# Scary, "OMG I can't BELIEVE they did THAT!" parenting moments



## Mama Poot (Jun 12, 2006)

During our move a few weeks ago, we had our first big one. During all the commotion and hubbub, every exterior door to the house was left standing wide open. I needed to change the baby. DH and my Grandpa had left with a truckload of stuff, so it was just me and my dad. Well, a few minutes goes by and I say "Where are the boys?" We search the house, and the backyard. Not there. My dad runs to the street, and finds my 26 month old and my 3yo walking down the sidewalk, holding hands.
























They made it just past the neighbor's house.

I just about died. (And boy am I glad to have a totally fenced backyard now.)


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## jjawm (Jun 17, 2007)

We had just brought dd home from the hosptial, so she was probably at most 5 days old. We were eating at some fast food resturant, and I get up to go to the bathroom after I've eaten, leaving dh with the baby.

He meets me at the exit. But he completely forgot about the baby! She was sleeping in the booth.


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## Baby Makes 4 (Feb 18, 2005)

The other day I removed the lock on my 3 year old's window so I could open it up and get some fresh air into his bedroom. He was watching Super Why in the living room at the time so it seemed safe.

A little while later I hear him yelling hello to the neighbours and go into his room to find him kneeling on his windowsill and leaning out of his wide-open window 15 feet above our cement driveway. I almost had a heart attack, I had forgotten all about the open window.


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## limabean (Aug 31, 2005)

A couple of weeks ago I put the kids in their carseats and was doing almost 70 on the freeway when my DS said, "Mom, I'm not buckled in."







I had opened his door to let him climb into his seat, gone around to the other side to put DD in, and then just gotten in my seat without buckling DS in!!


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## samanthamommaof3 (Sep 9, 2008)

when i was like 7 my mom pulled up in the car to one of those po drop boxes ( the big blue ones lol) and it was kinda on a hill, so anyhow when she pulled up she stuck the letter out of the window and somehow the wind caught it lol. well she had had the door partway open anyhow so she just jumped outa the car and grabbed the letter really quick... we started rolling. ( before you freak out it was only a few feet.)  she jumped into the car as fast as she could and slammed on the break. my two year old lil brother was like mommy we drive!!!!!!!! lol. its not as funny now i think about it but its a wth? kinda moment lmbo.


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## Fuamami (Mar 16, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *limabean* 
A couple of weeks ago I put the kids in their carseats and was doing almost 70 on the freeway when my DS said, "Mom, I'm not buckled in."







I had opened his door to let him climb into his seat, gone around to the other side to put DD in, and then just gotten in my seat without buckling DS in!!

I've done that. Even worse, I've driven around all over the place, only to find upon our return home that someone had unbuckled the carseat. So my ds was buckled in, but the carseat was just loose in the back.

But the worst was when I didn't tie the gate up tight enough and found my ds standing behind my horse playing with her tail. She's very gentle (obviously), but he was so little at the time I doubt she even knew he was there.


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## amis2girls (Mar 2, 2005)

using the bread knife to help herself to a piece of banana bread.

I have a piece while she's napping and forget to put the pan away.


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## LynnS6 (Mar 30, 2005)

Dd learned to ride her two-wheel bike this summer (no training wheels). We live on a hill, that ends in a T intersection.

About a week after she learned to ride (and about a week before she really learned to use the BRAKES) I'm down at the bottom of the hill, watching ds learn to roller skate. I look up and dd is barreling down the hill, full speed. AND she has her feet off the pedals (i.e. brakes) and up and resting on the crossbar of the bike.










I yelled STOP so loudly that ALL 8 kids playing on the street and a few adults froze in their tracks.


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## LynnS6 (Mar 30, 2005)

Upon reflection, so far my kids' escapades don't hold a candle to what some of my siblings did:

My 3 sisters (all born within 4 years) used to get up, put on their outdoor clothes and go WANDER the neighborhood when they were about 3, 4 1/2 and 6.

My brother, when he was 12, got together with a friend of his. The friend stole his mom's car keys, and the 2 kids would DRIVE his mom's car to deliver their morning paper route. Two 12 year old boys, driving around at 5:30 am. ACK!


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## Dandelionkid (Mar 6, 2007)

I left my 2-3 months DS in his carseat in 34 celsius weather, windows up, no thought in my head at all about him. I just got his sister out of the car and was heading into the church for a function when a friend said "oh look how cute he is!" He could have had heat stroke/died in minutes.

Another time DD runs to me saying DS was on the stove (now 2) turning the dials as he was standing/sitting on the burners!! AWFUL....

Do I dare submit this?


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## crittersmom (Mar 24, 2005)

I was stringing Christmas lights last year on the outside and I heard the front gate open and shut and when I wnet and checked I didn't see anyone so I went inside calling for the middle two critters.I couldn't find them.I looked upstairs and then came back down and went out front twice, still couldn't find them.I finally went down the street a little ways and saw a lady who had gotten out of her car trying to herd them in my direction.They were still in diapers because they were supposed to be sleeping.They were giggling away holding hands.
It seems that I always forget to finish buckling in somebody since they demanded to buckle thier own top buckle.I need a stickie note on the dash.
My youngest always seems to be heading toward some kind of disaster or another and he has sampled several kinds of poo so we can never go coverless here.


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## Aubergine68 (Jan 25, 2008)

My daughter was five, my son was about 12 hours old. We got ourselves out of the hospital where he was born and stopped for post-partum stuff for me on the way home.

It was February and cold, so DS was in an adorable, and very well padded, baby snowsuit. Dh insisted on carrying him into the house, telling me to sit down and get comfortable as he unloaded the rest of the stuff. I did but then went into the kitchen and saw he had put the baby on the kitchen table along with the other couple of bags he had in his hand. He was right there, and I remember thinking "OK this seems a little cavalier, but it is his baby, too, and I am not going to start a fight over this 5 seconds after we bring DS home. Ds is asleep, he is not going to roll anywhere in that bunting, he is in the middle of the table...."

I went in the other room, sat down, and then my new mom instincts kicked in and I went back into the kitchen to get the baby. Baby was gone!!!







DH didn't know where he was!!!!









Minute of panic searching, and then we found that DD had her newborn brother in her room. She'd scooped him up off the table and carried him off to her room to play Barbies with her....







: (I can laugh about it now) It was the start of a great relationship between them, anyway!

Thank God he was so well padded in that bunting!


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## hollytheteacher (Mar 10, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Aubergine68* 
My daughter was five, my son was about 12 hours old. We got ourselves out of the hospital where he was born and stopped for post-partum stuff for me on the way home.

It was February and cold, so DS was in an adorable, and very well padded, baby snowsuit. Dh insisted on carrying him into the house, telling me to sit down and get comfortable as he unloaded the rest of the stuff. I did but then went into the kitchen and saw he had put the baby on the kitchen table along with the other couple of bags he had in his hand. He was right there, and I remember thinking "OK this seems a little cavalier, but it is his baby, too, and I am not going to start a fight over this 5 seconds after we bring DS home. Ds is asleep, he is not going to roll anywhere in that bunting, he is in the middle of the table...."

I went in the other room, sat down, and then my new mom instincts kicked in and I went back into the kitchen to get the baby. Baby was gone!!!







DH didn't know where he was!!!!









Minute of panic searching, and then we found that DD had her newborn brother in her room. She'd scooped him up off the table and carried him off to her room to play Barbies with her....







: (I can laugh about it now) It was the start of a great relationship between them, anyway!

Thank God he was so well padded in that bunting!

omg just reading that gave me a heart attack!!! but a cute story for when they're older


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## GuildJenn (Jan 10, 2007)

I did the car seat straps forget when my son was about 9 months old.

But the scariest moment I've had so far was that when he was about 18 months old I went to the bathroom and he wandered out into the living room and I thought, ok. When I came out he was on top of the upright piano - he had climbed from the couch to the bench onto the keys, put his foot on the side I guess, and then got up on top. He was overjoyed he could reach the ceiling...

!!


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## floiejo2 (Mar 31, 2008)

I've also done the forgot to buckle dd1. My daughters luckily haven't done anything too bad yet, dd1 did cut her own hair with a pair of safety scissors right after playgroup a couple months ago. But the ultimate scare, my friends dd(4) almost hung herself, literally. Her and her little brother were playing superheros and somehow she got up on the windowsill and tied a silky curtain around her neck and jumped off to "fly" and she could have hung. She wasn't heavy enough to pull the curtain rod down and just stuck there. OMG!! As you can imagine, her mom almost had a heart attack and was so upset for weeks after. Still gives me goosebumps!


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## Gracefruit (Aug 6, 2008)

I've also forgotten to buckle my daughter on one occasion. We were driving down a particularly nasty stretch of highway when all of a sudden something that felt like a little hand touched my shoulder, followed by the rest of a little person jumping on me in the front seat. My husband pulled over to the shoulder ASAP and I buckled her back in immediately. We both felt awful about this!


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## Jannah6 (Aug 29, 2007)

DH has forgotten to buckle too.

We lived in NJ for a while, nice little brick house with finished basement. One day our DC ages 2 & 3 went down to the basement to play in the playroom. DH and I were upstairs with the door open getting some nice Spring air. I heard some children outside and thought this is nice, the first time I've heard children playing outside since we moved here. Well I go to look outside and 3 yr old DD is calling to 2 yr old DS. They went through the garage and through the backyard and were on their way down the street


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## RiverMamma (Jul 21, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *LynnS6* 
My 3 sisters (all born within 4 years) used to get up, put on their outdoor clothes and go WANDER the neighborhood when they were about 3, 4 1/2 and 6.

