The story of the week, goes to the boy in a balloon.

As we all watched the balloon float across the Colorado sky, it occurred to me that either a child is in there and this may not end well, or this child is hiding out knowing full well he is in big doo doo if he reappears. How do I know this scenario, I too hid out while an entire neighbourhood rallied to find the missing girl.

It was the 1970’s and visiting my grandmother and grandfathers home in England was always interesting; so was the fact that I made a couple of very large mistakes at different times when staying there. My first mistake was when I got up on the toilet to pull on the chain, which my grandfather had already told me not to do and of course, I did. After jumping down I held the chain in my hand. Scared to come out of the bathroom I stayed as long as I could. Eventually, I came out and received my punishment; my grandfather scared me straight and my parents handled the rest.

My second mistake was taking hide and seek with my sister to the extreme. I started in my grandmothers wardrobe closet, for some reason I decided to move to another room. Under the bed I laid and I could here my Mum and others getting irritated that they couldn’t get my attention. “Where is she?”

Realizing I was going to be in trouble I stayed put. Bad idea. Unbeknownst to me the seeking part of the game gravitated to a full on neighbourhood ground search for a missing child. Me.

When I was eventually found there was relief but there was also very big consequences for my stupidity. This was definitely not the age of talking to your child and needless to say, I never did that again.

Today, when I watched the story unfold we came to understand this child was in the home the whole time while officials from many different jurisdictions worked to save him. When one reporter asked the parents about whether their son would be grounded the father stated, “We don’t believe in grounding”… but he would give his son a talking to. Well, I sure hope that is enough. I’m not advocating a corpral punishment but I think this kid needs something! Take away the things he loves from his room, have him compose a letter (with the help of his parents) to each agency who assisted in his search.

Yes, he is six but so was I that young and I can tell you 40 years later how my parents handled it changed my behaviour quickly. I felt so much guilt for what I put my grandparents, family and others through and that is good. Guilt can be a good thing, respecting others and especially authority is important. Fearing punishment is also natural and he will not be the last child to send people on a wild goose chase. I guess I hope that these parents make sure this child understands the magnitude of his actions.

Update: As with all news the story gets bigger, previous opinions fall to floor. This may have been a hoax; the family so accustomed to publicity. This is where I drop out from this topic, no good can come from exploiting it further, other than to say that this families balloon isn’t the only thing floating out in space.