The award for downright negligent parenting goes to..............

[lucyellensmum]

LUCYELLENSMUM!!!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend we went out in the car, i have thought the car seat looked "odd" for a while, the straps not quite sitting where they should. So i say to hubby, we really should take a look at that it might need adjusting. We were just getting into a 50 mile journey. He says, should we go home, i say cant you just do it at the roadside, he says, no, in case its complicated and we were approaching motorway. So i say we will just do it when we get to MIL. We get to MIL and DD has big strap marks on her back where the seat was TOO TIGHT, then realised have had this seat for nearly a year and never adjusted the straps. DD didnt complain at all but must have been so uncomfortable, and i am not sure they would have been safe in an accident. . I was deeply ashamed and felt so bad that DD had had uncomfortable journey. We dont go out in the car much as i dont drive but even so.

So here i an self nominating myself for the MN worst parent award. And also, which is more important, reminding everyone to check their car seats.

Ahem.

In the easter holidays we went to Wales and ds1 fell down these steps, and we were in the middle of bloody nowhere, so dh and I DECIDED he'd twisted his ankle. We bought him a tight sock thing. Then we said, come ON ds1 you can HOP to the beach fgs. Oh do stop moaning ds1, you can HOP back again.

A week later we came back, and a dr friend was here. He was aghast. He said, get him up to A&E immediately, what are you thinking, he's broken a bone.

He had.

I thank you. I'll be taking that award now. Is not a nasty strap mark, oh no, is a BROKEN BONE.

lucyellensmum, surely the safety wouldn't have been affected if they were too tight, just too loose?
Hate to take away your award but...
I've just been in an accident with DS, it was the worst day of my life (no exaggeration, and just a bump really) so I echo the
CHECK YOUR CAR SEAT

oh, LEM reluctantly hands over award .

You must have felt bad, but not your fault really, im sure if you thought it broken you would have took him straight to A&E. Bit inconsiderate of him falling down the steps and breaking leg whilst on holiday anyway

Katy44, i hope you and DS are OK now. I dont actually think my car seat would have been safe and i was busy saying how crap the straps were (its one of these new fangled, fecking expensive jobbies with super straps which flip out for you to sit child in) and they didnt seem to fit over dd's shoulders. Shudder - why didnt i just adjust the sodding things, oh i did, eventually. [bad mother emoticon]

We took our 1yo out on bikes - he has one of those seats that go on the back of dh's bike. We had already cycled a couple of miles down a busy road in central london when I realised dh had forgotten to buckle the strap

I still shiver at the thought

We dragged dd across a park with us insisting that she cheer up and stop being so bloody whingey whilst we went on a walk.

She had a chest infection.

i have to say, im not entirely sure about those seats on bikes, i dont think i would want to use one on the road, what about when child shifts weight etc, but then im all over the road with no child on the back of my bike so perhaps thats why.

This weekend DS (2) pulled out the hoover to help me, but there was a piece of loose kickboard leaning up against the wall and was tangled up in the hose. It fell and gashed his head, face and smashed his toe.

Then DH jammed DS's fingers in a drawer.

I think we should get honorary awards.

maybe we should let this thread run for a few days and then take a vote . Only rule being that they have to be "alls well that ends well stories".

OK, when DD was 18 months old she'd moved to "big girls bed" as kept waking in cot. Was wonderful, until she fell out (low-level bed) the day after we took the cushions up off the floor.

She cried all night (in with us eventually), reckoned she was just fine.

Two days later because she cried each time we picked her up we took her to A&E.

Broken collar bone. oops.

She was very proud of her sling.

Ds1 was helping me "load" the boot at a garden centre. Tripped and fell on the exhaust pipe (went through to bone). Blood EVERYWHERE - was horrified by the amount of blood.
At A&E there was quite a queue to check-in. They took one look at us and all of them allowed to jump to the front. Got seen immediately.
Has a big old scar across his forehead too now.

How about psychological damage?

I once forgot that dd's school finished early for the school fair at Christmas. She was the only one left in her class waiting for me when I arrived. When we dashed down to the fair Father Christmas had gone and dd missed her pressie. But some kindly old dear went and got her one whilst making me feel like World's Worst Mum.

