This is an ABC podcast.

Just a quick warning, this episode deals with descriptions of trauma and abuse.

Take care while listening.

When Michael Baldwin was five years old, he told his mother he wanted to run away from home.

And in typical, completely misattuned fashion, my mother got out my suitcase and started

packing my clothes in my suitcase.

And at this point, I'm now getting more and more panicked, thinking, oh, my God, you know,

what's going on here?

And starting to have a real sort of panic attack and meltdown and the tears are flowing.

And I'm begging her to not keep packing my suitcase and say, oh, no, no, you're, you're running away.

You're leaving the house, then grabbing my hand and a briefcase to the other hand and going down to the front door, opening the front door.

Now my older sister is there and she's in tears saying,

no, your brother's running away.

So it's this, like, unbelievable case of being so misattuned

with your own children.

Like any normal parent, I would think, would say, well, what's wrong?

What's bothering?

Why are you unhappy?

Tell me what's going on?

Just the opposite.

It was calling the bluff of a kindergarten-age child.

This memory, Michael says, pretty much sums up his childhood.

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