Did that really just happen?
So, we are in NYC, staying in my aunt and uncle’s apartment on the 18th floor. We’ve been here for about 2 weeks so my son, 2.5 years old, is pretty familiar with the building and the elevator and the doormen (thank God there is a doorman and you will know why in a minute). After a long day of walking around the city and a pit stop at FAO Schwartz (aka one of the coolest toy stores ever), we stopped for lunch at a restaurant near the apartment. We walked straight home because it was freezing. I decided to run back out for a minute to grab a coffee.
I told my husband, who had started doing some work, that I was leaving. He was in a different room than my son, who was playing with the dogs and talking to my aunt’s cleaning lady. I told her that I was leaving too and said I’d be right back. Of course I assumed that either my husband or her, or both really, would keep an eye out for my son. I literally was gone for 5 minutes. The coffee joint is downstairs and across the street. I got a coffee and came right back. When I got back into the building, my son was in the lobby holding hands with some strange man. WTF? The guy told me he found him in the elevator.
Oh. My. God. My kid opened up the front door, pressed the down button, got into the elevator and pressed the button to go to the lobby. I can’t believe it. My DH had headphones on so he didn’t hear the door. The cleaning lady heard the door, but thought it was me coming back already so didn’t bother to look. Unbelievable. It’s no one’s fault really. Well, ok, it’s probably mine. I should have made sure that SOMEONE would be watching my son. On the other hand, I thought he’d be totally fine in an apartment with two adults, even if they weren’t paying any attention to him for the 5 minutes I was gone. Whatever the case, it turned out ok, but I just can’t believe it. It could have been bad….really bad.
Thank God for doormen and for nice men in elevators. I must have looked like the worst mom of all time. Yikes!!! So, what kind of idiotic things have you done or have your kids done that made you say “that did NOT just happen!!!”?
G has thrown himself off the bed on more than one occasion. He has bashed his head on something every time, and every time I wonder if it really happened. Luckily, he is too young to have done anything too horrible. I'm not looking forward to the day he does either.
Also, I have to share when my mom thought I'd lost my daughter. I was exhausted. My daughter was about three months old and colicy. I was a single mom and was so tired. So my best friend and her sister(same person as above) very generously offered to take her for the afternoon so I could sleep. So I fell asleep on the couch. When my mom got off work and came over I was still sleeping. She wakes me and I'm super groggy and can't keep my eyes open and she asks me where my daughter is, and I was so out of it, I replied "I don't know, maybe the crib" and fell back asleep. My mom was FREAKING OUT thinking that something had happened to her and I didn't know cause I was sleeping. The second time she woke me up I recalled she was with my friends and explained as much to her, but she swears I shortened her life by decades during that moment.
So how are those for "Oh my gosh, that DID NOT JUST HAPPEN!"
C, that is soooooooooo scary!! I bet you just about had a heart attack. I'm so glad Jax is ok.
Good to see there are still decent people int he world though!
My bad mommy moment... I was putting Andy in the car after lunch with my hubby. We had driven seperate and he had pulled out before I finished getting A in. I set him in the seat, put the diaper bag down in the floorboard, handed him his sippy and a toy, closed the door went around and got in the car. You guessed it, 2 minutes later I see him STANDING in his seat.. I had forgotten to buckle him in!!!! OMG my heart stopped while I tried to pull off and buckle him in. He of ocurse thought it was hilarious!
A few weeks ago, dh had put N's carseat into his car to run errands one afternoon. That evening I asked him to put the carseat back into my vehicle. Well, he put it back but he did JUST that, and didn't buckle it in so it wasn't secure. The next morning I took the girls out for several hours worth of errands. When we got home I realized that N's car seat wasn't secured into the car. I freaked. I just can't imagine what could have happened...
C- I am so sorry that happened to you! It must have been so scary!!!!!
(He is currently emptying my scratch paper drawer and saying "ohdo!" which means "Oh No!).
