What's your WORST parenting mistake?

[Convergent]

Just that, really! I have an 11 month old, and I constantly feel like I'm f*cking up one way or the other, so please 'fess up to your sins for the greater good and enlightenment of us poor beginners...

I fell down the stairs this morning whilst holding DS.... Luckily I was trying to do too much at one time and was carrying two glasses as well, so had DS in a rugby ball hold. He just kind of tipped forward a bit and bonked his head on a step.

I on the other hand have really hurt my arm and smashed one of my favourite glasses.

When DS 1 was tiny he had a raging temperature but refused to take calpol so the GP had to give me pessaries for him. One very sleep deprived night his temperature stayed rocket high even though I kept giving him pessaries. I now think I accidentally in the half light gave him identical looking pessaries from my IVF treatment. Just heavy cause-the-menopause drugs for a 1 yr old boy. Still shudder thinking about it.

letting dd do cleaning (with spray) while wearing her high heeled dress up shoes. I was busy doing very important mumsnet related tasks, and didn't notice that she'd sprayed a whole section of floor, not wiped it and ran straight for it - went completely splat, big bump on side of the head but so far seems ok (was only a few days ago). feel dreadful about it.

Leaving dd age 2 in the care of DH in a garden centre with huge concrete steps.

Did the silly sod actually think a 2 year old could step up a step half as tall as her?

Cue 4 completely smashed front teeth

Oh gosh so we're all as bad as each other then

Bounty your LO trapped in car for 4 hours sounds beyond torturous! So easy to do and I will now think about this (obsessively) on car trips.

I let my DD fall off a changer At 7 months I should have known better than to turn my back while she sat there happily (until leaning over the ledge)

Unlike some other posters I curse the day I gave my DD a dummy at 10 months (10 bloody months!) in a moment of sleep deprived madness, she loves the thing at 2 1/2 and my family are super judge-y.

I really regret doing controlled crying at 6 months, my DDs cries ripped my heart to pieces and yet I kept it up for 4 nights because 'everyone' said I should... I will trust my instincts with baby DS...

Just because my DD has had an excellent grasp of speech and talks the hind legs off a donkey I assume she is older than she is and my expectations of her behaviour and understanding are too high... She's only 2 and a very good girl really, I shouldn't get so cross

Taking advice on controlled crying. I tried it one night and it felt horrible. Even now I regret doing it and in my mind I still see my DS in his cot crying. DS is six now I should get over it I suppose!

Ds 2 was very accident prone as a child starting with when he was 16 months he fell down stairs and broke his arm and I took two days to realise he had broken it.

When he was 8 I was a beaver leader and we were out for a walk on the local downs. He ran down the hill and fell over and broke his wrist again. I didn't believe him and didn't take him to hospital till later in the day when he continued to complain.

The moment that I realy felt like the worst mum in the world was when I took my DS (3) for a day trip to the Science Museum in London with DD who was just a few weeks old.

For most of the day DD had been in the pushchair in the lie flat position facing me. By the end of the day DS was really exhausted and as we were waiting for our train home I decided to let him have a sit in the pushchair, in sitting position but still facing me, and I put DD in the sling. DS fell asleep really quickly and soon our train came. It was quite a step up from the platform to the train and without thinking I just tipped the pushchair up to get the front wheels on the train. DS who was still fast asleep was not strapped in and with his weight the pushchair tipped really quickly and DS flopped like a ragdoll straight out of the pushchair and landed face first on the platform at my feet.

By some miracle he didn't hurt himself too badly but I was distraught. I was really struggling during those early weeks of being a mum of 2 and I just burst into tears while everyone on the platform and train just stared Just an awful moment. Thankfully the train guard came to my rescue and helped me get my DS back into the pushchair and on the train. He went straight back to sleep again but it took me ages to get over the guilt of doing that to him. Almost 2 years ago now.

I have another one...I was loading some washing and left the box of gel liquid tablets on the work top while I was loading the machine, three year old in kitchen with me takes one of the brightly squishy inviting liquid gels tablets out of the box while my back was turned. He then obviously gets bored and drops it by my DD who was just a toddler then, she picks it up and bites it, screams and starts foaming at the mouth.

