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Original poster

My life could have been totally different today

107 replies

Sandyrain · 07/11/2018 08:04

Last night I turned my back for 2 seconds and my 2yo ran into the road. There was a small van coming down and he had to emergency break I inftont of dc.
Luckily he was turning into stop at the shop other wise things could have been very different. He was going 25mph. It's terrifying to think what could have happened. What if it was a speeding driver?
A driver not paying attention?
A larger van that didn't see dc as dc is so small?

I'm counting my blessings that she is safe and well. And how life can change in the blink of an eye.

OP posts:
Mrsfrumble · 08/11/2018 17:57

Sussexman that’s the article I mentioned upthread. It’s so haunting, isn’t it? It filled me with a feeling of “there but for the grace of God”, and I don’t even drive!

M3lon · 08/11/2018 18:20

I was walking a couple of metres behind my DH who was carrying 3 month old DD. suddenly a car mounted the pavement brushing his arm before pilling into a bollard.

DH just stepped around and carried on walking...I was a complete mess.

It was an elderly driver who didn't seem to have any idea why he had gone on the wrong side fo the road then up onto the pavement.

blackchina · 08/11/2018 18:26

You poor thing. And thank God your child was OK/is OK.

Happens to virtually everyone. You can't keep your eye on them every minute of every day! Don't feel bad.

(((HUGS)))

ferretyfeet · 08/11/2018 18:29

I have to sa ythat I quite often see people taking their children to school Parents are busy yacking on their phones and kids about 2/3 years old running way in front on a busy main road.We have often had a small child run out in front of us and it;svery very scary,if we say anything to the parents they look at us as ifwe are to blame.I cannot understand why people don't use reins for their small children, if the children don't like it tough.

Dillydallyingthrough · 08/11/2018 18:31

Oh god this brought back a memory from 12 years ago I have tried to forget!

I passed my driving test 2 weeks before, I was driving around 10pm on a dual carriage way when suddenly a child about 3 just ran into the road. I emergency braked and swerved slightly (there was a car in the lane next to me). I managed to miss the child by about 1cm. I put my hazards on, dragged my 2 year old out of the car picked him up and worked out the house he had come from. They were having a party and all of the adults were clearly very tipsy. I'm ashamed to say I went crazy at them, the mother came out, grabbed him out of my arms and just walked off. I got back in my car and drove about 20mph all the way home, shaking and crying, with cars beeping behind me all the way. Couldn't drive again for about a month, I used to have nightmares that I killed the boy and my daughter. I can still remember his face in the headlights.

grannieali · 08/11/2018 18:36

Everyday horror stories. Why not put toddlers in reins?. These went out of fashion yetsa ago
Before that not many people had expensive buggies. My sister, now 76, had a set with bells on the front.
Small children ate less reliable than dogs so keep them on reins or a leash!

Dingbat · 08/11/2018 18:38

As a pp has said, why have reins and wrist straps gone out of fashion? I had three under four years old and would have been a mess without them.
Big hugs to all of you who have suffered or been frightened.

vandrew4 · 08/11/2018 18:49

I'm a childminder and wouldn't dream of walking little ones down the road without reins / wrist straps. Couldn't care less if some people disapprove. In fact. what exactly is the disapproval about?

mumsastudent · 08/11/2018 18:49

ds aged 3 was helping unload car boot ds 6 didn't notice & SLAMMED boot on his fingers - I expected to find 4 little fingers in car boot - they were still attached & not flattened (he was skinny) took him to a&e (first of his season tickets visits:) ) no damage - how he got away with it I do not know. (ds loved her little db no sibling issues!!!)

mumsastudent · 08/11/2018 18:50

re cm (my past :)) I was a great believer in straps but even so things can happen...

PassMeTheBleach · 08/11/2018 18:58

mumsastudent This is really outing but I did something similar with my little brother. Slammed the car door shut with his fingers caught in the hinge side. He screamed, I screamed, our poor mum had no idea what was going on. Opening that door was the scariest experience of my life- I fully expected to find all his fingers on the floor. It was Christmas Eve too and he was working towards a career as a goalkeeper. I spent the whole of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day crying over how I’d ruined his career. Somehow, thank God, his fingers weren’t even bruised (and he made it as a goalie in the end!)

EvaHarknessRose · 08/11/2018 19:01

Dds mattress got set on fire one night by a hot light bulb that shouldn’t have been there. We didn’t know until the morning. Thank god for fire retardant materials.

My friends dd was cycling to school on a wide pavement cycle path next to a busy road. A pedestrian flung her arm out and she and her bike fell into oncoming traffic on the A road. She was fine, the cars managed to stop.

Canuckduck · 08/11/2018 19:02

My six year old almost drowned in our backyard pool when he was 2. I closed the gate and he was in the backyard. I went into the shed to put a chemical bucket away. In that minute he went in and fell face forward. I came out instantly wondered where he was. I opened the gate (which had a thick cover on it so he couldn’t climb) and saw him under the water. I dived it brought him up and he vomited and then we went in and had a shower. He was ok but it was all my fault and I’ve never again been so careless.

