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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask you to tell me your worst chld-rearing errors just to make me feel better?

147 replies

gallicgirl · 03/07/2011 11:32

I'm feeling like a useless mummy this morning. I managed to put DDs bottles in the steriliser last night without any water. I didn't realise until after I'd made up her bottles this morning. Two of the anti-colic rings are damaged so the bottles don't seal properly. They cost £3.99 each to replace and Philips are out of stock anyway so I have to go buy new bottles later.

Not a big mistake in the scale of things, DD isn't going to be damaged but after 5 months, you'd think I'd be able to do this pretty simple task without cocking it up. Although it makes me feel like shit right now, I know in the back of my mind that I'm not the only one and I will probably make far bigger mistakes in the future.

So come on, cheer me up by telling me your worst cock-ups.

Please?

OP posts:
Original poster
gallicgirl · 03/07/2011 12:38

well as long as baby didn't inhale......

OP posts:
RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 03/07/2011 12:39

OP you are very definitely not alone!

DD1, aged about 14 months - I was shutting the back door and something was stopping it from closing properly. It was her thumb. I broke it. Sad She is now almost 18 and reminds me from time to time.

DD2, forgot to remove her from trolley after my first big shop after she was born (the day after in fact). My excuses are a. DD1 was an 11 month old non-sleeper all of a sudden and I was exhausted from a fortnight of no sleep, and b. I had actually given birth to DD2 about 18 hours earlier and was in something of a daze. Nice kind supermarket staff member chased me.

DS, fell down the stairs with him the day he came out of hospital at 4m (he was born at 28 weeks, and was still very small, but clearly resilient.

DD3 - way too many to mention - fallen off the sofa/bed on to the marble floor. A lot. She appears to bounce. Done the cutting the top of the fingerS with nail clippers once or twice or possibly more

MistressFrankly · 03/07/2011 12:45

Nearly Spring DD'd dad went into complain and they didnt apologise. They didnt even ask how she was Angry all they wanted to know was if we were going to sue. He said that we werent going to but as they clearly didnt care about child safety he was contacted his lawyer immediately.

MistressFrankly · 03/07/2011 12:46

Dd's even Blush got carried a way with the ddddddd button Grin

MarisCrane · 03/07/2011 12:48

I MN on my iPhone whilst feeding DS and I dropped it on him. Twice :(

cybboid · 03/07/2011 12:50

I left my dd bouncing in her door- frame baby bouncer while I nipped downstairs from our old flat to put bin out

The door slammed behind me

I ran round block to my mates house (barefoot) to get spare key, she wasnt in

I ended up smashing front door glass with a huge rock, dd bouncing screaming and extremely scarlet in face

worm77daisy · 03/07/2011 13:05

Yesterday locked dd1 age 2 and dd2 age 3weeks and keys in car. It was horrible, will never make that mistake again.

Nancy66 · 03/07/2011 13:13

I dropped my DD on her head when she was 3 days old.

When she was about five months old I went to a friend's 40th - dropped DD off with my sister - promising to pick her up at midnight - totally forgot and went home without her.

I found her eating cat poo out of a litter tray when she was about 9 months

....there's plenty of others but they're my most shameful

Adagoo · 03/07/2011 13:20

he he.. I never locked DS in the house and had to get him to post the keys through the letterbox. Not me, oh no. Grin

peeriebear · 03/07/2011 13:27

When DD2 was about 8-10 weeks old we went shopping and DH (yes it was him!!) forgot to strap her in the buggy (thankfully rear facing and reclined). We made it all round the supermarket then when we were putting bags in the car she slithered out and landed face first on the concrete :( She had a big graze that went down the end of her nose and on her upper lip. I felt like standing in the river and whipping myself with wet branches. I can still see her laid on the floor in her tiny coat!

Ishtar2410 · 03/07/2011 13:30

When DS was 4 months old I had the pushchair tip up - he banged his head and we spent the day in hospital to make sure he was OK. I had forgotten we were using his lightweight buggy and loaded the handles up with shopping. His more robust pushchair never tipped when loaded up. Since then, no bags on the handles.

I've also traveled to parents without strapping him in properly. Car seat installed correctly, but straps not tightened properly around him.

I blame sheer exhaustion for both of these.

ClarasMummy · 03/07/2011 13:31

Locked myself out putting the bins out with DD napping in her room. Fire brigade had to break in to get the door open.Blush

queenmaeve · 03/07/2011 13:39

Closed buggy up with 10 wk old ds still in it.
Drove out of house before realised dd was sitting in her car seat in hall.
Banged heads of all of them when they were babies walking past door frames.
Left restaurant without ds.
Got locked out of house by 2 year old with newborn ds in there too.
At the minute all 5 dc are eating bags of sweets from a candy cart from a wedding reception we were at last night. Dh and I are totally hungover and we gave them the sweets on the condition they would stay away from us today.

lovemyskinnyjeans · 03/07/2011 13:40

I once rubbed deep freeze on DD2's gums, mistaking it for teething gel...

LadyFlumpalot · 03/07/2011 13:42

I tried to balance DS between my legs so he was standing when I was sitting down waiting at weigh in a week ago. Needless to say he face-planted....I think I cried harder than he did!

