I stole somebody else's baby

[LiveLoveWoof]

Name changed as outing.

This was yesterday. In supermarket with DD 3 year old DS and 14 week DD. DH had the pushchair & I had the trolley. We were in a bit of a rush so DH said he'd go get a few bits and we'd meet in the middle. Off he goes and takes the pushchair with him. DS stayed with me. Had a quick look at the baby clothes for DD. Left trolley at end of aisle. Wandered up another couple of aisles then turned round and automatically put my hands on the pushchair that was there. Started walking off and DS pipes up "that's not my sister" I looked down and realised DD was now wearing boys clothes and had aged by about 6 months. I panicked and returned baby to the aisle I stole him from. Thankfully I'd only got to the end of the aisle and turned to go into the next aisle before DS said something. The other mum never even noticed!

I also remember when I was little we were told to find a mum for help if we were lost or when out when a bit older and needed help. You couldn't do that nowadays in most city centres 😮

Why not? A mum (or dad) with children is surely one of the people children are taught to ask for help if they are lost?

When my daughter was about 12 we went on a weekend break to London. She was dawdling behind a bit and I waggled my hand behind me to urge her to catch up and hold my hand. When she caught up I grabbed her arm and marched off to the next thing on our itinerary. It wasn't until she appeared in front of me laughing that I turned and saw that I had been dragging an Indian gentleman (who was with his bemused family) for over a minute. That at least had a funny ending.

@LiveLoveWoof

Not sure how "huge" crept into my post, or what word I might have been aiming for - that'll teach me to proof read first?!

It was a family event in a local park with lots of parents and toddlers - certainly no tannoys. She had bought her own kids ice creams so he got one as well and she was heading back to the main event area to see if she could see anyone frantically looking for a child. Happily she did!

Went to a playgroup with a friend, our two DCs aged 2 and her 3 week old baby. We were all doing a craft activity and friend was happily telling me how well she was getting on with managing two of them when we suddenly realised that the baby was fast asleep in his car seat in a corner in the entrance to the playgroup where we'd hung up our coats 30 mins earlier!

About 3 years ago I went out to a local ish butterfly house with our year 5 class. Lovely day with my little group of 8 children, counted several bazillion times along the way.

We had half an hour at the end of the day so went to play on the play park area...I'd acquired a 9th child by the time I lined them up to count before getting back on our coach .

Thankfully, their class, who were also in green and navy, were lining up to be counted onto their own coach & I realised on my second count that the extra one wasn't "mine"!

@CaptainCorellisPangolin

When I was 7, someone's mum had offered my friend and I a lift home from a class birthday party. The family were supposed to be driving down to Devon that night but their own son had really wanted to go so they had everything packed up in the car, the plan being that they could pick us all up, drop my friend and I off along the way and continue straight on to Devon. My friend and I fell asleep almost immediately (7 seater, we were in the very back of the car) and when I woke up, we were alone in the car by a petrol station in the middle of nowhere. The family came back after ten minutes or so and carried on driving without acknowledging us. Eventually, I just leaned forward and said "Excuse me, Mrs Turner, but this isn't anywhere near my house." She screamed. Really, properly screamed. The entire family of 5 had forgotten we were there and had inadvertently kidnapped us and driven an hour and a half to the middle of Somerset. My parents were not as concerned as I would have liked.

This is absolutely brilliant. 😂 I kept reading it & laughing more each time.

' Excuse me Mrs Turner ...' 🤣🤣

My parents were not as concerned as I would have liked.

So funny.

Wonderful epitaph.

He, the children and a random woman reached a very flooded road, which you couldn't easily cross. He picked up the DC and transported them over, then scooped up this poor woman and carried her over too, without asking.

In my local village shop a little girl and mum came in, she was wearing the pre school jumper. I looked at some cards and she started crying "where's my mummy?" So I thought mummy has gone past me and said "she's just here." Unbeknownst to me, obviously it's end of preschool session so another mum and daughter had come in and I'd ushered the wrong child to the wrong mum. It was over in seconds but the mum looked at me like I was a kidnapper as she retrieved her child from the isle I'd sent her into and I felt horrid. Worse I teach year one so I don't feel I'm a threat to anyone's child so it really unsettled me being looked at that way. She then said " stay close to me " to her daughter as they walked past. I still think back to how awful it made me feel. I genuinely love children and worry I'll be one of those old women who smile at children as their mothers pull them away.

Not a child but I did steal someone’s very elderly mother once.

Many year ago I organised activities at a care home and we had taken a minibus of elderly residents to a local animal park. It was a very stressful and hot day and by the end I was quite flustered. As it was time to go home we had to take the residents in their wheelchairs to the toilets and then we were to meet at the car pack outside the park. I was helping round the residents back up after toileting and the carers were doing a conveyer belt of one in one out with me wheeling the finished ones back to the mini bus.

Eventually everyone was ready to board and as the driver went to put the first resident on the bus ramp I realised I’d never seen this old dear before in my life! What happened after was quite a lot of panic and confusion but luckily the home Manager (who hadn’t noticed either!) tracked down the women’s daughter and son in law who had already put out an announcement over the park radio

@Welikebeingcosy

My cat went missing and I found her miraculously one day about six months later. I called some strangers to help me and they went home to get me a cat box. We wrestled her into the box and I was so happy and told everyone on the bus the wonderful story about being reunited with my cat after all this time. Got her indoors an hour later and realised it wasn't my cat. Had exactly the same unique markings and size but indoors the mannerisms were just completely different. I'd had my suspicions when it didn't go food crazy for the treat I was tempting it with but assumed that 'the wild' had changed its eating habits. I called the vets and they said best thing to do was to take it back to where I'd found it. Owners would never know that their pet had been cat napped and on an adventure across the city and on a bus for the first and only time in its life.

