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

[Mama Poot]

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.)

[jjawm]

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.

[Baby Makes 4]

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.

[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!!

[samanthamommaof3]

lol

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.) :P 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.

[Fuamami]

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.

[amis2girls]

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.

[LynnS6]

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.

[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.

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!

[Dandelionkid]

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?

[crittersmom]

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.

[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!

[hollytheteacher]

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

[GuildJenn]

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...

!!

[floiejo2]

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!

[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!

[Jannah6]

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

[RiverMamma]

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.

[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!!!

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!)

[luckygreen713]

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!