the worst thing I have ever done due to child induced fatigue

[80schild]

I feel awful about this. DS had me up a lot last night as a result I got a maximum of 4 hour sleep, as a result I am bordering on exhausted, particularly with the other one just back at school.

Anyway we went out for a walk this morning to a park which is a good 15 minutes by car. I got home, went to get him out and realised I hadn't strapped him - I had been driving down an A road at 50 and he wasn't strapped him. I still feel awful about it. I think it is probably the worst thing I have ever done. We are snuggling up on the sofa now and resting. Has anyone else ever done similar? Also, how is it people manage to not be dopy when they are so tired?

I have done that too MrsFrank

Saskia

I managed to give ds a bowl of cat meat for breakfast. In his cereal bowl.

Neither ds nor the cat was happy with this.

Had a friend stay overnight when dd was tiny, I fell asleep leaving friend to give dd a feed.

Drove into town, walked home. Thought car was stolen.

DS2 was referred to as "Baby [DS2's given name]" for at least the first 3 months of his life, as it gave me thinking time to remember it and not constantly call him by his brother's/DH's name.

DH and I did all sorts of crazy sleep addled stuff until DS1 was a few weeks old. We've definitely forgotten to strap the car seat into the car. We set off on a busy road in the car when DS1 was about 3 weeks old and, when DH suddenly braked hard, I was puzzled as to why I fell forwards towards the dashboard. Turned out I had forgotten to do up my seat belt.

I once slept fed DS, which actually entailed me pouring milk on myself and mumbling about him, who was soundly asleep in his cot.

Took DD to the village shop at 7 am the other morning, which involves several steep curbs and road crossings, and only after starting the walk back did I realise she wasn't strapped in. We have a Stokke Xplory (the old V2 one - I have mobility issues when post-partum so need a very high buggy) so the fall to the ground would be a big one. And she is 18 months old, so heavy and wriggly. It gave me the shudders, imagining her falling that way onto solid concrete, very possibly landing on her head. God knows how she didn't tbh.

I've left the front door wide open numerous times. I've forgotten to prompt 6 yr old DS to close it, and he just walks out behind me and the little one without a thought.

One for classics I think, just spent a half hour nodding over all the things I also did when mine were younger. Going out in really manky, falling apart slippers. Walking home from the shops even though I drove there. Car keys in the freezer. Woke up on the sofa one time to find exp and DD1 rolling around laughing, apparently I had started stroking exp head, mumbling what a good boy he was (he wasn't incidentally) as if he was the dog. It's still referred to as "crystal balling" because exp had no hair so it looked like I was trying to see my sleepless future in his head.
I also dashed out if bed and grabbed a broom to bash the smoke alarm, before I realised it was ds apnea alarm not the smoke alarm, use to go off a lot, he was fine btw just peed a lot and it had come loose again.
Pretty sure I didn't sleep properly for the first two years of his life mind.

Left the front door open
Strapped baby in car seat and left it on the floor by the car while I packed all the stuff into the car, reversed off the drive and left the baby on the floor!
I went to playgroup DS2 in pram, got him out for a cuddle and my friend said "er where's his nappy?" I had put him in a vest (summer), with poppers at the bottom but no nappy!

Oh man, I could write the book on this...

Took both DC out for a hike for the first time all together (DD was about 3 months) and merrily went off hiking with the doors to my car not just unlocked but with one door left WIDE OPEN. Not kidding. I actually left the car door wide open. Brand new car too that we had bought just after DD was born. How it wasn't stolen is a miracle!

And now even though DD is 10 months and really the sleep deprivation shouldn't be so severe anymore, I still am suffering from Swiss cheese brain syndrome. We were just on holidays abroad and we left our wallet with all our important documents and ID in the cottage we were renting on an island. Thankfully the hotel agreed to ship them to us within 24 hours otherwise we'd be stuffed.

Those are only the two more egregious examples of what I have done in my brain-fried state from lack of sleep. There are countless more small ones including not having my DD's car seat properly inserted into the ISOfix base a couple of times... It's a miracle I'm still allowed to be a parent to be honest... . So you are definitely not alone, OP!