I had a cat brought in for me to check over. He'd been missing for a week but then found by his incredibly relieved owners. They kept him in for a few weeks but he was behaving strangely, toileting inside, and much less affectionate than before so they brought him in for a check up. Scanned the microchip. Turns out it wasn't their cat

I had to break the news to the devastated and then mortified non-owners (who actually took some convincing!) then track down the actual owners (who were totally unperturbed that their cat has been kidnapped for 2 weeks

Luckily the lost cat actually did turn up a couple of days later he'd been kicked in a shed but was fine.

I did similar last week. We were in a hurry so DH dropped me and DS outside a shop so we could nip in. We rushed out of the shop and I bustled round to the rear car door, yanked it open and instructed DS to hop in. Only there was another child sitting there, looking at me in astonishment. After staring at her blankly I apologised profusely and looked around for DH. He had helpfully driven into a car park, and a near identical car was in his old spot. Weird coincidence as we have an unusual car.

A girl in my DS's class came bombing out running towards her mum...ane ran straight past and gave me a massive hug. No mistaken identity though, her mum and I look totally different in every which way. She just wanted to say that she really liked me and she was really happy to see me 😂 Luckily the mum thought it was hilarious. I was gawping like a fish. I'm terrible with other people's DC too, so I have no idea why she's taken to me being her friend!

I patted a strangers child on the head on the Lego shop and told him "get whatever you want son"

The cat ones are wierd, like how do you not know your own cat?

As a random person two cats can easily look the same (someone seeing a poster, catching a cat and bring it too you because you lost a ginger cat and they 'found' a ginger cat is totally believable) but as the pet owner you know every little unique marking/movement/quirk so I just cant imagine getting the wrong one.

We have had over a dozen cats in my life (some mine, some family pets, some belonged to my flatmates) and I have never mistaken any of them for another cat, same with dogs.

When you get to know a pet they seem so unique we currently have two 'standard' black and white cats and strangers/friends/family can never tell them apart and always ask how I do but to me they look utterly nothing alike at all (and unique from all other cats too) so start reeling off a list of the 101 differences between them lol.

In North Africa visiting dh's relatives.Local custom was for people to make money by acting as illegal taxis. You just loitered in a certain spot until someone picked you up. We jumped in, said where we were going and on arrival dh went to pay only to find it wasn't a taxi at all but just some bemused but very kind stranger.
Still wonder why he never reacted to 3 people including a very obvious foreigner jumping into his car!

@MrsMop1964 I lived in N Africa and did just the same. I ran out into heavy traffic and jumped into the front seat of a car that looked like a taxi. I said I had to get to the bank quick before it closed. The very nice driver said: 'I'll take you wherever you want to go but I think you should know I am not a taxi'

I was nearly "kidnapped" by a teacher once. I was 22 and working for an education charity that arranged enterprise days in school. At one such event I made the mistake of wearing a plain black skirt and white shirt.

I had to walk down a corridor to collect some items and a teacher saw me and started yelling at me, asking what I was doing out of lessons.

I was so embarrassed, but when I explained who I was he didn't apologise at all!

I'm a wheelchair user due to an accident that left me paralysed from waist down. I can get by without any help as my chair is electric. I was attending an event on my own. It was a large event with hundreds of people (pre-covid!) I was leaving a room to go into another room (huge rooms, stately home type place) and a woman came running up to me

"Your group is over here" she says. I reply I'm not with anybody else.

"Sweetheart, you need to stay in your group" she says. I realise there is a group of young adults with additional needs in the other room. A lot in wheelchairs. I explain I'm not in that group. She continues trying to get me to return to the group, in very patronising words that you'd use on a 2 year old. Eventually she gave up and said she'll go get the group leader. I scarpered into the grounds outside where there were other things going on.

Banooshka

I think "snatched" is a little over the top. But hey at least you got to show what an amazing mother you are.

Mixedup how embarrassing for you!

Not directly involved but I remember a tale in school of the Headteacher reprimanding a pupil for coming to school so scruffy. The boy "Sir I left school in June, I'm an apprentice working on the building works"

I was putting on DD4’s shoes on after a party. She told me they weren’t her shoes. Couldn’t understand why the shoes didn’t fit. Then DS pipes up, that is not my sister . Very Sommersby. The other mum laughed, the two of them looked very similar.
Have also done the car thing with my driving instructor, he was collecting me and would usually get out and move to the passenger seat. I knocked the window and said Hey am I not meant to be driving? .... to a complete stranger.

@garlictwist

I was once out running and saw my dad who lives nearby also out for a jog so I decided to hide behind a tree and leap out at him. It wasn't my dad.

Absolutely roaring at this one!

When DD1 was a tiny baby, I accidentally left her in a shop. I was obviously unaccustomed to having a pram to think about and my brain was foggy.

I left my eldest in the Body Shop when he was 4 days old. I only noticed when I realised I had "lost" my handbag. Then I remembered it was ... in the bottom of the pram ...omg the BABY!!!

A few years later in Dulles airport in Washington, same child now 7. He was a bundle of energy (later diagnosed with ADHD) and was always bolting off without thinking, or suddenly breaking into a diaganol sprint and tripping us or other people up. That particular day was very trying as our flight was badly delayed and we were all tired and irritable.

For what felt like the millionth time we felt/ heard/saw from the side him tearing past and we both screamed at the tops of our lungs "STOP RUNNING!!!"

OMG it wasn't our son we had screamed at but an Asian (we aren't Asian) toddler who looked nothing like our son, who was being closely followed by his dad. The dad was lovely and started apologising to us which was mortifying. We tried to explain we had mistaken him for our own son but suddenly, seeing them side by side, seemed really unconvincing. Cringe!