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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you have ever forgotten a child?

89 replies

Dontgiveaflyingfuck · 16/10/2017 17:20

Especially one thats not yours! Blush neighbour text at 1 p.m. to say she was going to be held up at work and could i walk A home (17 year old sibling gets in from work at the same time we get back from school). I said yes...

Then utterly and totally forgot. Luckily school put A into after school club till neighbour could get her. I have apologised profusely and feel utterly awful.

AIBU to ask if anyone else has done similliar to make me feel better?

OP posts:
Dutchoma · 16/10/2017 18:31

NSPCC officer’s house.

WaxOnFeckOff · 16/10/2017 18:38

My mum used to regularly leave a pram outside a shop with one of us in it and go home.

I remember once when I was about 7 she had agreed to pick up my cousins for my aunt. Elder girl was in year above me and younger girl was in nursery.

Apparently there was a bit of confusion (no idea who was to blame) but my mum thought she was just getting eldest and that someone else was getting younger one as nursery finished early - to be honest being the youngest of 7 I'd never been collected from school before as I either went with an older sibling or by myself. My aunt was a bit more caring! In those days we didn't even have a home phone never mind a mobiles :)

Anyway, we get home and are sitting having a snack (also a departure from the norm which was for me to help myself to whatever wasn't already eaten and go and play in the street) and cousin then says to my mum, "Why didn't you collect K?" . My mum then had to dash back to the school to find the nursery all closed up. Chapped the janitors door and he came and opened the nursery up to find K sitting in the corner by herself! My mum has spent the ensuing 40 odd years calling my elder cousin a wee shite! :o

BackforGood · 16/10/2017 18:42

Yup.
Well, my own, not anyone else's Grin

I consider it to be part of my parenting masterplan ~ teaches them a bit of resiliance Wink

Ewanwhosearmy · 16/10/2017 18:49

Aged 8 I was supposed to take my friend to my dancing class after school. I completely forgot. When her father came to pick us up and asked where she was I told him "she didn't turn up". Obviously as an adult I realise how worried he must have been.

The worst thing was my DM made me go round to their house and apologise and both her parents really laid into me. I was 8!

Ewanwhosearmy · 16/10/2017 18:52

I have forgotten child at playgroup. DH managed to bring 3 DC home and forgot the 4th (and they didn't tell him either) - same child.

Different child got left on the platform aged 2 when we'd all got on a train. DH's fault as he was supposed to be bringing up the rear. DH once managed to drive through the car park of that child's school without stopping to let him out.

Bungleboggs · 16/10/2017 18:53

I left one of my baby twins in a trolley in asda car park!! I was sleep deprived etc, i only got to the exit before I realised! I was mortified !

Original poster
Dontgiveaflyingfuck · 16/10/2017 18:59

Thank you. Neighbour is being lovely. Trouble is i have only ever forgotten a child once before - I a SAHM so go to emergency childcare plus im on driving rota for Cubs/Beavers so lots of extra children at random times - and it was the same kid Blush Seriously don't know why.

OP posts:
tomatoplantproject · 16/10/2017 18:59

My dear departed scatterbrain granny used to pick up me and db once a week. We ended up at the lollipop ladies house several times - on a normal day she was late but several times had forgotten us.

I still don’t like being reliant on someone else picking me up for anything and would rather make my own way there.

usernameavailable · 16/10/2017 19:09

No, never! I know people who have though!
My mum did the opposite with me! Went shopping, thought she had done the usual leave pram outside shop. Came out and noticed there was no pram there! Freaked out. Got the butchers to call police! Mum went shrieking around looking for me! Used butchers phone to call home to explain to my dad that she had lost one of her children the best one
When my dad told her that actually I was safe and sound at home!
My mum had forgotten she was taking a rare opportunity to go shopping on her own!
I can't imagine calling police back saying 'its fine i forgot i didnt have daughter with me today'

AtlanticWaves · 16/10/2017 19:20

My uncle and aunt regularly left the house without their DC3 because he was so quiet after a terrible DC2 that they'd all forget him.

My parents forgot to pick me up from swimming when I was 11. It was 10pm, the middle of winter in the freezing cold (with long wet hair) and the pool closed. Fortunately a dad waited with me. In a totally deserted car park. Luckily nothing happened but I was not impressed

Hippadippadation · 16/10/2017 19:20

I forgot to collect DD1 from the childminder once. I was heavily pregnant and phoning up to view properties & time just got away from me! Luckily DM was there and ran to the childminder so we weren't too late.

