[delightedmama]

My professor in one of the counseling classes I've taken said that running away from home DOES signify a relationship problem within the home.

HOWEVER, I think what he's calling "running away from home" is when it's more serious (and older kids, like teens)... I think wanting to run away from home but not doing it is different. I think a little kid who thinks it sounds fun and packs away to a friend's house is different than a teenager and her boyfriend disappearing to another state for weeks. I personally never thought of running away but think that a kid making up how they'd do it, going somewhere but coming home when Mom calls, etc. sounds much less representative of a problem. My high school had lots of troubled teens run away, and it sounds like they did have family problems at home. Only one of the elementary kids I knew who ran away did so as the result of family abuse (I've talked with her about it as an adult), and her running away was much more serious (hiding in a neighbor's attic, not coming out or responding to yells of a search party, seriously hoping she'd never be found) than those kids who disappeared for an hour and were just playing with a neighbor.