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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:
titferbrains · 04/07/2011 15:42

only came on MN to find people to make me feel better about taking DD home when she was having a perfectly lovely time at the park because I am pg and tired, and she's now been watching telly since we got back and I just don't have the energy to make her do something other than watch Peppa. I have offered to let her paint, stick, wash up, draw etc. and she jsut cries and says she wants to watch tv for a bit. Feel terrible that in a matter of weeks her viewing time has gone up so much and it's just going to get worse when this baby arrives. Sad

kellestar · 04/07/2011 16:05

I have done many a bad thing to DD who is now 6 months.

When I'd had enough of clipping the tops of her fingers I tried the biting of the nails and bit the tip of her finger. DH refuses to do it.

Grabbed a jar of baby food out of my hand and it fell on her head and she had a wjacking bruise.

Door frames, light fixings and walls all been tested for strength by her head.

Found a fellow PN groupies baby asleep in the trolley park down Tesco. Had to give her a call to cone back and get him. He slept through the whole experience. I have almost done this myself but now leave the door open so I remember to retrieve her, this only happens if she is sleepibg soubdly.

I don't have a cold, i have a crack in thr screen of my ipod that's making spelling bad Grin

welshbyrd · 04/07/2011 16:37

DD2yo is the proud owner of a purple bruise on her tummy Sad

Never put a vest on her this morning, far to hot.Just shorts and t-shirt

Put her in buggy, and clipped the straps together, along with a bit of her tummy, its not the first time either.

shuffleballchange · 04/07/2011 17:19

Hmmmm, lets see

  • cutting DS2s finger and it bleeding for an hour when he was 5 weeks
  • Banging DS1's head on the bathroom door 5 nights in a row
  • DS1 sliding through my hands and dropping him when putting his cream on *Both Ds's falling off bed when they were tiny *Most recently dropping DS1's lego model of the inside of the tardis

There are plenty more but I dont want to can't remember them

msbuggywinkle · 04/07/2011 18:30

titfer Really, don't worry about it. It is normal, I think most of us do it (I certainly do!). I do try to go to bed at about 8pm once a week which gives me one full of energy day a week before I collapse again!

staranise · 04/07/2011 18:59

Oh gosh, I've so so many and I'm really not proud of that fact!

Have twice let DC3 wander off in a park and not even noticed he was missing till some kindly stranger brought him back enquiring if he was ours. The first time, he was only just two and had climbed out of his buggie and wandered off towards a road to look at the cars - we were sitting next to the buggy at the time and still didn't notice Blush.

I still feel sick if I think about it too much.

Thornykate · 04/07/2011 19:00

I think karma has come around to bite me as payback for laughing at the stories on this thread...

Due to the heat yesterday I put the metal retro desk fan on the arm of the sofa in the lounge to cool the room.

The house was so hot on returning from the school run that I decided to lay DD (4 wks old tomorrow) on the sofa underneath the fan to cool down. I had only just turned it on when I realised it didn't look stable. No sooner had I decided to move it, when the fan tipped forward off the sofa arm and landed on the baby's face Sad

She hardly cried but looked devastated & has 2 marks on her forehead although I am amazed & relieved it didn't draw blood or a black eye.

Of course when DP called home & DS3 answered the phone his 1st words were "daddy guess what? The big heavy fan fell on the baby's head!" Blush

Am sure I will see the funny side in a few years but am still in shock!

dementedma · 04/07/2011 20:04

"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"

The above was posted earlier and I had a horrible moment when I thought it was the same incident! Shock

microserf · 04/07/2011 21:20

put dd in the back of the double pushchair at her request, only to have the whole thing including 5 month old ds tip over backwards in a shop over a display. didn't learn my lesson, did it again today (minus ds who was at a safe distance).

ds 7 months ate an entire cafe nero loyalty card the other day. they seem to be strangely insubstantial, as it disappeared to nothing, but never seemed to come out the other end....

MogTheForgetfulCat · 04/07/2011 21:37

Yikes, I've done some shockers - do not think of self as particularly careless, and certainly not ditsy or conspicuously brainless, but plenty of evidence to the contrary. Worst ones are:

DS1: left stair gate at top of stairs closed but unlocked when he was 20 months old. He opened it, cartwheeled downstairs and broke his arm Sad Sad

DS2: carrying him in moses basket at 3 days old, one of the handles pinged out of my hand and he tumbled out and whacked his head. Left him and DS1 playing in garden - DS2 was just over 2. Garden gate closed but not locked (didn't have a lock) - for some reason, it didn't occur to me that either of them would open it. DS2 was found on the road out the back, heading towards a fairly busy road with lots of parked cars. He was completely fine, but still have nightmares about him stepping out from between parked cars and being hit. Ugh.

