my plans to run away, but it was something I would have to deal with when I got there.
I walked out the front door of the house and headed west, past my Aunt Elsie’s house and then to Mrs. Bishop’s driveway which was the western border of my territory. As I approached the border I was thinking it was now or never, so I stepped across and into the forbidden zone. I walked down to the corner and without looking back turned the corner and walked ahead. After walking two houses up that street I started thinking better of this running away business, I was outside the lines and these cookies weren’t going to last long and I got scared. I turned and headed for home. As I turned the corner towards home I was surprised to see my mother walking towards me, though I wasn’t surprised to see the belt that she was carrying. She met me at the boundary and all the way back home used that belt to remind me about how important boundaries were and how she expected me to respect them. She gave me a good opportunity to reflect on the lesson I had learned at the business end of that belt, for I would spend the rest of that afternoon in bed.
Now that I am grown with kids of my own, I can look back at the boundaries of my youth and the lessons learned concerning them. I can see now that life is full of boundaries. There are some boundaries that are meant to be crossed, and there are some that are not meant to be. I no longer look at boundaries as something that can or cant be crossed, but rather look at them as something that should or shouldn’t be.

Thanks Mom


Jack Roberts – December 2001