I have my fair share of idiotic mom stories. I will post them later on, supper is done
I thought I OD'd Darek on tylenol once. Gave him 1 TBS instead of 1tsp
When D was born until he was 4 we lived beside my disabled aunt (she has CP) ---my Mom takes her to the store, docs, etc... Darek was about 2 when he looked out of the window and seen Nannie's car over at my aunt's. He went down the hall to his room or so I assumed. No more than 2 minutes had passed when Mom came in the backdoor with D freaking out. Instead of his room he took off and ran to see Nannie while she was backing out of the driveway. Luckily he wasn't hit. Neither of us could have lived with ourselves.
One day at the arcade (he was 2ish) he climbed out of stroller while me and the ex were trying to get the token machine to take the dollar bill. After running all over the arcade (which was inside a big mall) screaming and crying we found him behind a game hiding.
One day I was helping a friend decorate a place for her son's Bday party. I told her I had to leave by 2:30 to get D off the bus (he was in Kindergarten) and asked her what time it was "2:10" Okay, that left me about 20 minutes. After my guess of another 15 minutes I asked again "2:10"....I was like "that's what you said last time" her watch had stopped. It was 2:45 and he would be home any minute. I was 12-15 minutes away. I freaked out. It was right before Halloween and was rainy and cool. I put the emergency flashers on and floored it. I was seriously pushing cars off the road. He was sitting on the porch and had been for a couple minutes when I pulled up. Of course the nosey neighbors were looking and I felt like a complete ass. After that I made him a key just incase something like that happend again and told him what to do *lock the doors, don't let anyone in, etc...* and a list of numbers for him to call once he got there so someone could come be with him.
So far I have only let E roll off the recliner once. Gimme time
G is learning how to scoot off the bed by himself (I thought it would be better than his old method of throwing himself off backwards). He had just gone down for his nap, so I got up to get a glass of water/use the bathroom/start some dishes. I had been out of the room for about 10 minutes, and I came back in to check on him. He was gone. He wasn't in the bed... he wasn't in the room. I couldn't see or hear him. I started walking around the house calling his name, but there was no sign of him. I kept thinking, "How far could he get in 10 minutes?!", and apparently "how far" is pretty far. G was outside on the back deck with our dogs. He crawled through the doggy door, and he was chewing on a ball in the doghouse
This story is about me.....stupid kid moments. I was about 9 or10 when we went to visit our family in a town that's an hour & 1/2 away. Their next door neighbors had recently divorced and moved out. My cousin and I decided to "break in" thru the doggy door and check things out. We had been in and out a couple times just looking around. The place looked like a garbage landfill had exploded in it
One car seat story, DH & I were headed home from the IL's when Kyrie was about 15 months or so. It is about 80 miles and for some reason we needed to stop on the side of the road to find something in the back seat or something like that.....that's when we noticed that Kyrie wasn't buckled into her seat! NOT a fun feeling!
I've done it since then, but she always tells me before we get very far!
A few months ago, Kyrie was very "into" playing with plastic bags. Not the kind of toy you want your 2 1/2 year old to be intrigued with! I tried to keep them all out of her reach, but "out of her reach" kept changing! One day I was trying to get caught up on some photo editing from a photo shoot, the kids were happily playing in the living room, when Kyrie comes into my office with a plastic bag over her head, and at the same time, I hear Trey crying in the livingroom. I take the bag from Kyrie and lecture her once again about how dangerous they are, and go into the living room where Trey is laying on the floor trying to get the plastic bag OFF of his head! That about stopped my heart!
After Trey started rolling around the room good, I tried to make sure that all of the "chokables" were up off the floor at all times. Kyrie has a dolly play pen that sits in the living room most of the time, usually with other toys inside of it. One afternoon I had gone to the basement to put some laundry in and when I came upstairs I heard Trey crying/screaming/choking. I ran into the livingroom and couldn't believe what I saw! He was laying on his back and had picked the play pen up (very light weight) and had been chewing on the leg, but then let go of it and couldn't get the leg out of his mouth! The poor kid could've choked on it!
