I feel like this could be an attention problem. 8 is too many kids not to have serious help keeping a family running.

Also it sounds a bit like idiocracy if they can’t learn to fucking stay near an adult.

My son was shy, but he hid from us a coupon times. But he was taught from as soon as he could understand that wandering from mom and dad (or uncles or grandparents) was a bad idea. But he’s also an only child and has said some pretty weirdly mature things. He scolds me for putting marker caps in my mouth and makes sure I have all relevant PPE when we’re working in the shop for instance, and he’s been doing it since he was 4-5.