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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask for your terrible parenting stories

195 replies

Spanglebangle · 15/04/2021 19:56

DS just fell down the stairs. I just took the dinner plates into the kitchen. One minute he was watching TV the next I come back from the kitchen and there's a thud and a scream. He's fine a bump on the head but cheered up after a few minutes and was his usual self, I spent longer crying than he did! He wasn't more than one or two steps up I just feel like complete shit this evening.

So please show me I'm not tho only 'bad mummy' with your stories.

OP posts:
possumgoddess · 17/04/2021 08:34

I don't feel quite so bad about mine now! Although it happened 35 years ago and I haven't forgotten it...... I used to live in a flat with its own small garden which was down 6 concrete steps from the back door. I was hanging out the washing in the garden, didn't notice my 2 yr old tottering around in my shoes inside, she comes out of the door and falls down the steps. Lots of bruises but no lasting damage thank goodness!

CigarsofthePharoahs · 17/04/2021 08:38

Ds1 broke his arm at school.
He was 7. He and his friends were mucking about on a school climbing frame at let out time. They weren't supposed to, but no-one ever tried to stop them. I liked having a ten minute rest before walking home.
Ds1 fell off. He waved to a friend with the arm he was holding on with and went down like that statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down by the tank, except he was palm out.
He was sure it was broken. I remarked that if he could move his arm, then it was fine and I could touch it, so it must be fine, now let's go and walk home.
We got to about the half way point home and he turns grey and can't walk any further. He almost passes out. Ds2 is asleep in the buggy and can't be roused, else I'd have put ds1 in there and made do. We were stuck so I called my mum for a lift. Also the very nice couple who lived in the house we'd stopped in front of came out and made sure we were ok, and they gave ds1 some biscuits. He was still very grey faced and couldn't eat them.
It was at this point I knew it was serious.
Yes, he'd broken his arm. Complete supracondular fracture of the elbow. I didn't believe him. Plaster for six weeks.
Two days later, we're all at home as ds1 can't go to school until his first fracture clinic appointment to make sure everything is stable. DH asks to take the car as he's knackered. I say yes, I'm not planning on going anywhere.....
I should have been watching ds2 closely and not fussing over ds1. Ds2 put lego up his nose and needed a trip to the local walk in centre to remove it. Had to call my mum again.
I also let ds1 eat a cat biscuit as a toddler as I thought it would teach him to stop trying to get them. It did work.

Pinkflipflop85 · 17/04/2021 12:15

The cat flap story has made my morning 😂

BlackeyedSusan · 19/04/2021 01:59

Both sets of kids' grandparents let their children eat nappy cream.

Notworking123 · 20/04/2021 00:40

I left my 3 week old baby in a queue and completely forgot his existence for about 30 minutes.

Notworking123 · 20/04/2021 00:43

Oh, I also unstrapped the same baby from him car seat while we were in a cafe about a week later. Forgot he was unstrapped, picked the car seat up and he dropped onto the concrete floor. I don't know if these things are all related, but he's a very hardy and independent child now...

Soubriquet · 24/04/2021 09:56

Two come to mind...both involving DS Hmm

First one was when he was 9 weeks old. I was woken up by a panicking dh. He was holding ds against his chest face out and fell off a step. He landed down and whilst most of his weight was off ds, ds still got a bit squashed. He had also taken a dummy for the first time which shattered with the force of the land.

One side of his face swelled up and he had a cut on his lip where the dummy shattered. Took him to A&E and he was checked over by a doctor. He was fine! 24 hours later most of the swelling had gone. 48 hours later it was like it had never happened! He had looked like he been through 10 rounds with Mike Tyson and yet he was perfectly back to normal. Dh took a long time to forgive himself for that.

Second one, we was out shopping. Dh was in a shop and I was sat outside with ds and dd. Noticed dd had dropped a glove so pointed to it and turned back to ds. I was literally seconds and ds had disappeared. I looked everywhere but no he had gone. I was panicking like mad, poor dh was panicking. Security guards sent out messages on their radio and even the public were helping look and trying to console us. He was found at the other end of the shopping mall babbling about someone getting him sweets. We didn’t think to insist on looking at CCTV as we were a wreck at the time but I wish we had because I thought it sounded suspect

Soubriquet · 24/04/2021 10:04

Oh god I forgot one that left me feeling mum guilt for months

Ds was crying as a baby and we could not console him. Finally worked out what it was. He had one of my hairs wrapped around one of his toes. It had just started to cut into the skin and if we hadn’t noticed it there was a chance he could have lost that toe. I felt so awful I kept randomly crying every day for weeks

riotlady · 24/04/2021 12:07

When DD started crawling I would play a game with her where I’d chase her along the floor and then catch her and throw her in the air. One day we were playing and I caught her- didn’t realise we were standing under the door frame and chucked her head first into it

JudgeJ · 24/04/2021 21:09

When I was doing a long term supply teaching job our daughter would come with me and before the class came in she was taken off to Kindergarten. One day she managed to climb up onto a table and then up onto a chair that the cleaners had lifted off the floor and I hadn't lifted down yet. The whole lot collaped and she fell onto the tiled art area, I was there almost as she hit the floor and even so the egg on her forehead was huge. She survived though and in later years managed to trip a number of times, bruising the same spot.