Jacana · 16/10/2017 19:30

"I wish that bloody woman would keep that bloody child quiet"
mumbled by me when half woken up in the night by the noise of a baby crying for a feed.
Yes, it was my baby and no, I couldn't remember I'd got one.Blush.

Norma27 · 16/10/2017 19:34

My sil was picking my daughter up from school one day. She turned up to collect her two and left mine there.
I was in a meeting with my phone turned off so didn't answer school phone calls! Luckily my husband did answer his phone and wasn't working too far away.

Another time I needed to pop into the doctors for my mum. I queued up as my one year played in the toy corner. I was seen to and then walked straight out leaving her in there! I got to my car and wondered what was missing. I ran back in and she was happily playing away.

KarmaNoMore · 16/10/2017 19:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

calamityjam · 16/10/2017 19:47

We were in Spain with all 5 dcs. We had all got showered and dressed up ready to go out for tea. Baby ds in pram plus the others and set off walking to the restaurant. Half way there I asked dd if she had found her hair flower, she was nowhere in sight. Ran back to the apartment while dp watched the others to find dd locked in hysterical with crying. She had nipped to the loo while we all went out. Poor dd she was only 6.

familygermsareok · 16/10/2017 19:50

I don't think I've ever forgotten to get a child but I frequently forget to drop off a friend's child at their house and take him back to mine instead. We share lifts to take our DC to the same evening activity and when I'm taking home I'm often thinking about other things and on autopilot. The DC think it's hilarious that I've ' kidnapped' X yet again and now stay very quiet in the back of the car hoping I will forget he is there again!
Luckily they live close to us!

2017SoFarSoGood · 16/10/2017 19:53

When DD was about 2 weeks, I left her in her pram in the front of the bank lobby. To be fair, there was a line of lovely Silver Cross prams with sleeping babies in them, it was the norm in the day.

Spotted my normal bus pulling up (through the giant window) and ran to catch it. Was halfway home before I remembered I'd actually walked into town. Pushing a baby in a pram. Blush

She was still sleeping like the proverbial when I rushed puffing and panting through the doors.

Athome77 · 16/10/2017 19:54

My dad forgot to pick me and my brother up several times. He’s also forgot to pick all the grandkids up at one point or another.

I once picked my eldest up from nursery, walked home and realised we didn’t have the dog. Had to walk back, she was still sitting were I’d tied her up.

Grittzio · 16/10/2017 19:55

Not forgotten as such but my DH and I left DD 9 on a merry go round, each thinking the other was going to wait for her, poor thing had to watch while we both walked off in different directions, fortunately she knew where I was heading and came running after me as soon as the ride stopped. To this day I can remember asking DH to wait but he swears blind I never!

Ladymayormaynot · 16/10/2017 19:57

I forgot my DS was in the back of my car! I picked up a colleague to travel together to a meeting and it was only when we were pulling into the venue she said Aren’t you taking DS to nursery?” He’d been so quiet I had completely forgotten he was there.

deepestdarkestperu · 16/10/2017 19:57

My dad forgot to pick me up from after-school club once. His argument was he used to do drop-offs so he wasn't used to having to pick me up as well.

My headmistress was very forgiving (small private school) and instead of a fine, asked him to drop some post off at the big sorting office in town so it would get delivered the next day, which he dutifully went and did!

Tinksee · 16/10/2017 20:01

When my son was a newborn, I visited a neighbour and completely forgot I had left him in the house.

It was only with the neighbour asked me where the baby was that I realised I had left him at home.

I was shocked and horrified at myself.

butterfly990 · 16/10/2017 20:03

I went to pickup my daughter (5) from creche along with a friend's child. I had my 7 month old baby and put her down to talk to the teacher. The kids all gathered around to play with her.

I then left the creche with my older daughter and the friend's child and it was only as I was climbing into the car that I realised I had left the baby behind.

She was fine quite enjoying the attention.

UsedtobeFeckless · 16/10/2017 20:03

Left a friend's son behind at Kid's World after a party - he went to the loo at the wrong moment and l thought he was in DP's car and DP thought he was in mine. Total horror. Rushed back and he wasn't there ( another village-bound parent having fielded him ) his mum had to pour wine down me for about half an hour before l stopped hyperventilating ...

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 16/10/2017 20:07

I left dd1 in Boots when she was about 10 days old, having completely forgotten that I had her.

Luckily it was only for about 10 minutes, since I was meeting my mother, who (aghast) said, 'Where's the baby???!'

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