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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you to tell me about when you’ve experienced ‘mother’s intuition’?

122 replies

Tryagainplease · 16/01/2022 22:38

Sort of inspired by the fascinating matrix thread.

What stories do you have of your intuition telling you something about your child(ren)?

I don’t have any majorly weird ones but I still find it so weird that I just know when DS is going to be ill before he even shows any symptoms. Quite a few times I’ve brought calpol and a bowl up to bed knowing full well he is going to get a fever and be sick even though there are absolutely no reasons for me to think this. DH even finds it a bit weird still as he doesn’t get this even though he is very close to DS also.

OP posts:
LowlyTheWorm · 16/01/2022 22:39

I’ve known both times my daughter has been pregnant. Does that count?

Sowhatifiam · 16/01/2022 22:42

Youngest child was diagnosed with serious illness. Several medical professionals over the course of 24 hours told me it was ‘just flu’. His symptoms were just flu. Had I not argued - which is not like me - they told me he’s have been dead by the morning. Despite it looking like not very much at all, I just knew he was seriously ill.

Picklesandbeans · 16/01/2022 22:44

When I was a teenager I worked in a shop. The shop was robbed by a man who put a knife to my throat. My mum arrived at the scene before the police! She doesn't know why but decided to come check on me- something she never usually did.

GayParis · 16/01/2022 22:45

My mum very much had it with me when I was younger.

I had a sore leg for such a long time when I was around 7/8. The doctors told her 3 times it was growing pains and they would go away and she just kept going back to the doctors asking for it to be looked into as she was sure it was more.

I ended up having a huge tumour on my thigh bone they had to cut out!

nancy75 · 16/01/2022 22:47

I think mums are so tuned in to our children, it’s like a kind of psychic link ( and I very much don’t believe in woo of any kind so feel a bit weird saying that) I can see & smell if DD is going to be ill, even before she feels ill. She gets a look around her eyes that I can’t describe but I can see (DH can’t see it)

FunnysInLaJardin · 16/01/2022 22:48

I knew DS1 was close to sepsis and insisted he be put on IV antibiotics in hospital even though the doctor wanted to send him home. He had facial cellulitis which very nearly caused meningitis and sepsis.

He was 10 and so ill I slept in his room for the 3 nights prior to his admission. I just knew in my bones it was serious

Picklesandbeans · 16/01/2022 22:49

@nancy75 conokeyely agree I can look at my kids and know they're not right. Dh just can't see the same thing.

WomBat55 · 16/01/2022 22:50

When my DS was a newborn, he was very quiet and I just knew something was wrong. In the middle of the night on day 2, I just said to the midwife - “there’s something wrong I know it” - thankfully she listened and didn’t dismiss as a first time mum. He was subsequently diagnosed with group b strep and was very sick. Made a full recovery Smile

PiesNotGuys · 16/01/2022 22:50

I’m well known for catching things my dc drop, catching them when they fall, sliding my hand in between their head and a table at the last second before they run into it, and just generally launching myself at them a split second before they seem to know themselves that something is about to go amiss.

I don’t think it’s intuition really, more an awareness of them physically. It’s not restricted to tiny kids, my olders are teen and I’m still catching them….I swear they get clumsier as they get older!

loahsjrtkajwosihdyr · 16/01/2022 22:50

Nothing serious but I can smell when mine are going to be unwell.

Original poster
Tryagainplease · 16/01/2022 22:50

@LowlyTheWorm

I’ve known both times my daughter has been pregnant. Does that count?
Yes, it definitely counts!
OP posts:
PiesNotGuys · 16/01/2022 22:51

I can small sick kids too but I’m sure that’s chemical. Ketones?

PiesNotGuys · 16/01/2022 22:51

*smell

Footnote · 16/01/2022 22:51

I wonder if it’s smell for some of these. My kids have never had a non-obvious illness, but as a child I often told my parents that they smelled like were going to be ill or have toothache, and was usually right.