My brother, when he was 12, got together with a friend of his. The friend stole his mom's car keys, and the 2 kids would DRIVE his mom's car to deliver their morning paper route. Two 12 year old boys, driving around at 5:30 am. ACK!

We lived on a Ranch in MT when I was little. One day my brother, cousins & I (ages 3-8) all decided to go on a Wizard of OZ journy! We made it three miles, almost all the way to the highway before a family friend comming to visit picked us up & took us home. Boy did we get in trouble for that!

I live next door to a 12yo who takes her mom's keys & goes joyriding with her friends all the time! Yeah, it scares me.


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## RiverMamma (Jul 21, 2008)

DH has a _really_ bad habit of not picking up his broken guitar strings, & the music room is DD's play room. More than once I have caught her picking up one of the pokey little broken ball ends! Scarry!!!

Oh, & the other day I saw something stuck to her face, turned out to be a goat head! (_Nast,_ pokey seed pod/burr kinda things that hurt like heck to step on!)


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## luckygreen713 (Apr 9, 2008)

When my first child was a few days old, I thought I would try to get things back to normal around the house and do some laundry. I put my dd in a bouncy seat which was on the dining room table. It was the kind that adjusts so you can lay it back for a newborn, kind of like the papasan bouncy seat from fisher price. I didn't think to buckle her in. I went to the basement to throw the clothes in the washer, being gone about a minute. When I came back up to the dining room, dd had scooted down in the seat and her legs were dangling over the edge of the table. One more little, tiny movement and she would have fallen on the floor, from the height of a nromal dining table. I grabbed her just before she fell. I felt soooooo horrible. I almost threw up thinking of what could have happened. After that we only used the bouncy seat on the floor and she was always buckled in.
I also forgot to buckle her in to her carseat once. I drove 20 miles down the highway and didn't even know it. My mom discovered it when i got to her house and she came out to help me out of the car with kids and our stuff. She yelled " Oh my God- you didn't buckle Ava in?!?!? I was so upset with myself!


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## Jade2561 (Jun 12, 2005)

We had unlatched the booster seat from a chair at the table so we could accompany my sister who was having dinner with us. When we put it back we forgot to latch the booster back on the chair. Yesterday as my 2 year old stood up to get out of her chair and the boosterseat toppled over and she fell onto the wood floor on her head. Thankfully the chair is low to the ground and she has a really hard head. I felt like the worst mom ever.


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## ShwarmaQueen (Mar 28, 2008)

I've done the carseat thing too and also forgot to put the seatbelt through the back of the carseat after a car change. OOPS!

We went a state park when DD was about 1.5yo. We were parked, gathering our lunch from the back of the car- totally distracted, when we suddenly realized she wasnt next to the car. And then we saw her - STANDING AT THE TOP OF A 15 FT METAL SLIDE! DH took off running but couldn't make it to her in time, she just sat down and just slid down on her butt and then made a very rough landing in the sand below. Thank god she wasnt injured- but then we had to fight her not to go back up there again! Lol.







It was terrifying!


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## frontierpsych (Jun 11, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Dandelionkid* 
Another time DD runs to me saying DS was on the stove (now 2) turning the dials as he was standing/sitting on the burners!! AWFUL....

Yikes! That would have spelled disaster at my house, since we have a gas stove. (actually, a 2 year old probably wouldn't know how to start a gas stove unless someone showed them... remind me to make it a point NOT to teach my son how to use the stove, lol!"


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## frontierpsych (Jun 11, 2006)

I haven't had any yet, but my DS is just under a month old. I can't wait, I already feel like mom of the year when I leave him in a wet or dirty dipe too long (he doesn't seem to mind it and won't fuss about his diaper, lol!)


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## Caneel (Jun 13, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *LynnS6* 
My brother, when he was 12, got together with a friend of his. The friend stole his mom's car keys, and the 2 kids would DRIVE his mom's car to deliver their morning paper route. Two 12 year old boys, driving around at 5:30 am. ACK!

We did this ALL.THE.TIME. My best friend's mom and dad would go to their hunting camp and leave us alone at home overnight. (and no, 12 year old girls home alone overnight was not unusual where I grew up)

Her mom had a big old buick and we hauled butt around until all hours of the night. During the day too sometimes.

We would drive around for hours then refill the gas from her grandpa's on-site farm fuel tank - driving without a license, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and theft of gas all in an average evening!

While still in his bucket carseat, I drove DS home from daycare unbuckled.

When DS was just three or so weeks old, my mom was at the house and encouraged DH and I to take a walk. When we returned, DS was on the back porch, alone, and my mom is no where to be found.

We live in a small town but still a town with traffic and passerbys on foot.

My mom had gone into the house to get some tea and, by her own admission, "sort of forgot DS was outside." We are talking 5 minutes or so.

DH flipped. Once the whole scene calmed down, we could all say we weren't totally used to having DS with us just yet. No one has forgotten about him since.


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## frontierpsych (Jun 11, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ShwarmaQueen* 
We went a state park when DD was about 1.5yo. We were parked, gathering our lunch from the back of the car- totally distracted, when we suddenly realized she wasnt next to the car. And then we saw her - STANDING AT THE TOP OF A 15 FT METAL SLIDE! DH took off running but couldn't make it to her in time, she just sat down and just slid down on her butt and then made a very rough landing in the sand below. Thank god she wasnt injured- but then we had to fight her not to go back up there again! Lol.







It was terrifying!

That was me as a kid! I was the monkey of the family. My parents learned pretty quick not to worry too much. I climbed all over everything, trees and rooftops and whatnot, all before so much as starting kindergarten, and was never seriously injured. (I did get stuck in a tree once though, and the fire department had to come get me down!)


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## Livviesmom0207 (Mar 21, 2007)

DD's carseat is in the middle of my Saturn Vue's back seat. I'm only 5'3" so if I have any kind of injury I have a hard time. DH is 6'4" so I usually have him buckle her in if we're together.

About 6 months or so ago, I tried to buckle her in but I had AF and was crampy. I couldn't do it, so I turned and asked DH to buckle her....and I moved to let him in. He wasn't paying attention and in that second she fell FORWARD OUT OF THE seat and smashed her face on the center console!

I fel like the the worst mom EVER. She had a little bump on her eyebrow but was fortunately, fine.


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## Phoenix~Mama (Dec 24, 2007)

Two really really scary moments that made my heart nearly stop...

When DH and first started dating, we had taken a trip with DSD to visit a friend of mine... we hadn't thought to set the child safety lock on my doors yet, as his daughter has never really messed with the doors, and this wasn't the first time we had taken my car, and we just did not think of it I guess.









So we are driving down the highway and suddenly feel more wind than usual. DH quickly pulled over, DSD is laughing away! Needless to say, the car doors have been safety locked ever since, and whenever we switch to a different vehicle, like sometimes we go in my Mom's SUV places, we make sure to lock her's too. lol

The next time, was a Saturday my DH was working and we were still living with his Mom, as far as I knew his Mom was still downstairs, so I quick went upstairs to brush my teeth...

Well apparently she had left, and DSD decided to follow her outside and got stuck out on the porch because she couldn't open the other door to the outside, and can never manage to open doors to come back in... she can get out fine, but not back in for some reason...

So I came down panicked when I saw she wasn't playing in the living room anymore, and it had only been maybe 3 minutes tops... I see her on the other side of the glass crying and freakin out. I scoop her up and she was fine then... but my goodness! I suppose it's a good thing she isn't so good with doors and didn't get outside at least!


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## ChetMC (Aug 27, 2005)

Middle DD went to the park by herself when she was around 20 months old. It wasn't very far though. The only really scary part was that she crossed a city street alone.

Middle DD also fell into a big plastic bucket with a few inches of water in the bottom when she was around the same age. It was EXACTLY how they describe kids drowning in buckets, except her face wasn't actually submerged. She was stuck though.

Friends of DH's made mustard gas when they were kids. It killed all the crickets in the spot in the woods where they did t.

The father of a friend of mine came from a big family. One of the kids got left behind on a road trip. All of the other kids knew he was missing, but they didn't say anything. They were over an hour away before the parents figured it out.

Another friend grew up on a farm. Her dad took the youngest sibling with him when he went to feed the cows and forgot her in a field sitting a hay bail for several HOURS. She was lucky the cows weren't hungry and didn't eat in as far as where she was sitting.


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## kirstenb (Oct 4, 2007)

I'm another one who once forgot to bucket DS in his infant carseat... we realized it about 10 miles down the freeway.

I also didn't realize DS knew how to open our oven door until he recently opened it WHEN I WAS BAKING SOMETHING! I don't even want to think about how much he could have gotten hurt.


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## mytwogirls (Jan 3, 2008)

We have a sliding glass door without a deck right now (will build it in the spring) and I was changing the water in our 500 gallon fish tank and pregnant with baby #2 and had to have the door open to pump out the water. My girl was in the living room. I turned around for a minute then came back into the room and could not find her. I looked out the sliding glass window and she had jumped out the window (a LONG fall!) and was in her diaper only (it was January!) and was heading down the hill in the snow toward the county road. Thank god we live in the country otherwise I am sure someone would have called CPS on me. I as so panicked I jumped out the window too (DUH! I could have hurt myself and the baby!) and ran after her. NEVER EVER have I opened that door without someone else standing there. We have also childproofed the lock. But, for a moment, I tasted my heart in my mouth I was so scared. (Oh and she was not hurt by the fall, the snow cushioned her fall, but she was very cold though!)