Forgot to strap DD into her seat a few times
Locked myself out and DD in (thankfully she was big enough to get my keys from the bench and post them through the cat flap)
Frequently forgot her name until she was about 9months. Kept thinking I was still pregnant and saying "oh, we haven't decided on one yet."
Stood there and watched the dinner burn while trying to work out what the smell was.

XP worked shifts when DD was small. At one point I had a very vivid dream that his friend had broken in and left a box of nappies on the table and told me XP had left me. I called XP, howling down the phone about his betrayal and how could he do this etc. XP (utterly bemused) came home and calmed me down. It took forever for me to understand it was a dream. He had to show me the lack of nappies-on-the-table a few times.

I've also done the "baby strapped into car seat but car seat not strapped into car" and driven a junction down the M6 until I realised.
I left the car keys in the ignition, car parked on the street overnight a couple of times.

Never told DH either of these!

Well not really due to tiredness, but certainly distraction and having a load of things to remember to take with me, I have also left the front door wide open - more than once.

I have also not strapped in a child when a baby. He was in the hall in the car seat and I'd undone the straps but they were still in position; we went back out and I just plonked the seat in the base. Once they get to 3 years or so they tell you, or at least mine do. It doesn't happen much though that I'll forget.

Oh so many of these also;

Forgot DS birthday - he was 6 weeks old and the doctor asked when I had him and I replied "I don't know a few weeks ago I think"

Left DS2 in the hallway in his car seat and almost drove off until older DS asked if baby was big enough to to stay home alone

Fell asleep walking down the stairs. I stopped halfway down as couldn't walk anymore and rested my head on the bannister

Walked into a wall in the middle of the night when pacing trying to quiet crying baby

Driven to my DMs house before realising that DS was supposed to be at nursery today rather than her house

Chucked remote control in my bag instead of my phone

Tried to put the cat in the jumperoo instead of DS

Pushed a dummy into the mouth of a surprised 3 year old DS instead of the baby. Older DS never took a dummy even as a baby and just said to me "mummy what ARE you doing to me ?!"

Baby DS is still 8 months and waking every 2 hours plus I'm back at work in a week so I'm sure I'll have plenty more .....

I could have sworn that I put on the handbrake as I parked in TESCO but no, my sleep-refusing toddler and I were called to the front of the shop by tannoy to find a large group of rubberneckers staring at my car that had rolled across the car park and hit 2 cars and narrowly avoided hitting an old lady (her husband pushed her out of the path of the car - I honestly feel sick at the thought of what could have happened) I was so apologetic. I felt awful. I got home and cried and cried. Sleep deprivation is the worst - it can turn you into a monster, a wreck, it's awful.

Also, in early baby days I needed a tick list to stop me overdosing accidently. I couldn't remember when I'd taken any meds. On one occasion I took ibuprofen, walked out the room, walked back in and went to take it again, husband stopped me but I had no memory of taking anything.

Good thread - one for classics I think. I love upside down feeding baby and babyless babysitter

Fallen asleep at red lights, and had to be woken by the irate drivers behind me when they turned green. This has happened more than once.

Fallen asleep and forgotten to pick up ds1 from nursery whilst newborn ds2 napped.

Pushed the drivers seat back and gone to sleep on the driveway/supermarket car park/ random lay-bys when both ds1 and ds2 fell asleep in the car at the same time, because that was the only time they ever synchronised their sleeping.

Many many more, will need to think.

Going to work, forgot to put my pass into my bag so I got there, couldn't get in and had to go home.

Next day, double and triple checked I had packed everything: uniform, dinner. Pass in my jacket pocket Got into work, went to get changed, discovered I had lifted the baby changing bag instead of my work bag.

I have left the house without shoes more than once. I have got the wheels of the pram stuck underneath a train as I was getting off (terrifying) then got back to the car to find I'd forgot to display in the pay and display so I had a ticket, then got home to discover I had locked myself out and I badly needed a poo. Drove to DH's work, got keys used toilet drove home, found my own keys in bottom of bag. I had forgotten about that day until just now, it was hideous, it started off with me trying to visit a friend on the other side of London but when I got to London Bridge station there were no trains running and I couldn't get the pram on the tube so I turned around and went home. I sobbed a lot that day.