DS3: DH had him in the garden in bouncy chair, not strapped in. Bouncy chair broke, DS3 catapulted out and scraped lovely peachy cheek on concrete path. He is only 4 months old! Sad

Blimey, feel a bit rubbish now...

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 05/07/2011 13:37

I left ds1 crawling round the diningroom and kitchen whilst I nipped upstairs to the loo. Whilst on the loo, I could hear a baby crying outside, but didn't worry, because I knew the back door was shut, so there was no way it could be ds1 - I assumed one of the neighbours had a visitor with a baby.

When I got downstairs, I found ds1 stuck half way out of the catflap - he'd tried to go out as if he were diving - both arms over his head, and had got so far out and then couldn't go forwards or backwards. I had to open the door (very carefully, so I didn't whack his head on the wall) and pull him out.

jeee · 05/07/2011 13:42

Carefully placing the bathroom cleaning stuff on top of a cupboard, well out of my DS (20 months), and DD1 (3.2 years). Whilst feeding DD2 (3 months), I notice a suspicious silence from upstairs. DD1 has got a chair balanced on the loo lid, and has climbed up to get the cleaning stuff down. She opens it, and gives it to DS to drink.

Fortunately it was one of those gels that A & E assured me contained very little bleach.

itisnearlysummer · 06/07/2011 15:22

DavidTennantsGirl I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but that is such a funny image!

What a resourceful chap he is!

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 06/07/2011 15:34

We laugh about it, itisnearlysummer - I'm slightly sorry I didn't think to take a photo. Mind you - I was still trying to be a good mother then. Now I am pure negligence!

nitnatnaboo · 06/07/2011 21:06

Was cleaning tiles in shower in ensuite with bleach on an old toothbrush. DS (2) playing in the bedroom. Went to grab ringing phone from next door bedroom, came back 10 secs later to find him "cleaning his teeth" with said toothbrush, looking very pleased with himself.

Cue mass panic and mouth rinsing and feeling like a baaaaaad mummy. No ill effects as far as I could tell - don't think there was that much bleach left on the brush, but know we had had a lucky escape that day.

MrsMoosickle · 06/07/2011 22:04

Saying " for goodness sake, what's all that crying about, I've just changed your nappy"

Cue 10 minute's later and a check at the nappy - I had studded DD's inner thigh skin to the poppers of her vest.

Left a perfect popper shaped bruise for days. Blush

jugglingmug · 06/07/2011 22:20

Oh no. Fed DD2 in the night, when she was about a month old but must have fallen asleep feeding. I gradually woke and thought 'sodding cat's asleep on my feet again' and kicked my feet up to move her...it wasn't the cat Sad (the cat couldnt have even got in the bedrrom thorugh the closed door Blush

Cue very tearful 4am phone call to DSis, although DD2 was fine. Still shudder when I think about it.

elegangle · 06/07/2011 22:50

I reckon that NHS direct have a file on DH and I. Such questions such as:
Is it OK that DS1 has eaten washing tablets?
Is it OK that DS2 has been orally given calamine lotion instead of his antibiotics? which was the day after DH had rung up about whacking DS1s head against the door frame.
Like others on this thread DS1 has fallen off a counter top, I've cut their fingers instead of their nails and I;ve not strapped them into a car properly.
All fine here!

shockers · 06/07/2011 23:02

I walked to the butcher's with DS1 in his pram when he was really tiny, did my shopping, walked home, put the kettle on and made a cup of tea. At that point (usually the arrival of a fesh cuppa for me was his signal to wake up for a feed) I noticed that he was missing.... he was still outside the butcher's.

tallulahxhunny · 06/07/2011 23:10

to daughter now 7

when she was 18months i left her with her dad for 2 mins and she went straight through my rear projection tv screen!! (had been dancing to bear in big blue house and slipped :(

when she was 10 months old she knocked a vase of the top of telly then crawled into the glass cutting her foot requiring 5 stitches.

aged 3 . again with her dad, (we had split up by this time) and she pulled the tv of its stand and it broke a bone in her foot!!!!

to my other daughter now 6 when she was 3

was clearing out a corner and threw a bag with clothes in it behind me without looking and looked round to see blood pissing out of her head there was a bottle of deodrant in the bottom of the bag :( she still has the scar

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 06/07/2011 23:32

No wonder they say that TV is bad for children, tallulah!!

thursday · 07/07/2011 01:05

i once had her in the car seat on her pram wheels, and i'd taken her out to change her and then not fastened the straps when i put her back in as there was no way she could fall out. but then forgot, stuck her in the car and drove 10 miles home :( couldnt believe it when i went to get her out and realised. thank god i got home without incident.

and i once left my son in the car and set off for uni, he didnt come with me every day and he was fast asleep. so glad i realised after 5 minutes and not at the end of a 2 hour lecture. basically my children are alive and well in spite of me.

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