Original poster
Tryagainplease · 16/01/2022 22:52

@PiesNotGuys

I’m well known for catching things my dc drop, catching them when they fall, sliding my hand in between their head and a table at the last second before they run into it, and just generally launching myself at them a split second before they seem to know themselves that something is about to go amiss.

I don’t think it’s intuition really, more an awareness of them physically. It’s not restricted to tiny kids, my olders are teen and I’m still catching them….I swear they get clumsier as they get older!

This happens to me too! DS often climbs in to my bed, and he is still a toddler. I usually sleep really deeply but a few times I’ve woken up and grabbed him before he falls out of bed.
OP posts:
Footnote · 16/01/2022 22:52

Cross-post

FortySeven · 16/01/2022 22:53

At a wedding, the mum of my cousin’s DP offered to take DD (then age 4) for a walk around the grounds. She was a very respectable-looking 60-something softly spoken lady but every fibre of my being was screaming not to let her near DD so I made an excuse and avoided her for the rest of the day. It became apparent through her actions years later that she was an utterly evil human being. It sounds silly but she had an emptiness in her eyes and I couldn’t get my DD away from her fast enough that day.

MrsSkylerWhite · 16/01/2022 22:53

Too many times, over 26 years, to list.

Go with it, every time.

FunnysInLaJardin · 16/01/2022 22:53

Plus I spent the next 5 days in hospital with him day and night. I have always worked mostly full time and have never been a mumsy full on mum, but I couldn't leave his side then. I needed to be with him

CamomileTeabag · 16/01/2022 22:54

Nothing to do with illness, but with friends and boyfriends, I knew they'd found "their people" long before they knew.

StellatheCat · 16/01/2022 22:55

My mum didn’t tell me about this for a good few months after the event, but when I was going through the process of finding out I was pregnant, early scans, diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy - she had a dream that I was holding a baby in my arms and crying. She didn’t even know that I was pregnant at that point.

Sebastianthecoo · 16/01/2022 22:55

Another one who can smell illness here.

When DS was 5 weeks old I called for an emergency GP appointment even though he was feeding and had wet nappies, normal sleep and cry pattern I just knew something wasn’t right. The GP sent us to A&E for bloods and he had sepsis. I’m so grateful she listened to me that day and don’t dismiss me as an anxious mum.

Underthestairsbears · 16/01/2022 22:59

Driving my car into DDs nursery entrance I had a feeling that she'd bumped her head.
Arrived to pick her up and told "she's fine, but she did just bump her head"

I had spate of dreams about my little boy drowning. We then went to a family party, DH came in from outside where he'd been with toddler DS, I asked where DS was and he said still outside. I said get him quick, there's a pond! DH got to him just as he fell in. They were both drenched but safe.

StylishMummy · 16/01/2022 22:59

I can sense when DC are going to be poorly, they also change smell & their wee smells completely different. I can tell if DD1 is going to have an 'anxious day' before I've even seen her in the morning. Also avoided a creepy dad at a park once because my antennae were just picking up 'fucking weirdo' vibes. He was later in the local paper being caught by vigilante paedophile hunters

Workin8til6 · 16/01/2022 23:00

I knew from when my eldest DD was born that there was something not right with her. No specific reasons, nothing obvious medically. I just knew though, from the day she was born I knew I needed to look after her in ways that most other children wouldn’t need looking after. I was dismissed by everyone including my own family as overly anxious. When she started to miss milestones I said look, I told you, something is not right but it took me ages and ages to get anyone to take me seriously. Finally got referred to a paediatrician when she was 14 months and not crawling or standing or babbling. She has a genetic neurological condition that is a random genetic mutation so it’s not even like other family members have it and I was already on the look out.

We had DD2 and my DH asked me soon after she was born if I was worried that she’d have the same condition (we wouldn’t know in medical terms straight away). I said no, she doesn’t have it. He asked how do I know and I said I just do. I was right; she doesn’t, she’s fine.