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## H & J's Mom (Jun 1, 2008)

I think I can probably relate to about half of these posts so far with my kids.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Caneel* 
We did this ALL.THE.TIME. My best friend's mom and dad would go to their hunting camp and leave us alone at home overnight. (and no, 12 year old girls home alone overnight was not unusual where I grew up)

Her mom had a big old buick and we hauled butt around until all hours of the night. During the day too sometimes.

We would drive around for hours then refill the gas from her grandpa's on-site farm fuel tank - driving without a license, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and theft of gas all in an average evening!

Ahhh, fond memories







My parents used to leave us home alone for over a month in the Summers while they did their across Canada visiting trip each year. My brother, the oldest (and least responsible) of the three of us might have been 16 or so when they first started (that means the youngest of us was 12 or so).

They used to give us the truck keys and an axe and we'd drive down the highway to a back road to cut down our own Christmas tree. I think my brother may have been 9-10 when we started that. We'd drive in the back of a pick up truck for 2 hours on the open 100 series highway to our cottage on a regular basis. No one even considered buckling seatbelts, they never knew where we were until lunch, supper, and bedtime when they stood on the doorstep and yelled for us to come home &#8230; I could go on ...


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## junie (Jan 9, 2007)

Hmm, reading all of these stories makes me feel brave enough to post my own







.

When dd was 9 months old, I took her to visit my grandmother. She needed a nap, so I laid her down on my grandmother's bed, put pillows around her, and figured she'd be okay. I'd been doing this for awhile and she had never rolled off before (she was a VERY late crawler).

Anyway, about half an hour later, I heard some noise like someone stirring. My grandmother lives in an apartment, so foolishly I figured it was another tenant, since I was SURE my dd would cry if she woke up in a strange place without me there







. About a minute later I heard THUD, and then dd crying







. I felt soooooo horrible. To make matters worse, my aunt was also there and decided that it would be a good idea to tell me the story of someone she knew who left their baby on a dining room table and the baby fell and died from the fall, like I needed to hear that. I felt horrible enough as it was, and was almost crying.

Another time, when dd was only about 2 months old, I was laying down on the couch, nursing her, and asked my dh to bring me some hot soup. Well, you can probably guess what happened . . . the soup spilled. Poor dd. She barely cried at all, but I felt horrible.

Yet another time, when dd was 3, she'd received nail polish for her birthday, which is the day before Halloween. The next day, as the trick or treaters were coming to the door, she decided she wanted to put some on, something I didn't realize because I was busy at the door and dh was painting dd's bedroom. Anyway, she spilled it on herself. That wasn't so bad, but rather than take her with me to clean her up, I left her where she was to get a cloth so she wouldn't spill even more when she stood up. In that short amount of time, she touched the nail polish, then rubbed her eyes. She didn't get any in her eyes, but she did have a cut on her eyelid that she'd gotten from a friend of hers the day before. It got in the cut, which hurt a lot. What was worse, we couldn't be sure that some nail polish hadn't gotten into her eye. So I called 911 to ask them what the emergency treatment was. We had to hold her head under a running tap for 15 minutes!! And I was 7 months pregnant at the time. It was quite traumatic for her, and even with both dh and I holding her down, we still couldn't really do it, so eventually we took her to ER.

Telling all of these stories makes me feel like a horrible mother







. Oh well, at least I've learned. They always find something else to surprise you with , though . . .


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## siobhang (Oct 23, 2005)

when ds1 was around 2 years old, he:

* found some empty boxes for recycling and piled them on top of each other
* climbed onto the kitchen counter to grab my car keys
* opened the back door (which I didn't know he could do) and went out to the car port.
* opened my car door (which I also didn't know he could do - my car has a remote keyless entry)
* climbed into the driver's seat
* inserted the key into the ignition.

he was trying to turn the key when I found him. I had been in the bathroom and had been gone for all of 5 minutes.

Thank god it was a stick shift and he could not turn on the engine. We also always use the parking brake for that reason.

At a party, ds2, then 18 months old, took advantage of all the chaos to escape out the front door - our neighbor had to come and tell us that he was running up and down the sidewalk. I am sure you can imagine the argument with DH - "I thought YOU were watching him!" "But YOU were watching him!"

Recently, the boys, my aunt and i were at a local mall. DS1 - age 4 1/2 at the time - was pushing the stroller, and ds2 - age 2 1/2 - was walking with me as we entered a two story shop that the boys love (they have fish and a waterfall). DS1 was only ahead of us by about 5 seconds but by the time we got into the store, he was gone. Just gone, nowhere to be found. I figured he'd gone downstairs - nope. We looked everywhere, but since he is short and the clothing racks are high, it was impossible to really see him.

After a good ten minutes of looking (and with ds2 being a huge PITA), I finally gave up and told an employee of the store, who promptly called a Code Adam.

I knew that he hadn't been taken. But I also knew that I could not find him, and that he could get hurt - wandering outside to the parking lot, going into a back room, wandering around the mall by himself, etc. And I knew that I could not find him by myself.

They found him in under 3 minutes (a kid in a bright orange shirt pushing a stroller is a pretty easy thing to find if you have eyes all over the store). When we were reunited, I burst into tears and just sobbed for a good few minutes.

And then I was MAD. That kid was strapped into the stroller for a good hour afterwards...

The nice thing was that as we were leaving, a woman approached me, saying "was it your little boy who was lost? And you found him? You must be so relieved! They half kill ya, don't they?"

That made me feel a lot better...


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## Melly24 (Mar 30, 2008)

When DD was 8 weeks old I went traipsing around the neighbourhood for a good 15 minutes looking for the neighbours lost cat while she was at home asleep - ALONE! I had plain forgotten I had her...man I felt bad.

When my little brother was 3 or so he told my mum that he had a sore toe. My mums response to him was "better chop it off then.." (this is always her response for when we hurt ourselves). A few minutes later she realised that he was very quiet and she went into the kitchen to discover him trying to cut his toe off with a bread knife....(thankkfully very blunt...)

I have locked DD in the car with my car keys...rang DP to see if he could help as DD was FREAKING out, and next thing I know the local firetruck turned up, sirens and lights going, fully loaded up with suited firemen to bust her out...DP had phoned his dad (who is a fireman)..I was so thankful that they were there to help but I was so embarrassed!! This happened in a busy mall carpark and they blocked the entrance so noone could get in or leave...sheesh!!


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## 5gifts (Nov 16, 2005)

I have quite a few of theese...and I have been reminded of many more as I read this thread.

Of things the kids did:

DS1 dared DS2 to touch the screw in the uncovered light switch (DH had been painting)....with his toungue!! It tripped the fuse & the lights went out!

Ds1 was 7 DD was 2....he thought I was out front and opened the door & let her out - then went back to playing on computer. (She had just been in the backyard with Dad & I had taken a break from washing dishes to pop in at a neighbors) 20-30 min later.....I come home....as Dh (who just came in from the yard) is answering the door to complete strangers holding DD!!! They had found her walking down the middle of the road, around the corner...and were going door to door until someone claimed her!!!!!!

We live in a small town now. DS2 (12) dd(10) & ds4(4.5) were eating burgers in the car. I took DS5(1.5) in the store with me to get a couple of quick things. DS1(15) walked in with me just to use the bathroom & went right back out to the car. He came back in and told me ds4 is not in the car. I said, "That's not funny!" We took off in different directions looking....I was headed for the parking lot...and saw him with a lady at customer service........appearently with all the library books we'd just got, the 2 big kids (who really are normally responsible with the 2 little ones) didn't notice him get out of his car seat, open the van door, and walk through the gas station headed for a hobby shop. (with a train table) ...I know this reflects badly on me....but really!!!! They are pretty mature & should have noticed!

The most scared for his life I've been:
DS2 was 4yo, trotting to the edge of our pool & trying to do a connon ball. But he was slow & uncoordinated. He would start his jump too far from the edge & slowly lean back as he brought his knees up. I told him to stop. He could only jump straight forward - no cannonball - his head was coming too close to the wall. He did what I asked a few times....then as I was talking to DH - fear crossed his face....I turned just in time to see him going in - the back of his skull seemed to barely miss the edge. Then he came up screaming and bleeding!!!!!!! He was missing a hunk of skin & hair - but an inch closer would have taken off the back of his skull!!!!!!!

When DS5 was 1 week old, we were at a big Easter egg hunt & picnic at a local park......hundreds of people. I was so used to having DS4 on my hip ALL. THE. TIME. and keeping my eyes on the 3 bigger ones.....well, now that I had the new baby in the sling, I was setting DS4 down on his own feet....we had just gotten our hotdogs & drinks...navigated the crowd & found a spot to sit on the grass. I was sitting there, with my Mom, eating & looking around at the kids....and it took me a few minutes to realize something wasn't quite right. I counted the kids 1. 2. 3. 4....but I have 5 kids now?! I actually looked them over & counted them again 3 more times - making sure I counted the one in the sling - and I couldn't figure out who was missing until I ran through their names!!!!! The almost 3yo was missing! He was at another picnic blanket out of sight, visiting with a little girl!

