Any one else have a Houdini Escape Artist child?

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About a month ago, Nicholas (my non-verbal autistic six year old) decided to play escape artist. My wife and our oldest son were watching a movie in the living room while I was sleeping before work. He was in his room lying down, so my wife thought that for once he was actually going to nap and give her a few hours of quiet time.

First of all, all the doors leading outside are locked and the keys we keep in spots that Nicky can't reach (so far he hasn't figured out how to unlock doors but it's only a matter of time). In fact, nearly every room in our house has locks for various reasons - the laundry room because of the various detergents and hazardous liquids, the bathroom because given the chance he'll empty the contents of all the shampoo and conditioner bottles. We overlooked one route.

Above the sink there is a small panel about three feet by two feet that is filled by a fan. The small outcrop above the sink has various coffee cups, a soap dish, and a cup filled with pennies. Somehow, Nicky was able to step on this without knocking anything over. And push the fan into the office, then climb into the gap and get into the spare room that we haven't decided what to do with since it's the only room that doesn't have air conditioning. The door leading outside is locked, and even if it wasn't it's a pain in the butt to open because due to humidity and improper sanding - the door sticks, and causes quite the racket trying to open.

So up to this point let's count the Mission Impossible like achievements.

1. Slip past the living room out of sight of my wife and oldest son.
2. Climb on to the kitchen counter without disturbing any of the dishes in the sink, the coffee maker or rice cooker.
3. Step on the small outcropping above the sink without knocking any of those over.
4. Push the fan out ( how this didn't make any noise, I have no idea).
5. Pull himself up three feet and climb through the gap.
6. Drop the five-six feet into the office.
7. Crank a window open, push the screen out, and wiggle through the gap to -
8. Jump another five feet down into the backyard.

A hour later the friendly law enforcement officers knock at our door with the news that he was having a grand old time... FIVE BLOCKS AWAY. Personally, I'm not the happiest of campers waking up - being woken up to discover that not only did he escape but my wife didn't even notice this until the police informed us... Let's just say that it took a lot of effort to hold back from pulling my hair out and exploding. This wasn't the usual "I'm not awake, I need a shower and some really good coffee" kind of morning grumpiness. This was "WTF?! I CAN'T RELY ON YOU TO DO SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS KEEP AN EYE ON OUR SON?"

I bit my tongue, because not only was I shocked but also I was relieved that Nicky wasn't run over, abducted, or any other horrible possibilities that spun through my head upon finding out that he was missing. Of the numerous things that could have went wrong we were lucky that nothing happened to him. Also, my wife's parents and the numerous Child Protection Agency members were already making her feel miserable - there wasn't any need to make matters worse.

Strangely, it takes a crisis to be noticed. Case workers from CARD, psychiatric centers, and members of so many other groups (that it sounds like alphabet soup after awhile) have been meeting up with us for support sessions. After child proofing our house to the point that all we're missing is a moat and guard dogs, the Department of Child and Family services is satisfied that Nicky will not be running around unsupervised. They closed the case, so now we just have the autism support groups coming to offer up suggestions about the various benefits buried within the Government - Respite care, how to get speech and hearing therapy that might actually be covered by my insurance, monthly gatherings of autistic and AS adults within the community, and a lot of other things that if I didn't know about.

(Off topic note: but apparently there is a such thing as a Autism Guide Dog. I don't know the specifics, but how cool is that?)

The problem I've found is that I've grown used to raising Nicky in a rather prideful manner. Between the services at school and the activities at home, it didn't occur to me to ask for MORE services because I didn't realize that there were a lot that existed. Also, I suppose there's also the Parent mentality that while I'm raising our children to the best of my ability the possibility of just plain asking for help doesn't readily occur to me. While a majority of these options didn't exist when I was growing up, it's quite different nowadays since the public is slowly growing more aware. My son has options and I can swallow my pride and put aside my social phobias so that he can reap the rewards of these options.

I almost wish he climbed out the window so we could of gotten this ball rolling sooner.

I was the houdini escape artist child!



Anyway,my parents dealt with this before.You're not the first.
If that helps any...

Actually it does help, it seems like one of those things that I'll probably laugh about in a couple years a "remember when?"

Anyone else have tales about their children pulling randomly amazing escape acts - or perhaps their own adventures while younger? I'm a little curious.

29 years of escapism, and counting...actually, excluding work, which consists of me waiting for people to come and buy (the irony of fate, eh ?), I have almost managed to escape from everyone right now...