JudgeJ · 24/04/2021 21:14

@Notworking123

I left my 3 week old baby in a queue and completely forgot his existence for about 30 minutes.
I did a similar thing with a friend's baby, I'd met her in the NAAFI, she had the 1 year old in the trolley seat and her son walking but he was feeling under the weather and was whining. I offered to put the little one in my trolley and she could take her son. Worked well, I paid and went to the packing area, the yelling of a baby not impacting until I suddenly realised which baby it was!
bluebellsparklypants · 27/04/2021 21:08

I picked my DS up from his changing mat and put him over my shoulder ready to stand up with him but i was further back than I thought and whacked his head on the sink behide me, never felt worse but no lasting damage though

Saracen · 27/04/2021 23:38

I used to set my younger child down for a nap under a tree in the park while I chatted with the other mums and watched DC1. I would often turn my back to the baby and regularly used to forget about her entirely. After 15 minutes or so I would think "BABY! Where is baby? ...oh good, still under tree, still happy."

I am a very laid-back parent and didn't feel it was necessary to watch her every second, but I did intend to glance in her direction every few minutes. Which I often failed to do.

enchantedspleen · 27/04/2021 23:55

My little girl was crawling around all over the place at 10 months old. As a play, I tapped her on the bum with my foot as it made her giggle- this time however, it must have caught her by surprise and she went over as I tapped her! I FELT AWFUL! We haven't played that game since!

floss1 · 27/04/2021 23:56

Where to start!!!!Grin

Didn’t secure the brake properly with oldest son and whilst sleeping in buggy he bounced down 3 steps outside - thankfully slept through the drama!!

My oldest managed to touch the eyelid of my youngest with a sparkler!!!!

I did some excellent parenting catching vomit in a cardboard food container before being able to pull off a duel carriageway - only to let myself down trying to tip it out at speed and decorating the side of the car with it!!

bedtimeshoes · 28/04/2021 00:56

Wish I hadn't read all these... horrible. Poor kids.

81Byerley · 28/04/2021 01:05

When I was fostering, someone rang the front doorbell, and when I went to see who it was, a stranger had my 21 month old foster daughter. She'd found her on her little push along toy in the middle of the road, just about to join the main road at the top. She'd gone about a quarter of a mile. I was sorting out the kitchen after dinner and thought she was in the garden with my husband, he thought she was with me in the house. The woman had found me by asking people in their gardens if they knew the little girl, and one man had said there was someone further along who always had a lot of kids.

Clevererthanyou · 28/04/2021 01:15

My older brother lobbed a dart in my back when I was 3, does that count? I also broke my arm from falling off a scooter and my mum didn’t believe me (despite the screaming) so she told me to stop being so dramatic and go away because she was watching the soaps Grin

81Byerley · 28/04/2021 01:15

My friend was fostering a little boy who worked out how to undo his seat belt. She was driving along the road, and she suddenly realised the back door was open and he'd fallen out. He was running after the car crying, with not a mark on him! It did make him keep his seat belt on after that! When his Mum came to see him, he told her what had happened, and she thought he'd had a bad dream, so my friend went along with that rather than confessing.

stillfeelbadaboutitnow · 28/04/2021 01:17

As above
Dropped DC on the floor in the hospital from cot height, less than 24 hrs old.
She actually hit the cot frame bars on the way down too, it was awful. DC was perfectly fine but had to be checked by the paediatrician and I had a lot of questioning (in case I had done it on purpose).
I'd been in active labour for 27 hours and hadn't slept for three days, had a caesarean and DC was vomiting green stuff every hour so needed changing and the cot needed changing too. After pressing the buzzer loads of times to help and being huffed at I decided I should do it myself and dropped DC leaning over to put her back in the cot.
Terrifying !

Soubriquet · 28/04/2021 02:49

@bedtimeshoes

Wish I hadn't read all these... horrible. Poor kids.
Because yes you must have been a perfect parent who never had a single accident Hmm
Saz12 · 28/04/2021 09:22

DC was about 2, with a cold. She started breathing a bit fast and hard, but nothing really major or obvious. PFB so called NHS 24, who gave me OoH appt. DC seemed completely fine by the time we were seen, dancing in waiting room etc. When saw dr I said something like “she seems fine now, I think we’ll be wasting your time, sorry”.

Dr checks SATS, DC immediately gets blue lighted to hospital on oxygen. In my defence, ambulance guys thought she was fine & the GP finger clip thingy was wrong, until they took her SATS.

All the people who say “trust your instinct” when it comes to your DC clearly have much better instincts than I do!

OrangeRug · 28/04/2021 10:01

Ignore the Perfect Parent upthread OP. Can guarantee they either don't have kids or have a very selective memory.

Me and DH have both opened the fridge foor onto DDs head when we didn't realise she'd sneaked up on us looking for snacks. I once lost control of the pram going down a steep kerb and she ended up face down on the pavement. Luckily she was not injured, just shocked. Another time were all eating pizza on the floor and she stuck her fingers into the hamster cage. The hamster ofc thought she was being fed a delicious cheesy snack and bit her. There was a lot of blood.

These things happen.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 28/04/2021 13:42

@bedtimeshoes - do you not see that the stories on here are about ACCIDENTS - none of them are about children being deliberately harmed. Accidents happen - that is why they are not called Deliberates or On Purposes.

Maybe you are lucky, and have never had an accident involving your child - I would suggest that that is down to luck rather than superior parenting.

UndeadSlut · 28/04/2021 14:23

Was pretending to bite ds1's fingers when he was about 1, ended up actually biting one by accident. He was fine but annoyingly it was in front of ex MIL who was an absolute cow about it. For literally months afterwards she would "remind me" not to play that game, and told everyone she knew about how I'd bitten him "really hard".

Lost DS3 once, thought he'd gone out of the front door and onto the road but he couldn't be seen. I was frantic and sobbing and just about to call the police when I found him in the cupboard under the stairs with his ear defenders on. He's autistic and was having a sensory overload so had found somewhere dark and quiet. That took years off my life I'm sure.