Ds5 is only 3yo, but he has done so many insane and/or dangerous things around the house - in the kitchen especially - I just can't list them. He is so physically able...I just can't watch him...but he never gets hurt - though he has broken alot of things, & made BIG messes...he gets a real kick out of it!

DD was 6yo, we were in the toy section. She was with her brothers, and I looked at something in the next isle - looked back & she was gone! We looked all through toy section - several times - sure she must be there. She wouldn'tjust take off. Looked around some more, then went to the front (if we ever get seperated, my kids head to the cashiers to wait for me) Finally, my name was called to come to crafts. We had been there before the toys, and for some reason she thought I was still there while they went to the toys. She came looking for me to tell me something, didn't find me & went up to the lady at the craft counter....but got very interested in what she was working on.....so DD starts talking to the lady &asking questions & they just talk & talk!! The lady assumes that Mom is in that section, until finally dd pipes up with "Oh, yeah! I don't know where my mom is. Could you call her?"
After they've been chatting for 20min! The lady commented on how confident & sure of herself she was!

Oh! Which reminds me of when she was barely 4yo & I had a brand new baby. We were at a water park; Dh had taken ds1 to a big slide, while I watched her & the almost 6yo at a little kiddie splash area. I was nursing the baby & watching them. There was a big structure in the middle, so at times would go out of site as they ran around. I hadn't seen dd come back around at one point, but I couldn't get right up to look. By the time I was about to get up, dh was back & I told him to look around the other side. We found her just off from the kiddie area, where you get a mat, and climb up a long metal staircase to a platform with 3 slides to choose from. She was sliding over & over again - loving it! There was a lifeguard there to stop little kids that didn't meet the height limit (I don't think dd was tall enough) but she was sooo confident & sure of what she was doing the guy thought she must already been given the 'go ahead'. None of us had gone over to that yet - so its not like she saw the 9yo do it first...and the 6yo was terrified of it!!!

Of stuff I've done:

I almost always have 7-8 kids with me in the summer. I've left kids behind places like bibleschool & gymnastics!

I've locked the doors & gone to bed...not realizing a kid is still at a neighbors house.

The other morning....at around 10 - I realized I hadn't seen DD - and she wasn't here? I couldn't remember for the life of me where she was! (spent the night at a friend's)

The kids were all watching a tree get cut down & the guy commented on how many kids I had - asked if I fostered. I told him they were all mine....after he left & I was actually feeding them, I realized I has 3 extra & hadn't even noticed!! I guess my kids snuck them in!

I felt horrible once, when I had tipped forward the captain seat behind the driver & not got it latched back in properly. Later, The baby was in the car seat in that seat, and as backed down our long driveway....bumped over the end onto the road & shifted into drive....the whole seat slammed forward into the back of mine







carseat & all!! Poor baby, but he wasn't hurt. Well, he must have been almost 2 already, because he was facing forward.

Oh...I can think of more...but I'll quit! But there was another REALLY scary one. When DD was 4, playing with Dad...he thought she had gone to me in my bedroom. She had made a detour out to the van in the driveway (normally it was in the garage with sidedoors open) to get a toy. She couldn't get herself out. Dh found her very hot & drowsy. This was in FL in May....we were very lucky it was a VERY overcast day. That was scary.

These sound bad grouped together - but these are all over 16 years - lots happens!


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## MCatLvrMom2A&X (Nov 18, 2004)

I dont feel so bad about the little mishaps around here now


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## Aliviasmom (Jul 24, 2006)

How about the half a dozen times when dd was a baby that I took her out of her carseat in a restaurant, put her back in, and didn't realize til I got home that I never buckled her back in!!!


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## sarafi (Feb 10, 2008)

Is it wrong that so many of these are making me laugh? Maybe just b/c they have all ended well?

I have a few:

When we first moved to Japan we had to make daily trips to the housing office which was in a very old building. About a month of daily trips later I was rather tired of this and wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been helping my 20-month-old off the old, tiny elevator. She was taking her sweet time about it and the elevator started to close and I had to throw myself back into the elevator to prevent it from slamming closed on her (this had happened to me a few time and it really hurts). She was fine, but when the elevator doors opened up again one of her hands got sucked into the wall with the doors!!! Luckily someone else was on the elevator and thought to push the closed button so her hand could come out b/c I really just wanted to rip her hand out of the door myself and I am sure that would have been worse.
We stopped by the doctors and had her checked, she was fine so on the way home I promised she could go down the "big slide" by our hotel. Sadly it started to rain, but I was determined to keep my promise and crawled up the all metal slide with her and decided to give her a little push so that she would not get stuck in the middle of the slide before I could get down to catch her. Yeah, she flew down the slide and hit her head pretty hard on the bottom. I had one of our neighbors (who happened to be a doctor) check her for the second time that day and she was fine.

Just a few weeks ago, I kept my 2 1/2 year old home from school so he could play and nap while I cleaned the house. He went downstairs to play with toys and about five minutes later I thought I heard glass breaking. We live in a pretty busy area and you can hear all of the neighbors all of the time, so I didn't really think anything of it, but I decided to go downstairs to check on him anyway. I found him in the kitchen. He had gotten into my cupboard, found my candy thermometer and broke it by hitting it lightly in a nice circular pattern all around his body! When I asked what he was doing his response was "my ok". Nice


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## Miss 1928 (Nov 12, 2007)

sarafi said:


> Is it wrong that so many of these are making me laugh? Maybe just b/c they have all ended well?
> 
> Yeah... me too.
> 
> ...


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## abomgardner417 (Jun 19, 2007)

Before my twins could walk I had no way to get them both from the truck to the house - a 50-60 foot walk - except a wagon. Coming home one summer evening when they were 16 mo, I got B out of the truck and put him in the wagon and started walking around the back to get E out. I had no sooner opened E's door when I heard B just shrieking and screaming - something I never hope I hear again. I turned around and his little 16 mo pudgy baby hand was stuck between the top of the side of the wagon and the bottom of the hot greasy tail pipe.







I hadn't realized that I had cut the corner too close and the truck was so high and the wagon so low that it had actually gone part way under the truck and baby B was sitting backwards in the wagon and didn't even see what was going on.
Blood just started pouring out and not fully realizing what was going on I pushed the wagon backward when I should have pushed the wagon down and away. I ended up slicing one of his fingers even worse, but I didn't realize all this until later.







I yanked the bib from around his neck and wrapped his fingers in it and the poor little guy is just screaming bloody murder. I couldn't run him inside because I still had E half way out of the car and didn't want leave him way out in the driveway on a busy street alone and I couldn't carry both. I didn't think it was bad enough to call 911 and my mom lives a few houses down so I called her and she came down to help. We ended up in the ER - no stitches but 3 of his poor tiny fingers were cut and had second degree burns. His little pinky nail was melted on one side







I was a mess in the ER and the doctors kept reassuring me that accidents happen, but I still don't think I've forgiven myself. I still feel so guilty everytime I look at his sweet hand and see the scars. It makes my stomach churn just to think about all this again and it's been over a year ago now! I'm gonna go squeeze him tight now!


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## HarperRose (Feb 22, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *abomgardner417* 
I turned around and his little 16 mo pudgy baby hand was stuck between the top of the side of the wagon and the bottom of the hot greasy tail pipe.









Oh, mama!! How heartbreaking!!!


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## Cujobunny (Aug 16, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *limabean* 
A couple of weeks ago I put the kids in their carseats and was doing almost 70 on the freeway when my DS said, "Mom, I'm not buckled in."







I had opened his door to let him climb into his seat, gone around to the other side to put DD in, and then just gotten in my seat without buckling DS in!!

I have done that too. TWICE!







:

ETA: I just reread the thread and noticed how many have driven around with unbuckled kids







Makes me not feel so bad, even though I remembered doing it a few more times, when ds was a baby and couldn't tell me he wasn't buckled, and at least once with dd


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## mama*pisces (Feb 17, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Fuamami* 
I've done that. Even worse, I've driven around all over the place, only to find upon our return home that someone had unbuckled the carseat. So my ds was buckled in, but the carseat was just loose in the back.

But the worst was when I didn't tie the gate up tight enough and found my ds standing behind my horse playing with her tail. She's very gentle (obviously), but he was so little at the time I doubt she even knew he was there.

I did the same thing a couple of months back. I had taken the car seat out of our car and put it into our friend's car, since we were going somewhere that day. When we got back I was in a rush to put super cranky ds down for a nap, so I opened the door to the car and placed the car seat on the back seat, thinking to myself "I definitely have to buckle that in later." Weelllll....I totally forgot, and TWO days later after I had driven here and there with ds in the car, I realized that it wasn't buckled to the seat.







:


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## mama*pisces (Feb 17, 2008)

On an entirely different note, I have to relay what I witnessed at my friend's house the other day.

Ds and I were over at our neighbor's house - her ds is two weeks younger than mine. So the two kiddos are running around and her and I are talking. Suddenly I remember that ds is wearing shorts but with no diaper underneath -- she had invited us over unexpectedly after seeing us outside, and most of the time ds runs around outside with no diaper on and has rarely had an accident.







So I asked him: "Do you need to go potty?" as he is running by me, full throttle: he stops, gets a funny look on his face, and says, "Yeah" so I take him to the bathroom, help him pull his pants down, and immediately smell poop. Then I realize that yes, he had already pooped in his pants, though i didn't see much there. Oy vey. But even worse: about a minute later my friend's 2 YO steps in a pile of it in the living room.







