My worst nightmare nearly happened this morning 😞

[purrswhileheeats]

I was reversing out of my driveway and almost ran over my neighbour's child, he was directly behind my car. He's no more than three years old and the only reason I saw him was he was waving his arms in the air and I saw them in my rear view mirror. He's so tiny I wouldn't have seen him otherwise as he was below the level of the back window IFYSWIM. My neighbour was loading stuff into his boot so I beeped the horn and shouted to him, he ran over, grabbed the boy and took him inside.

I was shaking and crying (sorry, that's so MN) when I got to work. They're a new family on the estate, only moved in a few months ago. The dad must've known the boy was playing outside while he was loading the car but didn't bother to check where he was.

I'm waiting for them to come home so I can go and speak to them. It's so horrible, I feel sick thinking about what could have happened.

@Tiddleztheelephant

*However, you cannot attempt to shift blame in any way to the parents. You are the one moving a large heavy machine, it’s legally entirely your responsibility to ensure you do it safely. You should be nothing other than apologetic - you cannot blame the parents. * Wow, disagree and quite an unkind post. OP was driving safely and so spotted the child before anything happened. Why on Earth would she be going to apologise for the fact that their toddler stood behind her car?? Parents should supervise their children in roads, it's as simple as that. Your 3 year old is your responsibility.

Disagree as much as you like. Fact is the law would have held her responsible had the child been hit. Thankfully that didn’t happen and the Op will reverse into the drive in future. Having a go at the parents will not achieve anything apart from bad neighbour relations. Maybe a visit to say you hope he is okay would be appropriate but certainly not an aggressive visit.

The only person at fault here was the bloke not supervising his child.

God this place is absurd sometimes.

It's one of those horrible, heart in mouth, can't get past the 'what if' moments. Everyone has something like this, at some point.

Not entirely sure what you're going to talk to them about really? Do you think they're likely to let it happen again?

This is why I'm glad to have parking sensors. The back of my car is really high and it has a ridiculous blindspot. They're very sensitive and I've stopped and got out to double check when they beep and I'm not close to anything.

@PaddleBoardingMomma

Everyone shouting YoU ShOuLd LeARn HoW tO rEvErsE and no one saying maybe those either people should responsibly watch their own damn children in a public open space with moving vehicles around?!

Honestly some days you mumsnetters really out do yourselves.

I don't have kids. But, as a responsible driver, I aim to use to safest manoeuvres that are feasible in a given situation. This includes not doing U turns on busy roads, waiting until I have enough space to safely overtake, and reversing into car parking spaces. If I were to hit someone, I want to be damn well sure it's not because I was ignoring road safety principles.

This is madness wtaf is going on?! How is this the OP’s fault? Should she put her house up for sale and surrender her driving licence so as to avoid inconveniencing the neighbours? I don’t think this was anyone’s fault but it I am amazed at posters telling the OP that she should not be using her car!

How on Earth do you get the pram / buggy / shopping in and out of the boot if you are reversing into parking spaces or your drive?

I don't know how people are making it your fault that someone else's very young child was on your private driveway?! If they're on your drive and you're reversing in that could be just as dangerous so no idea how that helps. Some people on here have very bizarre ideas.

Why the capitals in the words ?

I completely get how shaken up you feel and thankfully no one was hurt.

But I'm not sure why you are so intent on speaking to the parents?

Please reverse onto your drive in future. When your car comes out of the drive, it crosses the pavement to get to the road. Of course pedestrians (and parents) have a responsibility to stay safe, but the driver is crossing the pavement, not the pedestrian coming onto the road.

@DishingOutDone

This is madness wtaf is going on?! How is this the OP’s fault? Should she put her house up for sale and surrender her driving licence so as to avoid inconveniencing the neighbours? I don’t think this was anyone’s fault but it I am amazed at posters telling the OP that she should not be using her car!

I don't think I've seen such a ridiculous response to a thread in years, how people are turning this on op is a disgrace. The parents should be watching their child, why is no one pointing that out? It's madness.

People commenting they would NEVER reverse out of a drive and it's just good driving and common sense...

Yeah, and I'd never let my 3 year old wander about unattended in front of cars, that's just good parenting and common sense too!

@Tiddleztheelephant

*However, you cannot attempt to shift blame in any way to the parents. You are the one moving a large heavy machine, it’s legally entirely your responsibility to ensure you do it safely. You should be nothing other than apologetic - you cannot blame the parents. * Wow, disagree and quite an unkind post. OP was driving safely and so spotted the child before anything happened. Why on Earth would she be going to apologise for the fact that their toddler stood behind her car?? Parents should supervise their children in roads, it's as simple as that. Your 3 year old is your responsibility.

