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Original poster

I stole somebody else's baby

216 replies

LiveLoveWoof · 05/11/2020 10:51

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!

OP posts:

ReplacementPlasticUterus · 07/11/2020 13:21

@orangenasturtium

Maybe we have the same friend? Mine is an old colleague who used to just hand me things randomly, empty crisp packets, sweet wrappers and the like. I fell for it every time - just took it from him and put it in my pocket! This went on for years.

Lizadork · 07/11/2020 13:39

Just remembered a whole school event where I was left behind. I was a Year 1 given role of keeping door open for my class as they headed to our specific bus to be driven back to school, except I didnt stop holding door as 30 pupils passed but let 300 pupils pass. My bus left without me without evening noticing I was gone, I got to ride back with the year 6s in their much cooler bus. It was awesome. Arrived back at school to find my mum yelling at my teacher non-stop along the lines of "where the hell is my daughter?!!".

orangenasturtium · 07/11/2020 16:31

Did your colleague have a name that went out of fashion about 20 years before he was born and hasn't come back into fashion since @ReplacementPlasticUterus?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

3 year olds Families

Carriemac · 07/11/2020 16:46

Holidaying in Edinburgh from down south I shouted at my three year old on the royal mile ' Hamish come over here and stand beside me NOW'
A rather bemused looking 20'somethung man did just that ...
And then I reloaded I didn't have the only Hamish in the village ...

wishywashywoowoo70 · 07/11/2020 17:25

@Pumpertrumper

Total opposite but as a pre teen I used to find it hilarious to just wander the aisles of Asda on a Saturday morning shouting ‘mum’ and watching 99% of the aisle turn to look.

Many hadn’t even brought their children. Mums answer universally, regardless of where they are or what they’re doing!

I do this. My mum goes to Tesco at the same time every week. If I'm there around the same time I'll go and find her. Then shout Mam Mam Mam continuously from the end of the isle. I'm 47.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 07/11/2020 17:26

Laat year at a party, DH and I were chatting to anothee couple. We both had a 6yo DD, similar height. Small child runs up, upset, and hugs Male friend. Male friend hugs small child, we all continue chatting. Then friends dd wanders up and starts talking to her mum. Takes another minute to realise that male friend is actually comforting our DD.... Who got rather confused when she tealised she had the wrong dad.

Grimbot · 07/11/2020 17:47

I remember being almost ‘kidnapped’ as a 3 year old. I was walking with my mum in Sainsburys and suddenly someone grabbed me by my hood and said ‘stop messing around Paul’ I remember the look of horror on her face when she realised I wasn’t Paul apologised and let me go. I ran and caught up with my mum who hadn’t noticed a thing. Still remember it so vividly despite being so little.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 07/11/2020 17:49

@Bikingbear, it's not @Mixedupworld who should be embarrassed! I was horrified when I read that post, Mixedup. I'm sorry you had to experience that. I hope it was an isolated incident (but suspect it's not).

The nearest experience I have to contribute to this thread comes from 1997 ish (long before the advent of mobile phones). I had one child in primary school and one still at nursery school ((separate schools). A good friend of mine was in exactly the same position. We had an arrangement that I would collect the nursery children and return hers to her house and she or her childminder would collect the primary aged children and return my primary aged child (year 1) to our house. One day I fulfilled my part of the bargain. When I got to my friend's house with the little one, her childminder said 'Oh dear, I forgot to collect Gasp0de'sDD - Friend'sDD ran out into the street and I ran after her and I just forgot about Gasp0de'sDD. . She must still be at the school.'

Aghast, I broke all land speed records pushing my son in our double pushchair to the primary school. My daughter was sitting in the school office, very chilled, thank goodness, and the office ladies were very nice about it. I couldn't apologise enough, but it was 100% not my fault!

Hope4theBestPlan4theWorst · 07/11/2020 20:53

Slightly off the subject here but....

Why did you all need to be In the supermarket?
Here it's one person, one trolley
Kids not encouraged unless essential (like you're a single parent)

It's totally ridiculous shopping "as a family outing" anyway but even more so during a pandemic.

I don't understand why you'd be doing this??

Apart from walking off with another child!!

TaggieOHara · 07/11/2020 23:41

Hope - my anecdote happened in 2008. DS is now 12, and long beyond being confused with a joint of beef. I had assumed that most of these stories are pre-pandemic.

I did used to enjoy our trips to the shops, as did DS. Not at all a ridiculous thing to do when he was tiny, although point taken about limiting such interactions at the moment.

poppythetroll · 08/11/2020 00:03

My DF went to pick up my DD (his 12 month old grand-daughter) from Nursery one day when she was a baby (he usually waited in the car and my DM went in but one day he went in as my mum was busy) when nursery took him to the room door (full of 12-18 month olds) he said "which one is she?" And so... "things not to say in a Nursery was born" 🙈🙈

Clevererthanyou · 08/11/2020 00:16

I’ve never told anybody this but ... when I was 6, my 10 year old sibling and I walked through some sand dunes to get to a beach whilst we were staying at the seaside for a week. I got bored or moaned about the distance and said I wanted to go home so my sibling went ahead and I walked back. The problem being that I didn’t recognise any of the surroundings and by the time I’d walked back into the caravan park I was scared witless because none of it looked like the place where I was staying. That’s when I saw a very nice Asian couple and I started sobbing hysterically because I thought I’d walked to another country and I’d never see my mum again. They didn’t speak any English but they gave me a lift in their car to the main reception place of where I was staying and dropped me off (I hadn’t actually left the caravan park ) . I’ve never been as scared as I was then lol

ilovepixie · 08/11/2020 01:03

A couple of years back there was a report of a child being abducted at the Christmas market it Belfast. It very quickly went viral on social media an elderly man lifted a young child from the merry go round and walked away with her before the parents pulled her away. The man was shouted at and police called and he was abused on social media before it was discovered he thought it was his granddaughter who was also on the ride wearing the same cost and hat!

Bikingbear · 08/11/2020 08:21

@poppythetroll

OMG he actually admitted that, what did the staff say?

FingersXrossed · 08/11/2020 08:57

I was in John Menzies with my younger brother (I must have been around 12) idly looking at stuff for sale in the shelves. Think mum was at the check out. Suddenly a woman grabbed my brother's arm and yelled at him (she might have hit him on the bottom too) before realising that the little blonde boy in a red jacket wasn't her kid. Whoops.

BuggerationFlavouredCrisps · 08/11/2020 12:06

My story is of my mum and her sister back in the late 1920’s, pre 2nd World War. (If mum was alive today she’d be 98)

Mum was around 3 and her older sister (E) was 6 years old. Incredibly, my grandparents (their parents) decided to go away for the day to the seaside, leaving my 6yr old Aunty at home in charge. Aunty E fell asleep on the sofa and so mum decided to go for a walk by herself. They lived in a small midlands town and mum managed to walk a couple of miles or so crossing roads and ended up at the local tram station. Luckily, one of the neighbours spotted her looking up at the trolley buses and realised who she was, so took her back home. She gave Granny a telling off for leaving the two girls alone all day.

Unfortunately, my Grandma was not a nice woman at all and so she blamed my Aunty E for letting mum wander off and Aunty E got a ‘good hiding’ for her trouble. Grandma never accepted that she was actually in the wrong for leaving two very young girls alone.

Grandma did other stupid things too over the years including accidentally poisoning my baby cousin by feeding him mouldy rice pudding, but I’d say she was incompetent rather than deliberately cruel.

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