Then for her school play I didn't realise we were providing the costumes, so I had to run home and grab a dress for her to wear whilst others had labouriously made costumes. She had her photo taken by the school and looks like Little Orphan Annie!

Last Wednesday I unstrapped ds2 (9mths) and then decided for some reason not to lift him out of the stroller. Next thing I know is a big thump and squawk as he falls on the floor.

Later on I put him down for a nap, which I don't think he actually took, and when I went upstairs to fetch him realised I hadn't lifted the cot-side. (He's cruising, so could easily have tipped himself out)

For my final trick, I turned my back to empty a dish before putting it in the dishwasher, only to turn back and find ds2 brandishing the vegetable knife, by the blade! Fortunately, no harm done.

Today I tipped him head first out of the stroller going down the back step. He has a bit of a bump.

Do I win yet?

I shut ds1s fingers in the car door which locked as I shut it. Good job bones were still soft at 1yr old.

Ds2 complained he hurt his finger putting onhis seatbelt aged 4. I told him to sit quietly while I was talking to a friend outside the car. When he couldn't move his finger 4 hours later and it had swollen, I took him to A&E and it was broken.

Or maybe you'll just phone SS.

What terrible parents you all are
Just you wait, when my lo is born, I'll be getting that award off you... I wonder how long it'll take me to do something spectacularly stupid to the soon-to-be PFB
I nominate my dad as the first orginal award holder. When I was 4 he managed to slam my thumb in the door, lucky he didn't break it! (My thumb that is!)
Then when I was 9, he nearly caused me to drown because he thought it would a great idea to teach me how to dive by sneaking up behind me, grabbing me by the ankles and chucking me in to the deep end of a pool head first....

I let ds escape the house at 7am in the morning, when he was 17 months old. I was off to Leeds and knw nothing about it. Onyl found out about it when I rand dh ant 7.30 (I'd left at 6am) and found out that he'd had to spend a scary quarter of an hour looking for ds before finding him crying at the other side of the house next door. He'd crawled through the inner outside door (which had a pane of glass removed to let the cats come and go) and then out through the storm doors, which I had left open.

We fitted a cat flap properly that night.

oh and i forgot to mention the time i dropped DD on her head because i thought it a high old game to hold her upside down by her ankles, she rather enjoyed this too (i think it was because she wouldn't give me a third kiss or something!), until i tried to pick her up again and somehow expected her to simply hang on! so, i'll have the award back please, if no one else minds!

lucyelensmum, we're fine thanks
Furrymummy, congratulations on your soon to be PFB! My PFB is only 6 weeks so a bit too early for me to join the awards ceremony as well. The fact he can't walk or even roll over yet hasn't stopped me notching up a few minor injuries though - I stabbed him in the leg with my fingernail when he was a couple of weeks old (and then worried the HV would ask me about the mark - like that would be the punishment of choice for the overwhelmed parent ), DH has allowed him to headbut his (DH's) nose, and today I almost sat on his foot!
Not to mention the psychological damage of painting his hands and feet for footprints, and changing his nappy in front of a load of girl babies!

i actually think i should have the "not very nice person" award too. I am sitting here giggling away at all these potential disasters .

ach, the first time you nearly kill one of them gets your heart racing for sure... but you soon get used to it.

bump - this must be good for late night posting

DD, 10 months, first holiday. Folded up pushchair to put into back of car.

(With dd still in it...)

On holidays in france once, eating in a little chippy café in Nice, with very little time as we had to get a train, I tipped tomato ketchup all over DS's chips, and made him eat them in a hurry, no complaining.

He was two or three at the time.

It wasn't ketchup - it was chilli sauce!!

oh no I think I can beat that - I lost DS2 today (he's 3 1/2yrs old). He raced off as we were walking around the school fence to the gate where we pick DS1 up from school - and I lost him - didn't know where he was for about 5 or 6 minutes !.........and the bit where he ran was right next to the road AND I decided I should get DS1 before panicking........then DS2 turned up grinning saying "I beat you"...........