So my friend grabs some Greased Lightning all purpose cleaner, and proceeds to wipe up the poop off the floor(which I offered to do, but she did it anyway). Then her ds starts whining b/c he got some poop on his hands, and my friend grabs a fresh paper towel, sprays it down with Greased Lightning, and wipes her son's hands down with it. I was seriously like:







and asked: "Doesn't he ever put his hands in his mouth?" she said "no" and I said, "I'd be careful with that, that stuff is toxic." I really couldn't believe she did that!

Quite a story, huh? It's amazing what can happen in the span of an hour with a diaperless two year old. lol


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## MCatLvrMom2A&X (Nov 18, 2004)

DD unbuckled ds from the seatbelt before. Once I found it I turned to latch around so that it couldnt be undone easily again.


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## Embee (May 3, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *RiverMamma* 
DH has a _really_ bad habit of not picking up his broken guitar strings, & the music room is DD's play room. More than once I have caught her picking up one of the pokey little broken ball ends! Scarry!!!

My DH too! Old guitar strings are a menace! Luckily DS has never gotten poked but the cat sure has, many times! Cat LOVES those darn things, will play with them all night until POW! right in the nose!







:

I have also gotten home to DS saying, "OH, I'm not buckled in." DOH!







He NEVER lets me forget now. NEVER! "Ah. Mom. I'm NOT buckled in." He'll say this before I even get into the darned car and have a moment to buckle him in.

The worst though was something like the OPs. Right before we moved, DS was playing with a neighbor in the yard. And while the yard was not fully fenced, both kids were six and had always observed the "we don't leave the yard without a parent" rule. I was inside packing away and checking on them every few minutes as usual. Then I went to check and nothing, nada, where are the kids? I checked the whole yard, the neighbors, it was a nightmare. I'm running about, calling. Not only MY kid, but my friend's kid. And to say this was totally OUT of DS's character to leave the yard would be a gross understatement. I was panicked. Called the neighbor girl's Dad who was actually pretty calm (CALM!?). Neighbor girl's big sister came over to help look, etc. And just as we were going to do an all out neighborhood search, here come DS and his partner in crime walking up the street. Seems they thought it would be "ok" to walk to the neighborhood pond a few blocks away. Apparently, DS's buddy being a younger sib of an child old enough to walk the neighborhood had been getting pretty brave lately and she took DS along for the ride.









All's well that ends well. We have a fully fenced yard in our new house OP. I get ya completely!







to all.

The best,
Em


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## Mommy2Haley (Oct 25, 2007)

When DD was a few months old I drove from the mall down the street to Borders. She had been sleeping in her infant seat (this is before I got into babywearing) so I snapped her into the base and off we went. I got to Borders and upon attempting to unbuckle her I found she had never been strapped in! I felt horrible ... but at least she had been sleeping









I saw a car at the mall yesterday that had a LO in an infant seat ... but the child was very obviously sitting upright and did not have shoulder straps harnessing her in. It was a Graco seat so where were the straps?


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## abomgardner417 (Jun 19, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mama*pisces* 
). Then her ds starts whining b/c he got some poop on his hands, and my friend grabs a fresh paper towel, sprays it down with Greased Lightning, and wipes her son's hands down with it. I was seriously like:







and asked: "Doesn't he ever put his hands in his mouth?" she said "no" and I said, "I'd be careful with that, that stuff is toxic." I really couldn't believe she did that!

I watched a friend of mine wipe her 2yo son's hands down with a Clorox wipe once. I just couldn't keep watching cause I didn't want to see him stick his hands in his mouth after that.


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## Jenivere (Aug 4, 2003)

I've done the car seat thing a few times. We got a good twenty miles from home once before I realized it. Another time I almost did but my son was a bit older and he got upset and let me know. More recently we went to get our toddler out of her car seat only to realize it wasn't buckled in. She climbs in on her own a lot and we figure she probably stepped on the buckle and undid it. We don't know how long it had been that way. We were in a hurry and were planning to fix it when we got back to the car but forgot. So she got buckled in that way. Two days later ( we hadn't gone anywhere in those two days) we went to get in and noticed it again. We fixed it right then and there.

As for stunts pertaining to my children and me well there are plenty. There was the time when he was 18 months and we didn't think he could reach very high. We were cooking about a tablespoon of meat to test if it was still good and he pulled the pan down on himself. There wasn't much grease thankfully but he did get two small burns. There was the time my daughter jumped off the couch and face planted giving herself a bloody nose. The time my son when he was maybe 18 months when he got outside without my realizing it and I found him some 10 or more minutes later playing next to the house in the dirt in just a diaper. We didn't know he could open the door. We put a chain lock on after that which only worked till he got a little older and learned he could use the broom to undo it. He is full of mischief. I have so many with him that I can't count and I need to get off the computer.


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## Lizzardbits (Jan 21, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *LynnS6* 
My brother, when he was 12, got together with a friend of his. The friend stole his mom's car keys, and the 2 kids would DRIVE his mom's car to deliver their morning paper route. Two 12 year old boys, driving around at 5:30 am. ACK!

On the topic of 12 year olds and driving--When I was 11-13 we lived on an acreage with a narrow 3/4 mile lane that legally the school bus could not drive on. My younger brother and I were basically latch-key kids so we walked that lane to and from the bus that cold cold wind swept first winter. My younger brother ended up getting frost nip on his ears, so my mother and dad decided that I could be taught to drive a farm vehicle for just up and down the lane. Shortly after my 12th birthday, my Dad taught me to drive an old red Ford truck, stick shift with a non-functional 4th gear, and no power steering--Uffda! That was a workout to drive! OK, so yeah, it was a bit of a necessity to have me drive at 12 and 13 especially in harsh American Midwestern winters--HOWEVER..

(fellow car safety peeps look away now) On warmer days after school, my 8-9 year old younger brother would ride in the back either standing up holding on to the stock gate (!) or on the tail gate (!) whilst I drove around in the open extremely bumpy fallow fields!!!

My eldest 2 kids are nearly that age and I absolutely cringe at the thought!

Oh, and yes, my younger brother is happily alive and kicking and razzes me about stories of the old red Ford truck.


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## ians_mommy (Apr 5, 2008)

I have to go to work, so I will have to finish reading this post later.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has posted.

I dont feel like such a horrible mother now that I know other "real" Moms make some of the same mistakes I do.

I keep telling DH that is DS lives to see 20 it will be *despite* me and not *because* of me


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## siobhang (Oct 23, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ians_mommy* 
I keep telling DH that is DS lives to see 20 it will be *despite* me and not *because* of me









I dunno - my dh likes to say "Most children below the age of 5 are on a mission to get themselves killed. It is our job to stop them."


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## uccellina (Jan 26, 2006)

As I'm reading this thread, my daughter is sitting on my lap and suddenly lunges sideways, smacking her head on the wooden armrest. I know it's no big deal, but I thought the timing was pretty awesome


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## HarperRose (Feb 22, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *uccellina* 
As I'm reading this thread, my daughter is sitting on my lap and suddenly lunges sideways, smacking her head on the wooden armrest. I know it's no big deal, but I thought the timing was pretty awesome


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## Alison's Mom (May 3, 2007)

My DD's infant car seat was unbuckled from the car for about 2 days because unknown to me, MIL, (who normally used to sit to the right of the car seat in the back, had to sit to the left because we parked too close to something on the right side to open the door wide enough for her to get in) had unbuckled the carseat while attempting to unbuckle her own seat belt.

After that I made sure that she ALWAYS sat on the right side, and also warned my BIL and SIL of the same thing.

My kiddos are still small - 2 and 3 - so I don't have any other horror stories, yet, but I'm sure I'll accumulate some in the next few years!


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## Kirstyandgirls (Nov 8, 2007)

My worst was waking up to find my then 2.5 yo happily drinking down a half full bottle of infant ibuprofen! I had left it on my bedside table after giving her a dose during the night. I still have no idea how she got past the child proof cap. She was fine but i had to suffer various lectures from hospital staff regarding the correct storage of medicines









Both my children have fallen off the bed and couch! I have driven with carseats unbuckled a few times too.

When dd2 was a newborn I popped into the chemist to get a prescription for dp. I knew I would only be gone a minute as I was just picking it up so I left both children sleeping in the back. When I got back in the car and started the engine I realised I'd left the hand brake off! and we were parked on a hill -I still shudder to imagine my car rolling backwards down the hill, towards a busy road, with my precious babies sleeping in the back









I feel awful after writing this - I will be more careful from now on

Kirsty x


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## Britishmum (Dec 25, 2001)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Kirstyandgirls* 
My worst was waking up to find my then 2.5 yo happily drinking down a half full bottle of infant ibuprofen! I had left it on my bedside table after giving her a dose during the night. I still have no idea how she got past the child proof cap. She was fine but i had to suffer various lectures from hospital staff regarding the correct storage of medicines


I had someting similar with a bottle of Hylands teething tablets. Dd was popping them like candy. Turned out they were harmless, but boy, was she wired the rest of that day. She'd climbed the baby gates and got up to get my bag to unzip the right part to get at them.

There's nothing like a determined toddler.......