The law would disagree about whose responsibility this is.

The op posts, if real at all, stink to high heaven of entitlement and xenophobia. Like, harken Romanians, hold your toddlers close. The British woman is reversing out of her drive (because she couldn't reverse into it...)

Be prepared for your neighbours to get the hump out of embarrassment or believing it’s your responsibility.

I grabbed a running toddler out of the road as a car did an emergency stop and the shouted at me as he thought it was my child.

He went on his way and I turned to the mother huffing and puffing up the road who had seen what had happened and she didn’t want to engage or thank me at all.

I was friendly and said that when mine were that age we used twins and she walked off yanking the child’s hand.

I don’t know if she was embarrassed or just didn’t care.

@BFrazzled

Crap, it beggars belief.

You almost killed a child and manage to make this sound about yourself. Nursing your shaken self and about to give a proper telling to those Romanian parents. Lucky you they weren't English - guess who would be told off for reversing into the street?

Reverse into your drive each and every time from now on. You cannot = you are unfit to drive, end of story. Like literally, today, before you are preparing to knock onto Romanians door, reverse into your drive. Or call your husband or other designated adult in your household to do it for you...

Wtf? It doesn't matter what nationality the parents are, I'd like to speak to them about what happened this morning. I don't care where they're from, I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again.

When my mum moved into a house with close by neighbours, she told the smallish children living next door (in no uncertain terms knowing her) they must NOT run across her drive without being careful. She always reversed into her drive but reminded them that they should always be aware and careful. It takes a village and all that.

Luckily it didn’t happen OP and hopefully will serve to remind everyone to be more aware in public places where vehicles could be manoeuvring.

Why on earth would you think they'd let it happen again?

People commenting they would NEVER reverse out of a drive and it's just good driving and common sense...

Yeah, and I'd never let my 3 year old wander about unattended in front of cars, that's just good parenting and common sense too!

But the child's parents haven't posted on MN. The OP has.

And this incident should teach the OP to reverse on to her driveway in future. She can't control other people's kids but she CAN control the safety of her driving.

The nationality of the family and the Grannie's lack of English or Greek is not really the point here? I wouldn't have bothered with that particular update OP, but glad that all's well that ends well
I recently witnessed a toddler in his shopping trolley seat careering down the slightly gradiating car park, right into the path of a Landover. The Driver slammed his brakes and horn and I yelled to the mother who was loading her car boot.
Terrifying, but thankfully the driver was at a crawling pace, saw him and reacted.

@BFrazzled

Are you ok? Genuinely I'm concerned you're really not doing so well... your posts are bizarre

@BFrazzled you OK hun?

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand

People commenting they would NEVER reverse out of a drive and it's just good driving and common sense...

Yeah, and I'd never let my 3 year old wander about unattended in front of cars, that's just good parenting and common sense too!

But the child's parents haven't posted on MN. The OP has.

And this incident should teach the OP to reverse on to her driveway in future. She can't control other people's kids but she CAN control the safety of her driving.

Yes and how would she ever be taught without the goading and cruel comments from you and your fellow mumsnetters! Good job you're all here to belittle and abuse her, thank the heavens! You'll get your OBE nomination letters through the post

@PaddleBoardingMomma

Everyone shouting YoU ShOuLd LeARn HoW tO rEvErsE and no one saying maybe those either people should responsibly watch their own damn children in a public open space with moving vehicles around?!

Honestly some days you mumsnetters really out do yourselves.

The thing is- those other people should watch their children and OP should reverse. But OP is the only one here who we can advise. If the other people were here they absolutely would be told to watch their child. Do you understand?

The most important thing is that nothing actually happened.

@BFrazzled

Crap, it beggars belief.

You almost killed a child and manage to make this sound about yourself. Nursing your shaken self and about to give a proper telling to those Romanian parents. Lucky you they weren't English - guess who would be told off for reversing into the street?

Reverse into your drive each and every time from now on. You cannot = you are unfit to drive, end of story. Like literally, today, before you are preparing to knock onto Romanians door, reverse into your drive. Or call your husband or other designated adult in your household to do it for you...

Are you ok? This is such a shitty take. You sound fucking nuts.

If the parents next door aren't going to supervise their toddler, and let the child run behind cars on driveways, when they are too little cannot, OP could just as easily reverse into toddler reversing into her driveways as reversing out of it.

No matter what precautions you take, if there are negligent parents out there that fail to supervise their toddlers/3 year olds by roads and other peoples driveways, it's an accident waiting to happen no matter how careful the driver is.

I agree with OP- hopefully the parents have had a shock too and realised they should supervise their child more carefully and actively by roads. And OP has equally had a shock that she has a young child next door who has a tendency to run across whilst she is reversing: