Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask your lowest point in parenting (so far)... Light hearted!

157 replies

Topas0117 · 11/05/2017 07:42

So this morning, I think I've hit my parenting low and thought 'this is my life'.

DD whose 9 months was being very clingy and breaking her heart on the bathroom floor.

So there I was, sat on the loo trying to poop with DD on my knee and Ben and Holly on my phone balancing on the radiator!

Anyone else?

OP posts:
DontLetMeBeMisunderstood · 11/05/2017 09:55

Missing my son rolling over for the first time because I'd gone through to the kitchen and left him unattended in the living room. And realising he could now roll over because he'd rolled over to the coffee table and pulled my camera off on top of himself (it was a DSLR camera, ouch!)

LittleLionMansMummy · 11/05/2017 09:58

6mo dd has been a really refluxy baby since birth (thankfully we've finally turned a corner!) There I was, snuggling up to her in bed when was about 8 weeks, showering her with little kisses. She projectile vomited right on my face. I mean, all over my face - not just a little bit.

DJBaggySmalls · 11/05/2017 09:58

Visiting 'relaxed' friend and finding toddler face down in bowl of cat food on floor Envy

LittleLionMansMummy · 11/05/2017 09:59

Oh, and ds also peed in dh's face when he was a baby. We still laugh about that now.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 11/05/2017 10:01

We there was the time I had a nasty gastric bug and was only able to lever myself up off the floor to have a shit. Kept passing out.
Spent nearly 2 hours before dh got home shouting instructions at my then 5 year old through the bathroom door.
Taught him the computer password so he and the toddler could watch Netflix.
Explained where the squash was and which tap was the cold one.
In between barfing and shitting and passing out of course.
Equal low to having a massive hormonal moment trying to call the GP. Couldn't remember how to bring up the number pad on my phone and broke down weeping in the hallway.
I heard ds1 say "Mummy is very sad, let's play quietly ds2."
I then felt even worse!

mumofmunchkin · 11/05/2017 10:07

Locked my son in the car and had to get the police out to smash the window.

Stairgate wasn't fixed properly and 3yo+stairgate went flying down the stairs.

Spotted 1yo sitting under a different table in the cafe, eating old wotsits off the floor. He is also good at hoovering up remnants of dropped biscuits at every toddler group we go to Blush

Funnyonion17 · 11/05/2017 10:10

Oh god I'm deeply ashamed of this. It was a one off though. Took DS for injections, changed nappy fresh when arrived as did a pee. He then did two poos, I ran out of nappies so I had to put the wet one back on. It was only on about half an hour but I felt the worst parent ever.

I also forgot DS bottles once, we was 60 miles from home. Very stressful.

kaytee87 · 11/05/2017 10:11

Finding something in 9mo Nappy and not having a clue when he ate it or what it was Shock

AliceByTheMoon · 11/05/2017 10:13

Once when DH was away for about 10 days I got a terrible D&V bug. I recall lying on the bathroom floor sweaty and exhausted, then getting myself down the stairs to the kitchen to make DS his dinner. How he did not get ill I have NO idea.

anniroc · 11/05/2017 10:13

Funnyonion I've done the nappy thing before...

AliceByTheMoon · 11/05/2017 10:13

Oh, and I dropped him out of the moses basket when he was about 3 days old.

Llamacorn · 11/05/2017 10:30

These are hilarious - calpol snot Grin

My 3 are quite a bit older now, but I do remember one that is etched into my brain forever.

Dd3 was a newborn, dd2 wasn't even 2 and dd1, 5, was still in bed. It was one of those horrible nights where none of us had gotten any sleep and dd1&2 had horrible colds. We were cuddled on the couch in the morning, trying to tandem feed through the snot when my door went. Expecting a couple of parcels I got up having one dd over my shoulder and the other on my hip. The postmans eyes grew wide as he looked up at me, covered in snot, breast milk and weetabix, and dd3 now screaming as her feed had stopped. All he said was 'erm, I think your breast is out'. Trying to juggle the kids to stop crying and not having a hand free, all I could do was look down and say 'oh, it is'. He put the parcels at my feet and backed away slowly. It wasn't until I sat back down I noticed I had a breastpad stuck to the back of dds head, and I had a red stain down the inside of my pyjamas.
I honestly cringe so much thinking back to this, poor postie looked very young - the image of me that day was probably the best contraception ever!

BishopBrennansArse · 11/05/2017 10:35

You know, now mine are older it feels tough but my God I'm sure I have protective amnesia in just how bad it used to be and I had 3 under 4...

ClarkWGriswold · 11/05/2017 10:37

Lamacorn you've just won the thread!

StinkyMcgrinky · 11/05/2017 10:42

Holding my 2 year old DS, both covered in sick, as the whole swimming pool was evacuated and had to walk past us after he threw up in the childrens pool (too giddy and swallowed too much water, he wasn't poorly!).