My mum tells me that when I was 7 or 8 months old I would not settle one night so she was carrying me around the house. She heard sirens down the road so being nosy she leaned into the bay window to see better...and stuck my head/face straight into the middle of her cactus collection!

It could explain quite a lot...

tallulah · 03/07/2011 13:45

When DS2 was 2yo we had a period of a couple of months with no car. We all went to the seaside by train. I got on the train first and DH was bringing up the rear. Got on the train and did a quick head-count- one missing. There was DS2 on the platform in his little duffel coat calling for mummy Blush I have never jumped off a train so fast.

We got a cheap Cortina with no rear seat belts a few weeks later and were desperate to go out before we'd had time to fit them (20 years ago). Put the child-locks on (or so we thought) and set off with new baby strapped into the front in his car-seat and me and the other 3 children in the back. Going round a roundabout DS2 opened the door and fell out into the road. I screamed at DH to stop. He assumed something was going to hit us and speeded up. Jumped out of the car expecting the worst to find that the car behind us had stopped and they'd got out, and DS2 was standing in the road crying "my shoe comed off". Not a mark on him.

Whipped him up to A&E- all fine. Carried on the journey and DH was sitting in the car in a car-park with the boys while I took DD into a shop. Came out to find DS1 aged 4 had shoved DS2 off the seat and onto the floor where he'd cracked his head open on the seat runners. There was blood everywhere. Back to A&E and I made DH take him in on his own. He was seriously quizzed (and deserved it). They asked him where he was when it happened and he had to admit he was sitting right there less than a foot from the boys (and not watching them).

TattyDevine · 03/07/2011 13:49

Drove 2 junctions worth of the A12 before I realised I hadn't strapped DS into his seat (infant carry cot jobby) when he was a baby

When I had pneumonia earlier this year on one particularly bad day I let my DS have jam sandwiches for breakfast and for lunch. If DH hadn't come home because I passed out on the school run, he probably would have had them for dinner as well.

When DD was about 18 months I looked down to see her sucking on a festy kitchen sponge (it wasn't that festy really, it was new that day but it had been wiping the bench and had coffee grounds and crumbs in it not to mention some Mr Muscle)

DD (20 months) got hold of a packet of Ibuprofen and I managed to piece back together enough tablets to be sure she'd only ingested about half a tablets worth. Lucky - if they were branded Nurofen (sugar coated) she probably would have scoffed the lot Shock

L8rAllig8r · 03/07/2011 14:11

I let DS (then about 8 months) have some nappy free time, wriggling around on a big towel on the floor. I popped out of the room to use the loo and when I came back, DS had done a huge runny poo and was shovelling it into his mouth. Felt sick just looking at him! I had to put him in the bath and hose him down with the shower. Ick.

Pagwatch · 03/07/2011 14:14

Good grief -so many!
I will have to think and place them in order of awfulness....

Give me an hour.

MistressFrankly · 03/07/2011 14:19

I dyed DD pink when she was 3 days old Blush I had just come out of hospital and decided to rescue my rubbish multi toned pregnancy hair. HV came round mid bleach and said i had to go straight back in as my BP was too high. I had a small meltdown Blush - threw the pink dye on but rinsed it off really badly in total panic. Ended up sat in mat unit with pink streaked all over my face and DD with a nice even coating where it had rubbed off. I looked like bagpuss. She looked like a piglet. We got very funny looks.

Left my make up out and DD got into cream black eyeshadow and ended up looking like Papa Lazarou Grin It wouldnt come off and for three days she was grey.

TidyDancer · 03/07/2011 14:25

I wasn't going to confess this, but here goes....

Put two-month-old DD into the car seat and drove along a busy B road to pick DS up from school. Or that's what I thought I'd done. What actually had happened was I had plonked DD on the back seat to change her bum (like you do), then clicked the car seat into the base and got in the car and driven off. DD spent the entire journey laying on the backseat, with the car seat empty beside her.

I felt and still feel like shit. DD none the worse for it.

Original poster
gallicgirl · 03/07/2011 14:31

Oh thank you everyone. You've really cheered me up and good grief, you're shockingly bad parents!!

Grin

Here's a Wine for everyone who survived. :)

OP posts:
juicychops · 03/07/2011 14:32

when ds was 1 we were in a restaurant toilet. i opened the door - it has a spring hinge- and didn't realise ds had put his finger inside the hinge when it sprang shut on him. trip to a&e for his first x ray. was told his bone in his finger was too soft to break, but had to have his nail removed. i still have it in a little pot.

when ds was about 3 i accidently gave him adult cough medicine instead of kids one.

i can't think of any more at the moment but given the time im sure i could think of HUNDREDS

maypole1 · 03/07/2011 14:40

When my son was 3 I took2 powerful painkillers and fell asleep. While dd was watching tv. Two hour later I woke up to dd standing on the table and one leg in the fish bowl I screamed he fish bowl tipped over and the carpet w
As flooded

Shame shame shame he could of really been hurt

AnnoniMouse · 03/07/2011 14:41

I once dyed ds1 and 5 ofmy friends children multi coloured with cheep paint.