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Original poster

To ask for your children “near misses”

112 replies

Chattycat78 · 06/01/2018 15:27

Earlier today I was wrapping a present and so I was putting the kitchen scissors back in the cupboard after i finished. However I dropped them on the floor on the way back to the cupboard. This wouldn't be an issue if it weren’t for the fact that my 19 month old was near me when I did it!Sad

Now I can’t stop thinking “what if”- what if they had hit him, especially with the sharp end! I’m
Guessing they could have done him some real damage.SadSad

I know I need to learn from it rather than “what if” but it isn’t stopping me.

Has this type of thing ever happened to anyone else?

OP posts:
JaneEyre70 · 06/01/2018 16:12

When we moved into our house, DD3 was 12 months and had just started toddling. We had 4 glassed pannelled doors downstairs, that worried me sick and I'd mentioned to DH several times I was worried about them. She fell backwards into one, and her head went straight through one of the glass panels that fortunately splintered into a million fragments. I had to stop myself from screaming and deal with her calmly but I was terrified....... and luckily she didn't have a scratch on her. I honestly thought I'd lost her and my heart was pounding so hard I was physically sick after. I went and got a screwdriver from the garage, passed it to DH and said "you either take the doors down or I rip them down with my bare hands"....... had the desired effect.

Anditstartsagain · 06/01/2018 16:12

I slapped ds2 in the face earlier Shock he's 16 months and can be like a little ninja I was making the bed and when i flicked my hand to pull the sheet slapped him. Felt so bad and glad it wasn't harder.

PricillaQueenOfTheDesert · 06/01/2018 16:13

@NinaNoSleep oh my days! That’s absolutely terrifying. Your baby could have scalded himself or drowned. I’ve always felt wary of kids in the bath alone ever since my cousin confessed to bunging her son (age 2) in the bath and retuning to bed in the mornings and that was before I had babies but I worried myself silly every morning thinking of my poor little cousin once removed alone in his bath.

Emlou07 · 06/01/2018 16:15

Probably my worst one was when we brought home our prem 1st born. 6 weeks old, 5lb, stupidly left her on the changing table while I grabbed a nappy. Who knew 6 week old prem babies could roll?!

I’ve never moved so fast. It was a close call...

Bubbinsmakesthree · 06/01/2018 16:16

I had one today - in kitchen holding baby DS2 on my hip whilst toddler DS1 was wandering next to me. Pouring boiling water from kettle and missed the cup, splashed boiling water all over my feet, narrowly missing DS1. Instinct kicked in and stopped me shrieking and jumping about in pain until I'd safely handed DS2 to DH.

OP I know how you feel - we had something bad happen recently which was one of those risks you're aware of but that you think will never actually happen. It's really shaken me up and made me a whole lot more risk averse.

theDudesmummy · 06/01/2018 16:18

DS was about 3. A neighbour called to say he was on the roof and she could see him from her window. He had climbed out of the bathroom window. It was terrifying. That same day we put wooden bars across all opening windows in the house.

bluechameleon · 06/01/2018 16:19

A few months ago I pulled out of the space in the car park and my nearly 3 year old said "I haven't got my straps on mummy." So lucky that he told me!

ForgivenessIsDivine · 06/01/2018 16:20

DSD'S was doing handstands in the kitchen while eating a Maom sweet he had got from a Kids National Geographic magazine, DD calmly said DS needs help. I never understood why KNG put so much crap in with their magazines...

Figrollsnotfatrolls · 06/01/2018 16:21

Coming in from work, ds about 8 and younger siblings playing in the garden, dh somewhere in the house, ds 8 had been spinning the swing ropes around and fallen off the swing seat - effectively hanging himself - Ran in the house and got a knife and had to cut him down. Younger ones hadn't realised he was in trouble as he couldn't shout for help!! Washing on the line had hidden the swing from dh /window view. Never having a swing again.

moolady1977 · 06/01/2018 16:22

My ds1 from being 9month old had so many near misses, on his reins walking round a lake his uncle swung him and the reins broke, running between his gp living room and conservatory in his socks he slipped and got the chair bottom impaled in his forehead, cutting his finger nails he jerked and cut his finger to name a few. My dd headbutted a dining chair, rolled the computer chair over her toes, ran into a fence on her bike, playing hopscotch she fell over her feet and sprained her arm. My ds2 I've been very lucky with

NinaNoSleep · 06/01/2018 16:25

Priscilla we just hadn't considered the risk of having an ensuite in the room.
We didn't ever leave them again. We were so lucky that the outcome wasn't much more serious. Possibly not PC, but I always think about how different the outcome could have been when there is information on tv about Madeleine McCann. Just one poorly thought out decision. We are all capable of making them.

NaughtyNoraTheNamechanger · 06/01/2018 16:25

Oh my gosh Shockat some of these!!!