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## CanidFL (Jul 30, 2007)

We had our fist WTH moment last week. We went to the pool in our complex and DS and I were in the water. He was squirming to get out so DH said he would watch him. I was swimming doing laps and DS was running along the side of the pool. I stopped in the deep end to make some faces at him and he fell head first in the water. I’m not even sure what happened it was all so fast. I dive under and he’s sinking head first to the bottom not even trying to swim or save himself. DH leaned in and grabbed his foot and pulled him out. I am still feeling sick about the whole thing and my heart starts racing every time I see the image of him sinking to the bottom.


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## Toolip (Mar 7, 2008)

My sister has always been fascinated with cars and loved to play with the steering wheel. I was 3.5ish and my sister was 18 months. We were on our way somewhere and my mom had forgotten something in the house. We were both in our car seats and she dashed back in the house. Our driveway was on a slope...
My sister unbuckled herself out of her seat, climbed up to the drivers seat, moved the shifter to neutral and the car went down the driveway, across the road, over the edge, and thankfully hit a stump that kept us from going all the way down the hill.








My mom heard the "thump" when we hit the stump. She was horrified, of course. I remember her trampling through the brambles to get to us. I was screaming, my sister was proud.


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## Toolip (Mar 7, 2008)

... I also pulled the T.V. over on myself when I was 2, and it wasn't a flat screen. My mom had to lift it off of my head and rushed me to the ER. I was fine in the end.


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## amnda527 (Aug 6, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *abomgardner417* 
I watched a friend of mine wipe her 2yo son's hands down with a Clorox wipe once. I just couldn't keep watching cause I didn't want to see him stick his hands in his mouth after that.

My in-laws use these things like wet-ones. Whenever we go out to a park to grill, they use them to wipe their hands, then immeditely sit down to eat a burger and chips. Like, don't use TASTE that?! I also found out recently that they use these to wipe down their grill at home, right before they slap the meat on to cook.







I try not to eat over there.


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## innle (Mar 16, 2007)

I had a pretty near miss when I was about two. We were living at my grandparents' house. I was bored one day, and decided that I wanted to go to the shops (about a ten minute walk away, down a very busy road) - so instead of asking someone to take me, I just walked out the front door (it was not quite closed properly; Grandpa and Dad were doing some work on the house and were going back and forth between the front yard and the back room with very heavy boxes, and so had missed the fact that the door wasn't closed properly). Apparently I got about 500 metres down the road before one of my grandparents' neighbours (who was walking home from the shops) found me and brought me back home; everyone had been absolutely frantic searching for me, and apparently Mum couldn't stop crying.

But I just wanted to go shopping!







I think Mum kept me within arms reach for months after that though, everyone was pretty scared.
(I also managed to lock myself in Dad's car when I was about 10 months old - I think I just liked to stress my parents out!)


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## east carolina (Apr 5, 2006)

When I was a baby, my four year old cousin stayed with us when we were still living in NYC. My mom took us shopping and my four year old cousin decided to hide and go "boo!", except she ran off as mom was paying and mom didn't notice. She got the whole store to look for my cousin, and my mom said she had the worst moment in her life as she left the store to go home and call the police. Just as she went one block from the store, my cousin popped out from behind a building and went "boo!"

My scariest parenting moment so far was when we got together with some friends at an outside restaurant for dinner. DS was playing with another boy there and they were being really careful about just playing around the restaurant. Then another boy came and DS started playing with him. This kid definitely wasn't scared of playing miles away from his parents, who weren't even at the restaurant but somewhere in the park, and at some point, we noticed that we couldn't see them. It was also dark by then and we ran around all over the park shouting and looking for them. When we had scoured the whole place and my heart was somewhere down by my ankles and I was starting to panic, going back and forth with DH "I thought you were watch him" "no you were supposed to!"... an older guy brought back the boys and told us they had wandered down almost to the main street. I just felt like the worst parent then.


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## mistymama (Oct 12, 2004)

When ds was about 15 months old he would throw these huge tantrums when it was time to come inside and throw himself onto the floor. I brought him into the living room and had forgotten that the padding was off the fireplace ... he threw himself down and busted his eye brow on a sharp fireplace rock.







It started squirting blood, my living room looked like a murder scene. Luckily, a neighbor is a plastic surgeon and was home at the time .. he looked at it, decided it needed stitches and took us to his office. He did a great job and ds does not even have a scar .. but oh, was that scary!

About a year later I got ds out of the backseat and had him on my hip. It was early morning and I was dropping him off at my Mom's house so I could go to work. Somehow when I slammed the backdoor of the car, his foot got caught in there. He was screaming, I was freaking out and the door was jammed. I screamed for help and luckily my Mom heard and came running. She jumped inside the car and kicked the door open from the inside.

We took ds for xrays and I felt like the crappiest Mom ever. His foot was fine and just a little bruised.








:


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## claras_mom (Apr 25, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *limabean* 
A couple of weeks ago I put the kids in their carseats and was doing almost 70 on the freeway when my DS said, "Mom, I'm not buckled in."







I had opened his door to let him climb into his seat, gone around to the other side to put DD in, and then just gotten in my seat without buckling DS in!!

Dd thinks it's so hysterical when I forget to buckle her in--and bless her, she'll remind me before I start the car--that sometimes she asks me to pretend to forget just so she can remind me.


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## LenasMommy (Apr 16, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *limabean* 
A couple of weeks ago I put the kids in their carseats and was doing almost 70 on the freeway when my DS said, "Mom, I'm not buckled in."







I had opened his door to let him climb into his seat, gone around to the other side to put DD in, and then just gotten in my seat without buckling DS in!!


I've done this.. I felt SO awful. I seriously think I left my brain at home that day because it just wasn't functioning. Thank goodness I wasn't the one driving..


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## cedoreilly (May 21, 2005)

DS2 was pushing DS3 up and down the driveway in DS3's Step 2 car. He gave the car a big push and pushed it right into the road while a mini-van was coming down our busy road. Luckily, the minivan saw it and stopped and I grabbed the little car before it got itself too far into the road!


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## alexsam (May 10, 2005)

When my son was a baby and learning to "pull up", he did it on the tv table. I saw the tv rock toward him, off balance from him pulling on the table. It didn't fall, thank G-d. I thought I was going to throw up







. We spent that night nailing ALL the furniture to the walls!

Recently (and this is scary- I had NEVER thought about this), my son (4 yrs old) started FREAKING out in his carseat... "Mommy! Mommy!" I look in the rear-view mirror and he had taken the seatbelt (which was not being used because we used the latch strap and the tether) and he had wrapped it around his neck and it had "locked up". I pulled over and had to pry him out of it. He had marks all over his neck







. My husband just came back inside from fixing this (he buckled it behind the seat and locked it up, so now ds can't pull it around to play or hurt himself). Please, please watch out for loose seatbelts! Who knew a kid in his carseat could pull a loose seatbelt and strangle himself?


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## MayBaby2007 (Feb 22, 2007)

Oh man. I just had a bad scare the other day. I used to be a cooker/baker but somehow I got away from that (just recently got pans/baking ware too).

I made banana bread the other day. DD and I were on the gated porch. I went inside to check the bread. I left the screen door open so she could come in/out as she pleased. The door is right by the oven. I was standing directly infront of the oven door with it open checking it. I had tunnel vision--just focussing on the bread.

Next thing I know dd is 3 inches away from touching the open oven door, walking right towards me. I put my hand up to her belly and shoved her away, knocking her on her butt. I felt bad shoving her away...but it was instinct to protect her.

Damn. I don't know what was wrong with me. I just wasn't paying attention! That could have been awful. Lesson learned...and now I pay closer attention. Good grief.


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## MayBaby2007 (Feb 22, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *alexsam* 
Recently (and this is scary- I had NEVER thought about this), my son (4 yrs old) started FREAKING out in his carseat... "Mommy! Mommy!" I look in the rear-view mirror and he had taken the seatbelt (which was not being used because we used the latch strap and the tether) and he had wrapped it around his neck and it had "locked up". I pulled over and had to pry him out of it. He had marks all over his neck







. My husband just came back inside from fixing this (he buckled it behind the seat and locked it up, so now he can't pull it). Please, please watch out for loose seatbelts! Who knew a kid in his carseat could pull a loose seatbelt and strangle himself?


Wow, alexsam. I never would think of that. Thank goodness your son is okay! I could totally see any kid doing that. Your post may save a few kids by alerting parents to this.


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## JayGee (Oct 5, 2002)

Just a few weeks ago we had just arrived back at home from walking DS to the bus stop. I told the two girls that I was going into the bathroom to dry my hair. Two minutes later I come out and call for them.... silence. The garage door is wide open and a kitchen chair is pulled up alongside the door (guess DD1 can reach the button that way...) Both girls are barefoot, dancing in the puddles in the street in front of our house







!


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## brekkon (Oct 9, 2008)

Just had the scare of my life.

My 4 year old was in his room watching TV and I went to get dinner ready while he watched cartoons.

Next thing I know I hear a faint scream and crying.

I ran upstairs and it looked like he had a blankie wrapped around his neck I tried to unwrap it and I couldnt. It was then I realized he had gotten to his nighttime pull ups in the trash and pulled 7 of them onto his head!! What was he thinking! He was choking and struggling to breath because he was panicing. I feel I am lucky he was even able to cry and get out noise. Based on how red his neck was and how warm he was I wondered how long he had been in that situation before I heard him. I dont think I have ever been more scared in my life.

Fortunatly after getting them off and 15 minutes of calming him down and him getting a popsicle to cool him off he seems completely fine.

Has anyone ever ran into this problem? What could he have been thinking!