I have never been so mortified in my life. A very busy half term day and I'm stood covered in regurgitated ham sandwiches and cheese while around 30 parents and their crying children had to leave the pool Blush

AliceByTheMoon · 11/05/2017 10:53

I did have one that still makes me quite upset though. DS was diagnosed with autism at about 5 years old. It was not a huge surprise (although it was a shock) as he was very developmentally delayed with pretty much everything - speech- walking- etc. He was also quite delayed with toilet training. I was a part of a group of women who had all had babies at the same time, and there was one Queen Bee type who was really competitive. She would always comment on the parenting of others, and I knew she was commenting on mine. (When DS still could not talk at the age of nearly 4 she asked me 'would it help if you talked to him more?' - like I never bloody talked to him). Anyway, she kept commenting on the toilet training and how her twins were way ahead. So one time we were going out I actually put on knickers over DS's nappy and pulled them right up so that the knicker part would show over the top of his trousers to make it look like he was not wearing nappies. BlushI am not proud of myself and should have been stronger in myself. Problem is, that of course the nappy part showed through as he ran around and one of the other mum's actually said 'Oh yes... so and so said your DS was still in nappies'. I am ashamed to say I went home and cried my eyes out. I was over 40 at the time FFS! I wish I'd had the strength to just not care what anyone else thought. Of course, when he was diagnosed all that made sense, and the really positive thing about the diagnosis is that I am loads stronger and let comments roll off me completely.

AliceByTheMoon · 11/05/2017 10:53

That's not lighthearted though. Sorry! :)

AmethystRaven · 11/05/2017 11:13

Looking over at DD in her playpen to see her covered in brown. I quickly realised the cat had diarrhoeaed on a bit of paper on the floor and she had stuck her hands through the bars and spread it all over her head. I nearly cried cleaning her up!

Sabire · 11/05/2017 11:56

DS doing a shit in the fountains/waterplay at Legoland, and me failing to witness it happening. I saw the poo just sitting there and immediately rushed to judgement of the parents - how appalling to let your child shit in a play area and then just leave it there Angry, before seeing a poo smear down dd's leg and realising who the culprit was.

Obviously I then handed a tissue to DH and pointed him in the right direction. Blush

kaytee87 · 11/05/2017 11:58

That's awful alice what a witch that woman sounds. You'll find she probably feels she is lacking somewhere in her parenting and that's why she feels the need to boast so much.

AliceByTheMoon · 11/05/2017 12:07

I agree entirely with you kaytee. I can see now she is possibly a little insecure, but at the time I couldn't see that at all.... I had lousy pnd and spent the first 5 years in a complete fog!

I found though that when I stopped feeling I really ought to go to meetups and just got on with things myself things looked up though! Grin

SeriousCreativeBlock · 11/05/2017 12:08

Carting a brand new, screamy, hungry baby through the supermarket, who wouldn't stop crying. Everyone stared at me. I ended up bursting into tears and leaving my DM to finish the shop while I went to the car and fed the baby, still sobbing.
Falling asleep while breastfeeding (they don't warn you about how draining it. Luckily her DF was on hand to wake me up.
Letting my house become a shithole in my daughter's early months due to PND.
Having my then nearly 4 year old daughter gasp in a full public toilet and scream "YOU'RE BLEEDING, MUMMY. WHY ARE YOU BLEEDING?"
Also my complete U-turn on the amount of sugar my child consumes (up until about 4 she'd choose fruit over cake and chocolate) and the amount of screen time she has a day is slightly embarrassing Blush

SecretNetter · 11/05/2017 12:10

In Tesco, wearing a tracksuit and baseball cap about 5 years ago. I had come from the gym and picked up the dc from the cm.

I was in a rush as it was my sister's birthday, was going out for a meal and buying her two bottles of her favourite wine as a gift.

I had dc aged 3 and 1 in the trolley...and had allowed them both to sit in the actually trolley rather than the seat. Trolley was empty, I was only there to grab the wine.

I took my eye off the ball when choosing the wine...I had a bottle in my hand when I realised ds1 had leaned far out over the side of the trolley and was holding a bottle which he'd grabbed and the trolley was tipping.

I tried to save it and failed...the trolley tipped, ds dropped the bottle he had which smashed, the trolley went over on its side with the dc and took me down with it.

Next thing I was surrounded by people, lying flat on my back in my tracksuit and still holding a bottle of wine in one hand. Another bottle smashed next to me, a trolley on it's side with two toddlers spilled out onto the floor who were both screaming bloody murder (not hurt at all thankfully).

Without a doubt the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to me.

KatieHaslam22 · 11/05/2017 12:18

Putting kids tv on while curled up on the sofa with food poisoning, and then accidentally falling asleep! Waking up to find DD (only 2 years old at the time) asleep on the sofa next to me! Then having to admit to myself that I was too ill to look after my own child and ringing mil for help! Thankfully was only out about 20 mins but anything could have happened! Major parenting fail, especially from a professional support worker for vulnerable children and a type 1 diabetic! Blush(Blood levels were stable at the time, but not the point) Whole thing could have been a lot worse! New system now in place where partner no longer works away from home and he will not go to work if I'm really ill! Or arranges a babysitter for myself and our DD if he has important jobs on! Thankfully hasn't happened since and I have a big family willing to drop everything to help me if necessary! Smile

BaxterStockboy · 11/05/2017 12:23

Our dog did a runny poo all over our living room carpet. I sent dc's who were about 4 and 3 at the time, out into the garden to play while I cleaned it up.
A few minutes later the 3 year old came in, crying about other dc smeering mud on his face.
I was on my hands and knees trying to scrub shit out of my cream carpet and so sent him off to get some wipes.
He came back with the wipes insisting I do it for him. I huffed and puffed and finally wiped the mud off his face. Went to put the used wipe in the bin and realised I had just 'cleaned' my 3 year olds face with the shit filled cloth!
He was fine, I wasn't!