I also crashed the car when I was massively pregnant; moving off at a junction and the car in front stalled, it just didn't register that I needed to stop and I went into the back of it. When they got out (unhurt, undamaged, it was a very slow speed crash) I discovered that the poor driver was doing her driving test :(

Sleeping parked up in the car while both dc are asleep isn't a "bad thing you've done due to tiredness", it's a good idea. In fact I would go so far as to make it a recommendation to new parents!

I saw Elvis!!
Seriously, I was sitting up in bed feeding DD in the middle of the night and I saw him walk through the door out of the corner of my eye. Obviously she I turned to look properly he had gone. Really weird.

I have a variation on not strapping baby into car seat (which I also did when DD was 10 weeks old). Not rotating the 360 rotating car seat round to face the front or back, instead she is facing the side window. Have done this a few times and only realise when I can hear the happy giggles as DD like the view

Have switched off the baby monitor in my sleep.

Have arrived in car to a place where I hadnt intended on going - supermarket instead of doctors.

Reversed out of the drive to pop to corner shop and remembered I had a baby asleep in the house on her own. Was so used to doing this in my pregnancy.

Always do the wrong wording between DD and dog so DD is a good boy and male dog is a good girl. DD also gets a lot of pats on the head etc.

Was so engrossed in MN I forgot about DD (just turned one) and lost her in the house. Found her eventually upstairs pulling loo roll off the loo roll holder and eating it.

I haven't done the carseat thing, as I have isofix but I can see how easily that could happen!

I have left my card in the card machine and had to go back and get it, I have also left my purse at the tills before.

I have put on a load of laundry and not used detergent!

I use to delay telling people DS birthdate as I was trying to remember what date it was, tbf he was born 6 weeks early so his due date was the first thing I remembered!

Have left keys in the front door and front door open a few times too.

Last week I took my children to have a treat in an ice-cream parlour and was pleased to be able to park outside. When we returned to the car, I was dismayed to find that a car had parked so close behind me that I was unable to open the boot to put the buggy in. It's a large, modern chassis and I didn't know if I was able to squash it in the backseat, and didn't want to either, for safety reasons. I walked around the car, muttering, took a photo, tried several times to squeeze the boot up and fruitlessly searched for a pen to leave a cross notice on the windscreen. Eventually, I managed to fit the chassis in the backseat and drove home. It wasn't until the following day that I remembered quite clearly clocking at least a metre of space IN FRONT of the car. I must have looked stark raving mad.

When my oldest was a baby and I was similarly foggy in the brain. I bought a baby outfit in Tesco and thought on the way home that I'd like to have a look at the clothes selection in Asda. When I got home, I realised that my debit card was missing. My dutiful husband established that I'd left it at the till. 'Great, I thought,' this is my opportunity to go to Asda! So I turned up at Asda (having gone through the pantomime of buggys etc.) and requested my debit card from customer services. Eventually I realised that my debit card had not miraculously moved to the shop I wished to visit and sidled out.

I've driven off without strapping the baby in the car too.

I've also put the car into first gear instead of reverse when I was on the driveway and drove into the front door of the house (very minimal damage luckily). Then burst into tears and phoned DP (who was in the house) asking him to come out because I'd driven into the house. He couldn't get out of the door because obviously the car was in the way, so I just sat there in the car crying into the phone because I couldn't work out what to do.

I've also got into the passenger seat of the car and couldn't work out where the steering wheel had gone.

I stopped driving during the worse stages of sleepless nights because I realised I wasn't safe.

I left my front door open twice, for full days. Like 9 until 5. In central London. Luckily the door wasn't visible from the road but it wouldn't have taken much for an opportunist to spot. Nothing happened thankfully. Another time I left the keys in the front door, although it was shut at least.

DS would only sleep in the pram and I used to walk for miles and miles to ensure he got the sleep he needed so often spent days outside in all weathers. I once accidentally nodded off (sat upright) next to some tennis courts in the park while the pram was parked up next to me, and was woken up by an inquisitive dog sniffing my shoes deciding whether to wee on me or not