Scary, "OMG I can't BELIEVE they did THAT!" parenting moments - Page 5

[StrawberryFields]

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.

[Leav97]

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.

[alexsam]

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...

[Hey Mama!]

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.

[MrsAprilMay]

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.

[HarperRose]

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.

[diamond lil]

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.

[Katwoman]

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.

[Sileree]

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. :

[Neuromancer]

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!

[KristyDi]

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.

[LeaS]

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!

[Kama82]

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.

[be11ydancer]

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!

[Tizzy]

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!

[harmat]

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!