I've got a 9yr old Nonverbal Auntie that has yes sliped past me a time or two the worse being on his 5th birthday after climing a 6 foot computer armoire and get down the paint and painting himself with sliver and black zebra strips inculding his teeth oh he was nude by the way so it was realy every were on his body and the wall and he had just started the couch when I came back in the room from peeing. So I was gone all of 2 mins. So I took my top off to start the fight of scrubing the panit off him as he was water phobic at this time. So I got him in the tub with a lot of splashing as screaming and I guesse he saw how mad I was a let me wash the paint of fof him fairly easly after a little bit. The nmy older son came home so I had open the top lock that keep Jake in. I finshed washing Jake dried him off and he was sleepy so I put him down in his room forgetting in all the mess that the top lock was undone. My older son showed me what he got Jake from the book fair at his school and wanted to give it to him early so we went to see if Jake was still awake and found the front door open and a pile of PJs by the front door. Alex was 8 at the time so I had him go up and down the stairwell knocking on doors asking if jake was there because he had gone "visting" before that while i went outside to wakl around the building and near by park to ask if anyone had seen him. 15 mins later I was back in the house calling the cops when a lady that worked at his school came to the door sayingthey had him cornered on the juggle gym and could I come and get him...
We lived on a overseas base at the time and there social worker was a moron who had never seen a kid with austim before and just kept asking if my husband beat me and if we wanted to put Jake in a home.This went on for months it was the worsed time of my life we got no help and had to submit to being inspected weekly by idots inculding drug testing. Fun ,fun,fun...

Gosh I feel so bad for your wife! Poor thing. My son used to be an escape artist too. Luckily we live in a street with family members 4 doors away so he used to just go there. I won't even recall the stories as they still cause my guilt levels to rise. I swear i am not a terrible mother. lol

I am old enough and grew up in a rural enough area that I don't think anybody thought much of it if I wandered a mile off at six. I had dogs to remind me to go home at suppertime.

I don't have a good story for you but I can assure you that it happens a lot. The problem is, you don't know what the child is capable of until they've done it.

The services available varies a lot by area, but I'm glad you've got some density. Raising a non-verbal escape artist is going to get difficult, and things may well move beyond what your family can handle by itself. Its good to know what you can grab for, and how to do it, when the need shows itself.

One thing you can be confident about: he's dang smart and resourceful when he wants to be.

we say our son has "mad ninja skills" He is SILENT when he creeps around (which is funny because we can't get him to keep quiet any other time). We finally had to put bells and chimes on all of our doors and window. UGh

Same is true with mine, the only times he is quiet are when he's sleeping or trying to get into something he's not suppose to. Car rides too will sometimes keep him content but not always.

I remember 2 instances of good reflexes on my part, but I never did anything THAT interesting as a child. The fastest reflex things I did were:
a. caught a chair falling behind me by lifting up my leg, while I didn't even see it, I only heard it screech as it fell.
b. dodged a slap my dad was going to land on me... I won't go in to why...

My mom says I was quite the escape artist. Most of it was the issue of me being smarter than the device used to contain me. I would NOT stay in my carseat because I found it insaney incomfortable (I felt like I was being smothered and sufocated). They didn't have "kid leashes" when I was little. When they finnaly came out with the ones that go around the child's wrist, I was too old for them. My mom says I probably would have figured it out tied it to a tree when she wasn't looking. The new harness stuffed animal ones they have out today are a joke, the closure clip is in the frount. I would have looked at that and undid it just as fast as my mom put it on me.

My son was just 3 yrs old when we moved out of the country. Our two story house had 5 double doors and 2 regular doors just downstairs...We would let him play in his room upstairs, while we watched TV or worked in the adjacent room...ie. his room, a bathroom and adjacent room...so we could see him from where we were. In a matter of seconds, both husband and I got distracted helping each other with some work stuff...all of a sudden our son comes up to us with a "popcicle"...we just said, ok, you got it yourself...then we realized, WE HAD NONE IN THE HOUSE! We ran downstairs and realized he had managed to get the keys of one of the double doors by moving a dining table close to the door and getting the key from the top of the door! He had gotten out, knocked on our neighbor's door and asked for a popcicle! hmmm...we had not known our neighbors very long, so we didn't have each other's phone numbers...but we did talk and they always gave him popcicles...hmmm...

At that point, we put alarms on ALL OUR DOORS...

My mom says I was quite the escape artist. Most of it was the issue of me being smarter than the device used to contain me. I would NOT stay in my carseat because I found it insaney incomfortable (I felt like I was being smothered and sufocated). It was an older one that had a bar that went over my head and my hands sat on top of it. It was simmaliar to this one. I would scream, cry and bang the bar as hard as I could until we reached the destintion or until slipped under the bar and my mom found me and put me back. I felt like I was being smothered. They didn't have "kid leashes" when I was little. When they finnaly came out with the ones that go around the child's wrist, I was too old for them. My mom says I probably would have figured it out tied it to a tree when she wasn't looking. The new harness stuffed animal ones they have out today are a joke, the closure clip is in the frount. I would have looked at that and undid it just as fast as my mom put it on me

Well, this thread made me laugh and cry. What a time you must have all had and yes, I can totally see how he did it. But as a parent, you don't know until, well, they do it. My son did some of this sort of thing, but my nephew is even better at it. And, as I probe my memory, I think my brother was an escape artist, too. Spatial know-how matters (my brother is now in the building industry), but their persistence even more so. Maybe you can channel that persistence into some engaging physical activity so that his 'off' switch turns on more willingly for a nap, because from what I can tell it doesn't seem to go away! And, the spatial skills will help him with complicated building toys later on. Good luck! And yes, I think you will laugh one day