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## Aubergine68 (Jan 25, 2008)

brekkon, I have a 4 yr old who has been known to goof off by putting his underwear on his head... that is such a scary story. Glad your little guy is ok!


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## skybluepink02 (Nov 9, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *brekkon* 
Just had the scare of my life.

My 4 year old was in his room watching TV and I went to get dinner ready while he watched cartoons.

Next thing I know I hear a faint scream and crying.

I ran upstairs and it looked like he had a blankie wrapped around his neck I tried to unwrap it and I couldnt. It was then I realized he had gotten to his nighttime pull ups in the trash and pulled 7 of them onto his head!! What was he thinking! He was choking and struggling to breath because he was panicing. I feel I am lucky he was even able to cry and get out noise. Based on how red his neck was and how warm he was I wondered how long he had been in that situation before I heard him. I dont think I have ever been more scared in my life.

Fortunatly after getting them off and 15 minutes of calming him down and him getting a popsicle to cool him off he seems completely fine.

Has anyone ever ran into this problem? What could he have been thinking!

Oh poor guy. What in the world made him think that was a good idea! I'm so glad you heard him. How scary!


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## karemore (Oct 7, 2008)

Thankfully we haven't had too many yet.

The worst so far was when DD first started crawling. She never moved more than a few feet at at time, so I left her in the living room and went to get something in the next room.

When I came back moments later she was sitting at the top of our stairs (raised ranch) looking down the bare hardwood steps to the bare hardwood landing below.

I almost died on the spot, scooped her up and had DH put up the gate that weekend. He still doesn't know she got that close to falling, I never told anyone!


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## Awaken (Oct 10, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Embee* 
I have also gotten home to DS saying, "OH, I'm not buckled in." DOH!







He NEVER lets me forget now. NEVER! "Ah. Mom. I'm NOT buckled in." He'll say this before I even get into the darned car and have a moment to buckle him in.

Ditto- I am so glad my 5 yo is a stickler for the rules- this never happened to me until I had 2 kids and sometimes it's so crazy when I am getting them into the car, I forget to buckle him in. He always tells me when I forget- Mama I'm not safe!!


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## punkrockmomma (Jan 29, 2008)

So far my 15 month old hasn't done anything scary. But my niece who's 4, just recently decided she wanted to go to school. So while her mom was in the bathroom, she puts her shoes on and leaves their apartment, goes through their apartment parking lot, and crosses a very busy street to the local High School.














: Her mother couldn't find her, so she called the police, and they were the ones who found her sitting on the steps of the High School!!!!


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## punkrockmomma (Jan 29, 2008)

Here are 2 more stories. One about me and one about my brother. When I was about 3 I woke up really early one morning, and I got the popsicles out of the freezer and decided I wanted to share them with my friends in the neighborhood. So, I went to all my friends houses at like 6 in morning ringing their door bells to see if they wanted a popsicle!! I guess my grandma who had come over found me walking down our street back to our house, in my nightgown, with melting popsicles.
My brother when he was maybe 5 or 6, decided to hide in the backseat, on the floor of our car. My mom was going to a friends house that day and didn't notice he back there, and I guess he also fell asleep. Because he woke up, and got out of the car and started walking around the neighborhood of my mom's friend!!!














While this is going on our babysitter is freaking out because she can't find my brother! Thankfully a woman saw my mom get out of her car and go over to her friends house, and she saw my brother get out of the car and wandering around. So, she took him over to the house where my mom was.
I can't wait to see what my dd does as she gets older!!!!!!!


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## leosmommy (May 11, 2008)

my ILs don't parent much...last week my 3 y/o nephew jumped off the second floor balcony. and then a day ago he got on the riding lawn mower, started it up, and crashed through the neighbor's fence.


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## StrawberryFields (Apr 6, 2005)

It happened just recently and I praise God that I discovered what had happened before it was too late.























Ds and his friend were playing outside. The neighbors grow grapes on our shared chain link fence.

Dd was about 6 months old and sleeping in a cradle in our bedroom. The baby monitor was on full blast.

The kids came inside and I didn't really pay it any mind but went to shoo them back outside. I could hear the cradle rocking slightly on the monitor but that's not unusual, it's heavy and wooden and it gently rocks if dd stirs. I went to go outside again myself and for some reason took a few steps in the opposite direction instead and saw out of the corner of my eye that the bedroom door was open, where dd was sleeping. I walked over there to see if they had woken the baby--they've NEVER done that!

Dd's legs were kicking frantically and I rushed to her side to see her face covered in foam and saliva and she was struggling. I lifted her up and she was stuffed full of grapes. I kept pulling grape after grape after grape out of her tiny little mouth. I could not believe it but for some horrible, horrible reason ds and his friend had gone into her room, so silently that I never heard them on the monitor, and filled her mouth with grapes while she was sleeping.


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## Leav97 (Oct 23, 2004)

I've done the carseat thing twice now. Once when she was really little and once when she was about 2. When she was 2 she was really upset about not being buckled so I knew before even starting the car.


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## alexsam (May 10, 2005)

Oh, StrawberryFields, how scary and upsetting...

When we were little, we had a very, very large house with a huge sweeping staircase that went up 3 stories- you could stand in the 3rd story and look down to the floor of the first. We decided (a friend and me) that we would make a "hammock" for my sister. We went 3 stories up, tied a blanket accross the giant fall and at least had the good sense to "test" it. We threw every toy in the playroom into the hammock and watched it sag and sag. Of course, it came crashing 3 stories below with a ton of toys. My mother screamed "You could have killed the dog if he was under that!" Little did she know, it was almost her daughter!









We sort of laugh about it now, but how close we came to killing her is quite terrifying...


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## Hey Mama! (Dec 27, 2003)

I have shut a sliding van door on my toddlers foot once, she had a nasty bruise across the bottom of her toes and I had to wrap her little foot with a tiny ace bandage for a few days but she was ok. They said the bones in the foot are very pliable and not fused at such a young age that was why nothing was broken. This was just a couple weeks after she had fallen and hit her face on a low window sill and gave herself a black eye. I also worked at a daycare at the time and she went with me. I just walked in thinking for sure they were going to call CPS on me.

One of the first days I had dd 2 at home after she was born I went into the kitchen to get something and come out to find dd 1 shoving a pillow in her face. She was so mean to her, she would always try to hurt her if my back was turned so i could never leave them for even one second. Dd 1 also tipped over a shopping cart that had the carseat sitting up on top the regular seat part with dd 2 in it. I couldn't believe that a two year old could do that but she did. Dd's car seat fell off with her in it but she was uninjured. I received many "what kind of mom are you?" looks over that one.


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## MrsAprilMay (Jul 7, 2007)

A couple weeks ago, I went in the bedroom to change DS while DD was playing in the living room. When I came back out I noticed that my bottle of probiotics was sitting on the dining room table rather than in the fridge behind the pickles. The bottle was almost empty that morning when I took one, but it was totally empty now. As calm as I could muster, I asked DD if she had ate some. At first she said no, but after I told her that I wasn't mad but they could make her sick, she said yes. After a panicked call to poison control, she turned out to be fine.


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## HarperRose (Feb 22, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Toolip* 
My sister has always been fascinated with cars and loved to play with the steering wheel. I was 3.5ish and my sister was 18 months. We were on our way somewhere and my mom had forgotten something in the house. We were both in our car seats and she dashed back in the house. Our driveway was on a slope...
My sister unbuckled herself out of her seat, climbed up to the drivers seat, moved the shifter to neutral and the car went down the driveway, across the road, over the edge, and thankfully hit a stump that kept us from going all the way down the hill.








My mom heard the "thump" when we hit the stump. She was horrified, of course. I remember her trampling through the brambles to get to us. I was screaming, my sister was proud.

Holy Crap, an almost identical story:
Ds was 3, dd was 18 mos, I ran in the house to grab something and tell dh we'd be waiting for him in the car. We were on the 3rd floor. I looked out to see ds in the driver seat. Dh and I raced out the door and down the stairs, all while watching ds back out then go forward. He narrowly missed a tree and drove the car into some very high grass where it finally stopped.









While we were racing after him, dh rolled his ankle and the tendon came across the bone and chipped it. We sent the evening in the ER and dh came home with half a cast just to support the leg. It looked like a softball in his ankle.


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## diamond lil (Oct 6, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Gracefruit* 
I've also forgotten to buckle my daughter on one occasion. We were driving down a particularly nasty stretch of highway when all of a sudden something that felt like a little hand touched my shoulder, followed by the rest of a little person jumping on me in the front seat. My husband pulled over to the shoulder ASAP and I buckled her back in immediately. We both felt awful about this!









I'm so glad I'm not the only person this has happened to. When DD was 3 weeks old, we went to Target. She was fussy in the store, so I unbuckled her from the carseat and held her for a bit. I laid her back in the carseat and covered her up with a blankie because the air conditioning in the store was on full blast.

When we left the store, I snapped the seat into the base and started out of thre parking lot when I realized that I had forgot to buckle her in!!!! I pulled over immediately (we were still in the parking lot) and cried my eyes out as I buckled her in. I felt horrible about the whole episode.


