LO (26 months) has started running from us on occasion. Prior to today, she had never done it in a way that put her in danger but I us ally always grab her firmly and make her look me in eye and tell her that she should never run from mommy or daddy because it's dangerous and she could get hurt. At the library today she took off running across the parking lot and a car (that didn't even come close to hitting her, but still) had to stop because she was in the way and not listening to me.

She's not been listening to me a lot lately plus she could have been so easily hurt if that driver wasn't paying attention so I was pretty riled up when I finally got her. I swatted her a few times (over the diaper, no reaction) and talked with her about it like 10 times following the incident. Nearly crying the first few times. She really scared me but I also don't know how to handle this if it comes up again. How do you handle it when your LO just will not listen? What do you do when it puts them in danger?