She's leaving home

It's a Beatles song which has been my ohrworm since Monday afternoon, when Jasmine decided to leave home (again) and for the first time acted upon her decision and packed a bag and stormed off...

...as far as the gap between the garage door and my car anyway, where I found her, lying on her back, her head resting on her bag.

It started with an argument (of course) Jas (over)reacting badly to the news that she had a maths lessons every day of this week (a necessary evil, due to her not doing very well (understatement) in maths at school) I was declared to be the meanest mother alive and the argument escalated quickly both in volume and physicality until I decided enough was enough and removed her to her room to calm down.

5 minutes later she appeared, overnight bag* in hand and declared she was going.

"Where?" I asked.
"Somewhere without you" came the answer.

This led to another 'discussion', this time in the garden - my neighbour has a troublesome 3 year old girl who can frequently be heard screaming her refusal at anything and everything, I wonder whether she was laughing or crying as she overheard us (couldn't fail to overhear it) with the knowledge that girls don't get any easier as they get older, they just appear to get meaner!

So Jas stormed off, down the garden path & I hesitated for a fraction of a millisecond before speeding after her only to find she'd disappeard from sight, completely.

As I was sure she'd turned right at the end of the steps I also went right and as I got to our driveway I could see her, behind my car.

I can't remember now, the discussion we had, crouched on the drive between my mini and the garage door but the result was that Jas and I walked home together.

I shall clearly have to be very careful in the future to resolve our arguments immediately rather than giving her a timeout to reassess the situation, I really don't want her packing her bags again, not when she's only 9!


* which was later revealed to have all the essentials a little girl needs for leaving home; favourite cuddly toy (Bussie) + spare, pyjamas, a clean set of clothes and (most surprising of all) toothbrush and toothpaste!