Supermum29 · 08/11/2018 19:09

Things like this always hit me. I work in car insurance and I remember a lady I dealt with lost her 3 year old daughter when she was run over at a zebra crossing. I remember for weeks reading to my daughter at bed time feeling devastated for the poor lady that could no longer do that with her little girl.

It really makes you realise how precious time is and just how quickly it can be taken away!

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 08/11/2018 19:11

Can'tfind. It just shows how loyal dogs are doesnt it, and The way he let you near her. He must have known you were her mummy, bless him

Linzbe · 08/11/2018 19:45

I've been that child who ran into the road!
I was about 5 and had just been picked up by my mum after school. We were walking to a road where she always parked, I saw her car on the other side of the road and just ran towards it. A car was coming down the road (slowly luckily) and hit the breaks.
I remember it so clearly and I bet my mum does too! I'm soooooo road safety conscious now, so much so I tell my husband off for crossing in the wrong places / not waiting for the green man at a crossing 😂

GreatAuntMary · 08/11/2018 20:10

What is it about reins - why did they disappear virtually overnight?

I didn't realise I'd even spent my early years on reins until my sister was born; I asked my mother "Why does she have to have reins? I never did" and was put right with the help of photographs!

My sister would have been killed several times over without reins because she was always darting off to explore things (cars, horses, water...) at a second's notice. I can remember her being lifted off the ground by her reins on a couple of occasions, to get her out of trouble (once just before she fell into a reservoir).

Please don't listen to negative comments from idiots - toddlers need reins!

Crappygilmore · 08/11/2018 20:23

Bless u OP. My moment was at a music festival 4 years ago. D's was 5 1/2 and full of mischief. Dh took him to the toilet and on the way back he ran on ahead. Into a crowd of 15000 revellers waiting for the headline act. Then like Kaiser sośe he disappeared. For 50 minutes I went out of my mind. Running around looking for him in the dark. Dh in shock stayed in the same place hoping he'd find us. All our neighbours passed the news around to be on the look out. And I silently died every minute he was gone. Then a young girl on the order of her family camped out at the lost children tent and came running back with the news he'd been found and bought their. I ran and we did the whole running falling to knees hugging reunion routine. I had never felt such relief. I cried and held him in my arms for the rest of the set he fell asleep and I promised myself if never let this happen again. Now every festival he is bedecked in a high vis vest with my phone number emblazoned on the back and little lights all over it. Thankfully it has never happened again. I never want to feel that hopeless again.

DuckofDoom · 08/11/2018 20:36

CrappyGilmore I found a missing boy at a music festival once. Took him to a policeman who showed me the lost and found tent. He’d been with his sister but wandered off and lost her in the crowd. It was two hours before mum picked him up. I still think about how terrifying that time must have been for his family.

Bojangles33 · 08/11/2018 20:42

This thread has absolutely terrified me and I am buying reigns immediately

Flashingbeacon · 08/11/2018 20:49

I had to stop when a small child about 2 or 3 at most wandered in front of my car. Thankfully I was driving very slowly towards a roundabout. He was clearly on his own so I screamed at dm in the passenger street to get him. It was outside the Scottish parliament which as police on duty. All they saw was my car stopping the door being flung open and a child being scooped up, while I bump on the pavement.
Police came running over, my dm hadn’t really seen what happened. I leapt from the car shouting “lost child, who’s child is on the road!” .
That piece of road has ponds too and is extremely touristy. Was a tick list of ways a child could be hurt.
Turned out he had wandered out from the palace and his parents hadn’t noticed. I had got such a fright, he was so tiny and had the roundabout been clear I would have killed him. To my shame I shouted at the parents, who didn’t speak English, then at the police insisting they were charged (with what I don’t know).

bogiesaremyonlyfriend · 08/11/2018 21:02

My dd won a voucher at school for waterstones so I'd taken her into town to buy some books. On the way she managed to drop the voucher into the road, slipped out of my hand and bent to pick it up but couldn't get down as instinctively I grabbed her hand, just as a bus drive right past, literally touching the hair on her head. Makes me sick thinking about what could have happened. I was in too much shock to do anything, just stood and cried. She hadn't even noticed

maceyuk · 08/11/2018 21:21

This thread has terrified me. My DS is 3 and is very boisterous, never walks anywhere, always trys to run. We live in the countryside so he doesn’t often get the opportunity to cross a road and understand the dangers.

I’m now ordering reins online tonight.

nannykatherine · 08/11/2018 21:52

never trust s toddler

applesin · 08/11/2018 22:48

This has totally freaked me out, my toddler is really well behaved most the time so I often don't use reins if we're just going for a short walk. I will make sure to use them in future.

My stepdad once nearly ran over some children on a dual carriageway. It was late in the evening, and three little boys ran across the dual carriageway. He only just missed them, he had to stop and call the police. On his way back (he was dropping his kids off) he saw the police on the side of the dual carriageway so he stopped and told them he was the one who had called. Turned out they lived backed onto the dual carriageway, the youngest boy was 3 and the parents hadn't even noticed they were gone. He was really late home and was absolutely shaking when he got in, it was so close.