Ginmakesitallok · 06/01/2018 16:28

When dd was about 8 we were crossing a busy road. I was in the middle of saying "we'll go after this one", she heard "We'll go" and ran across the road in front of a car
It was terrifying. Car screeched to a halt and just missed her. I'll never forget that feeling.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 06/01/2018 16:32

Taking my dd to school. This car just came speeding out of nowhere, and litreally missed her by a few inches.
Theres not a day goes by when I don't think, but what if, and at other times I say to myself , but You can't think like because she was okay. Easier said than done though. I know something saved my dd that day and to say I'm externally grateful would be the biggest understatement of all time.
. It's like a constant terror that something will happen to them.

bouncydog · 06/01/2018 16:41

DD (2) ran up the kitchen slipped and fell hitting her head on the key style handle of the cupboard right between the eyes. An inch to left or right and she would have lost an eye.

Another time she put a 5p pice in her mouth - I had to pick her up by her heels to get it out as went to the back of her tongue and I couldn’t reach it to pull it out.

We all have similar near misses!

BothersomeCrow · 06/01/2018 16:49

When ds was a week old he was in a basket on the floor. Some idiot, probably DH, had left car roof bars on end leaning against the wall and another idiot, either me or a visitor, knocked them over very near his head.

Then I dropped him on the stairs a few months later and he bounced all the way to the bottom (he was screaming but fine, I was shaking for hours), which made me a bit less scared when he sat up for the first time, on the change table and went head first off it - I caught him enough to break the fall.

We made sure we had a bolt and chain on the front door that were too hard for a toddler to open. Ditto stair gates. Then one day I heard 2yo ds telling 3yo dss "me hold here. You lift there" and found they'd opened the front door and were wandering along the street.

Dd I'm amazed she's reached 7. One day I was on the phone to 111 being told which A&E to take her to and had to drop the phone three times to stop her potentially killing herself. Stool on chair with toy on top to enable her to reach a cupboard 6 foot up, that kind of thing. Still have to keep telling her not to stand on kitchen counters to look in.cupboards...

MrsHathaway · 06/01/2018 16:49

Like natwebb it was furniture with us: then-2yo pulled out all the drawers of a chest of drawers to climb up. It toppled, and the CRT telly on top slid across and down.

Fortunately it was near enough the end of the bed that it didn't fall flat but left a wedge-shaped void, in which poor pfb cowered, speechless, until we could lift the cupboard back up again.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if it had fallen on him it would have broken every bone in his body including his skull and ribs and that he would have been dead within minutes.

I am fanatical about getting people to attach heavy furniture to walls now. I dgaf how antique the cupboard nor how expensive the wallpaper.

Babababababybel23 · 06/01/2018 16:50

2mo dd was in her bouncer watching tv. I was about ten feet away ironing. The iron slipped out of my hand, managed to unplug itself and flew around the room. Landed inches away from dd. I have never cried so much in my life. The guilt was awful. I never told me dh - who was working at the time - what happened

RedGrapeCornSnake · 06/01/2018 16:50

3 kids, lots of near misses

Had my eldest pipe up from the backseat at about 3yr old 'I'm clipped undone' because one of her car seat buckles hadn't gone in properly and I hadn't noticed. I think I'd gone overboard on the car safety message as she was hysterical until I pulled over approximately 30 seconds later!

Worst one was #3 age 4 on an downwards escalator, she'd managed to stand between steps and I didn't notice until we started descending and she started tipping forward. I literally slammed my hand into her ribs and grabbed her clothes to stop her falling. I think she was more pissed off than scared, my heartbeat didn't slow down for a good long while. I have no idea why I didn't hold her hand that time, I've not let her on an escalator since without holding her hand - even though she's now 7!

villainousbroodmare · 06/01/2018 16:53

I was in the pharmacy with DS at about 18mo. He was in the buggy getting a bit impatient and I handed him a securely childproof new bottle of heartburn tablets to rattle which he happily did. Paid and on we went, me pushing and cheerfully pointing out things in shop windows when something made me pause and look at him... he had bitten off that tough security plastic seal on the bottle and was silently choking on it. I managed to grab the corner of it in the back of his throat. I was literally pushing my choking child obliviously and cheerfully around the shops. Will never forget it.

user838383 · 06/01/2018 16:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Trafficjammadness · 06/01/2018 16:54

D's was about 2 when I was on drive way and he was standing next to me, I was sorting the seatbelt and turned to put him on to see him running full speed at the main road, I screamed and managed to grab him about an inch from stepping of the pavement ( road is very busy and people speed down it) I have never been more terrified and kept replying it in my mind and what if etc. Must admit took a while yo recover and I was obsessive over the road ever since

Trafficjammadness · 06/01/2018 16:56

Sorry lots of typos replayed not replied

FreddieClaryHorshieLion · 06/01/2018 16:59

Nearly threw DD1 into a rotating ceiling fan when we were on holiday.

She could have been killed / grievously injured and the hospitals just aren’t that great in certain countries either.

Naty1 · 06/01/2018 17:02

Dd1 nibbled some mushrooms in the park at 3.
At 5 walked herself home from a walk (no crossing)
As a baby realised we had put her back in car seat with blanket on without doing up. Luckily it was on the pushchair and we hadnt gone up or done any stairs.
2 kids i know have fallen out of pushchairs down stairs after not being done up.

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