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## Katwoman (Apr 15, 2004)

I swear the buckling of the car seat has gotten almost everyone. I put my 22 month old in her car seat so she wouldn't run around in the parking lot while I buckled my newborn in. But I left her door open to remind me to buckle her in. Went around the car, buckled the newborn in. Came back around, wondered why I left the 22 month old's door open, shut it and got into the driver's seat. Fortunately, as I was starting the car she said "mama, I see you". haha sweetie - she was still rear facing at this point - "no, really mama, I see you" and she tapped me on the head......

DD2 had the worst moment this summer. We were 2 hours from any city, camping in one of those campers that just sits on a truck bed. (So really high in the air.) We were getting ready to come home and DD2 wasn't willing to put her undies on, so I was letting her sitting on the bed while did the dishes. The screen door was latched, but the door was open. DD got off the bed and walked over to the door to say hi to her Dad. After talking to him she turned to talk to me. But in a moment of silliness she shoved her butt hard against the screen door - she was showing her Dad her naked butt. The screen door flew open and she was "sucked" out the door! I was standing right there and she just disappeared. I tried grabbing her, but no dice. She hit the stairs - which caused her to start tumbling. She landed on the ground head and neck first with her whole body on top of her. I thought for sure she broke her neck. Scared the crap out of me! And of course we're no where close to anywhere. Fortunately, she scrapped her foot/arm, got a headache and of course it scared her. But otherwise she was fine after a day or two. And to add injury to insult we were driving home during nap time. I was so worried about head injury that every 20 mins I would wake her up. Poor thing!

It's amazing parents and children ever survive childhood.


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## Sileree (Aug 15, 2006)

My DP remembers being left alone at home by his mother at 4 years-old pretty frequently while she went shopping. He remembers watching her walk to the bus stop from the window.







:


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## Neuromancer (Jan 15, 2008)

Wow. These amazing, scary, sometimes funny stories are bringing up a lot of childhood memories!

When my sister was no more than 5 or 6 years old she got mad at my parents while the four of us were out shopping at Target (I'm two years older than her) and told them she was going home. No one took her seriously, of course. We were miles from home and she was far too little to leave the store. Somehow, my parents were splitting up to go shopping in opposite directions and each one thought the other one had my sister. After some frantic searching when we three met up near the registers and realized no one had her, they remembered she had threatened to go home. They started driving home slowly, looking everywhere along the route we'd taken, terrified, and found her in a culvert not far from the store walking in the direction of our house near a VERY busy road. She had also picked some dandelions in the ditch and gave them to Mom when we stopped the car to grab her - we assume because she KNEW how much trouble she would be in!







Now, they can laugh about it.

When I was in Jr. High I went to a school dance. It was over probably around 9pm. It was quite dark out by that time and I was waiting for my parents to pick me up as, one by one, everyone else left the school and went home. Finally I was the ONLY person left in front of the school in the dark. No staff, no students, no one. This was long before cell phones and I had no idea what to do (I was crying). I took the bus to school and had no idea how to begin getting home (I always read on the bus). Luckily, the police were cruising the neighborhood because there had been a rumor that students from the two junior highs in town were going to meet up and fight after our school's dance (this didn't happen). A passing cop car stopped when the police officer driving saw me. The cop picked me up and let me sit in the front seat with the car parked in front of the school while he radioed headquarters and they called my parents. My mom answered the phone and was horrified. I think my dad was in his office across the street, so of course there had been a miscommunication. This was another situation where both parents thought the other one was on the ball and picking me up. They weren't in the house together. Additionally, when I told the police officer my parents' names he said, "Oh, your mom is XX? She came to the precinct and gave a presentation on domestic violence recently" (my mom ran a shelter). When I told her that she was even more embarrassed.

Finally, both of my parents have told me they felt so rotten when I (at maybe 7 years old) asked them if I could have a banana. They were relaxing in our tiny plastic kiddie pool in the backyard. They said yes. I went inside and got a banana and couldn't get it pulled open, so I got out a steak knife and sawed into it. Of course the knife slipped, hit my index finger near the knuckle (I still have the scar) and I started bleeding and screaming bloody murder, running outside to where they were (just steps away from the kitchen door). They rushed me to the hospital for stitches. It wasn't their fault. I was old enough to get and eat a banana on my own (and to know not to use the knives), but they still felt bad that they'd been relaxing "in the pool" while I cut my finger open!

Two other times that weren't their fault but had them feeling like bad parents briefly were the times that my sister got mad and "ran away" to the side yard. They couldn't find her for hours, but it turned out she had dragged a lightweight foam mattress we'd been playing with over herself and fallen asleep in the yard in plain view but covered by the mattress. And once they found me "gone" in the middle of the night with the front door unlocked (I was maybe 3). Turned out I'd rolled off the bed and onto the floor and then UNDER the bed and was still asleep under the bed, but my dad was tearing around the neighborhood calling my name. My mom finally found me when she went into my bedroom and sat down on the bed to say a prayer. She realized she could hear breathing from under the bed!


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## KristyDi (Jun 5, 2007)

Scarriest moment of my life so far was just a few weeks ago. We were at a restraunt with my family. My 6 month old dd was teething and cranky. I was holding her on my lap. She was facing my dad and he was giving her little sips of water with his straw.
Now normally my dad is very intelligent and he was very involved in the raising of his 4 kids, but for some unknown reason her fed dd a piece of ice. A small square piece of ice about the size of a nickle.







: Of course dd started choking. She was trying to cry, but couldn't. Thankfully I had read the little PSA poster on infant Heimlich enough times to remember it.
I flipped her face down on my arm and pounded her back till the ice cube fell out and she started screaming. Afterward my hands were shaking and all I could do was hold on to dd. My poor dad felt so bad.

Thinking back my bothers and sister and I did some pretty scary stuff too. Once during nap time I decided that I wanted to make a tent of my bed sheets so I took the shade off of my bedside lamp and used it as a tent pole. I fell asleep. The lamp fell over and the sheets caught on fire. My mom smelled something and came in to find me asleep in a bed that was in fire. I have a scar from the adventure on my ankle.

One of my brothers pulled a Superman off the bathroom counter after mom finished brushing his teeth when he was a toddler. Mom had him sitting on the counter and was rinsing the tooth brush right next to him when he just dove right off. He hit the bathtub and needed stitches in his chin.


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## LeaS (Oct 5, 2008)

I'll chime in on the carseat thing, especially with the snap in to base... it happened two or three times in the first couple of months before I learned! Ever since he grew out of it though I haven't forgotten, but with dd to be delivered this month I'm sure I'll face new challenges in remembering to have two buckled at all times!

The absolute scariest thing thats happened to date, DS at 14 months old decides to yank on DH's belt draped over the back of a very heavy iron and cloth bar stool. The loop the belt tucks into managed to get hooked on one of the rails of the back support of the stool and pulls it straight on top of his upturned face, I looked over at him just in time to see it happen (in super slow motion, of course!!!) and I swear to god it was like he just crumpled below it. I just *knew* it had broken his neck, could not fathom how it could not have... He was fine though, after crying for about 5 minutes he acted as if nothing had happened. We no longer drape anything on the back of stools.

And just today, DS now 15 months, pulled the lower drawer from under the oven and stood on the tiny ledge to reach on top of the stove and gets a miracle blade steak knife I was using to cook. He walks into the living room where I've briefly come to take a glance at the TV before returning to cook with it in his mouth!!!!!!!! No cuts, but can you imagine if he'd fallen like he does every other time he walks _anywhere_???? We're permanently installing a gate that can swing open going into the kitchen, as I'm currently too pregnant to try to step over the one we use that braces the walls only. The kitchen is just way too dangerous.
...
Can't take your eyes off of them, even for a second!


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## Kama82 (Mar 12, 2006)

When my daughter was about 13 months and just barely walking she found a _viagra_ (very toxic to infants) on the floor of my parents house. I will never know why she decided to bring it to me instead of eating it since this is the kid that tried to eat an acorn off the sidewalk but thank goodness she did.


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## be11ydancer (Dec 2, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *LynnS6* 
Upon reflection, so far my kids' escapades don't hold a candle to what some of my siblings did:

My 3 sisters (all born within 4 years) used to get up, put on their outdoor clothes and go WANDER the neighborhood when they were about 3, 4 1/2 and 6. ......






































It's so scary because if my 3 daughters, who are similar in ages to your 3 sisters, did this, I would simply just die. We live by apartments, busy roads, a creek, and a halfway house - can't imagine!


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## Tizzy (Mar 16, 2007)

When DS1 was 6 weeks old we drove to the in-laws for Christmas. When I took him out of the bunting bag from the carseat I realized he wasn't buckled in!
DS put him in the carseat so I could blame him, but I rode in the back seat the entire way there (an hour!) and never noticed either!

He has also run off, crawled under the electric fence to go pet the horses...nothing like watching your toddler walk UNDER an 800lb pony to give you a heart attack!


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## harmat (Jan 31, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *floiejo2* 
But the ultimate scare, my friends dd(4) almost hung herself, literally. Her and her little brother were playing superheros and somehow she got up on the windowsill and tied a silky curtain around her neck and jumped off to "fly" and she could have hung.

My brothers played hangman in our garden when they were about 6. They tied a rope to the apple tree, stood on something and then jumped. Mum only found out, cause one of them had a long red line across his throat









And last week I watched DD tumble off the bar above her bed, do a backflip, then fly head first past the bed and on to the floor. For the next three days I just imagined the worst, even though she was absolutely fine. Even the lump was reduced to a tiny bump by the morning. Would it stop her being a little monkey? Nooo... God, I never want to hear that sound again in my life!


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