After all the close calls it's a wonder that any of us survive!
The second time we had new doorknobs and I didn't know you could open them from the inside while they were locked, so I didn't know it was locked. Went out to get the mail, and B was inside playing on the floor.
I was sure embarrassed to call the same locksmith! At least they don't charge if there is a kid in the house, and they were only 5 minutes away!
I'm so glad we all have these moments... Andy's latest trick is walking off the sofa.. as in from back to front and then onto the floor... its like slow motion the first few times and all I could do was watch with my mouth open! After a few times now he thinks it is funny, but i try to catch him every time.... he's driving me crazy... step, step, plunk in the floor... then he cheeses and wants back up on the couch!
I had a similar exp with my then 14 month old daughter. She had just learned to walk. We were staying with my sister and I was taking our suitcases down from their upstairs. When I opened the baby gate, it fell off its hinge. Instead of putting the suitcases down and reattaching the gate, I yelled to my sister and hub who were having a conversation in one of the bedrooms. I said "the gate is open" thinking that meant they would watch the kids.
At the bottom of the stairs, I turned around to see my daughter try to step down the stairs to follow me and she tumbled down the stairs. I felt so bad. My hub and sister were too engaged in conversation to hear me. Just goes to show, with kids, you always have to make sure, be so thankful when things turn out alright (my daughter was scared but ok), never the same mistake twice but don't sweat it too much.
My parents also left my sister in our van one night after a roadtrip. She was four and woke up in the middle of the night and had to climb out and go into the house herself! Lucky the door was open. Scary!
Then one day when we had just moved in to a new house I took K upstairs to lay her down for her nap. I had to open a new box of diapers and so I set down K and went to open the box. I turned around and K wasn't in sight. I walked out to the hall just in time to see her trying to walk down the steps. All I could say is OMG! All the way down the stairs after her. She didn't even get a mark out of the whole thing. Nothing. It just scared her.
I would have froze as soon as the lock clicked
Oh and the steak knives.. no matter where I put them, its like a moth to a flame and he toddles out to the living room with one... EEK!!!
the hammer reminds me.. has anyone seen a TOY meat tenderizer/mallet? A is in love with ours but I fear for everyone and everything's safety each tiem he manages to houdini it into his hot little hands, LOL
I have found him tons of toy kitchen stuff but that is one thing I can't find.
I have yet to figure out how kids who are just over one manage to get to things that are sometimes even parent proof.. tricky little buggers!
I have yet to figure out how kids who are just over one manage to get to things that are sometimes even parent proof.. tricky little buggers!
like the toilet lid lock.. took me 2 hours to get it on and everything, took him less than 2 minutes to disable it... GRRR... lil toad!
C, your elevator story reminds me of one about my brother. My mom is VERY vigilent around elevators with my kids. When he was about 2 1/2, and I was a baby, they had just gotten to a hotel and were in the parking garage getting ready to go in, suitcases, etc. I'm not sure, but I think my dad was in a class, so she was on her own.
My brother got away from my mom, and as she's struggling to catch up, yelling his name, wait for me, don't get on the elevator, etc, hold the elevator....this woman on there holds the door open for him to get on, then lets it go!
Panic stricken, my mom waits for THAT elevator to come back, praying he will still be on it. People are holding the other door for her, and she's frantically saying, "No, I want THIS ONE." She says they probably thought she was a lunatic.
The elevator arrives. No child. More panic.
She knew she couldn't chase him down with all the luggage so went up to the room to dump the stuff and take off with me in search of him.
Luckily, he was at the age when he loved holding the room key. A hotel employee (janitor I think) found him on the elevator, took him to the room matching the key (couldn't do that these days with the cards!) and left him in the room. I imagine he notified someone as well. Anyway, when my mom got there to leave the stuff, there he was. Phew.