I had not realised my son had taken the tablet so had no idea what it was DD had bitten into and I started panicking thinking she was throwing up blood (but it was infact some tomato soup she'd eaten earlier). I was shaking and then I saw on the floor the plastic liquid gel tablet! I started to panic even more because I had no idea if she'd swallowed the plastic and was chocking on it. I was frantically trying to think about all the first aid stuff I'd learnt at a recent course. Thankfully, the ambulance came which felt like an age, we got to hospital for a check up etc and she was fine. She hadn't swallowed any plastic. I remember crying in bouts for days afterwards. I have never ever bought the liquid gel washing tablets again and have lived with the guilt ever since.

When ds was around 9 months I took him to town on the bus. I parked him in the special buggy bay - one that was big enough for 2 or 3 buggies - but didn't push him close enough to the back. When the bus slowed down and stopped, the pushchair (which was also heavily ladened with several bags of shopping and the huge changing bag) fell back and landed on the floor. Ds was very upset to say the least! Luckily he was fine - the bags cushioned his fall.

When I had DS i asked my v wise Granny how on earth I was going to look after him. She told me to love him, keep his arse clean and try not to drop him on his head. She was a wise old bird.

In the intervening 11 years, i've tripped over him (twice), sent him to school with raging chicken pox (thought it was a heat rash) and left him at my DPs by mistake once.

But I've got the 3 key instuctions nailed!

Hmm my worse parenting fail has to be listening to all the Doctors saying their was nothing wrong with Ds n them saying I'm a young mum so what would I know

4.5 Years of severe sleep deprivation (2-3 hours a night if I were lucky sometimes no sleep at all) & finally they admitted last year that he had suspected Aspergers/ADHD & a sleep disorder because they wouldn't listen too me because of my age

Also not realising that he was almost blind in one eye (12% vision) I just thought he was a dosey sod & now he has to wear glasses as thick as a jam jar

KaeKae DD bit into a gel tablet at 18 mos and was copiously sick (and we drove her to hospital - she was fine, they said the alcohol in them is the worst thing). Didn't make my worst parenting moment though...she was just behind me as I was trying to get the washing done and snuck the gel tablet out of the pack for an exploratory bite!

Drove off with 9 week old DC1 sat on car seat, not strapped to seat, seat not strapped to the car. Had been distracted by a phone call but I didn't get very far.

Fell up the stairs with DC1 aged 7-8 months.

Fell up the same stair with DC2 aged 7-8 months. I didn't walk up the stairs much when DC3 was 7-8 months old..

Numerous A & E trips. Helpful neighbour came too and told me we were all going to die when I thought DC1 was going to .

Carrying DD in a sling over rocky ground.

I slipped and fell sideways.

Once I'd hit the ground, DD and sling maintained momentum.

I heard the sound of her head hitting the rock.

DP shouted 'you've killed her'.

But she was OK - doctor said their heads are still squashy at that age - three months. The sound of her head on the rock haunted me for months.

On a lighter note - I too failed to notice a broken bone and once sent DS1 on a school trip with no pyjamas, and the next time with two left shoes.

I lost my two-year-old on Blackpool beach. Another time, I lost both children and had to go home with the children of friends of ours (before mobile phones).

I read a book called 'The Continuum Concept', which said you could balance children on the edge of a cliff, and as long as you didn't tell them to be careful, their innate sense of balance was so strong that they wouldn't fall. And you could let them play with knives and they wouldn't hurt themselves.

Did I? No I did not! What kind of a parent do you think I was??

I slipped on rocks holding my baby nephew, skolastica. He was OK.

Come to think of it, I've done most of the things on here. But I am very old and have had hundreds of children.

I fixed my car seat in to the car (isofix) but forgot to strap dd in to the seat.. She was 3 days old.. I was mortified!

DD turned 3 two weeks ago and just last weekend, had a big lesson, a pretty obvious one, but, still ..

We came out of a restaurant and DH was paying the bill and I thought I will take DD to the car parked across the road, in fact straight opp the restaurant ..Realised I didn't have the car key..so, was just waiting on the pavement.

And yes, I was on the phone, was just returning a call . . I was holding DD's hand or so I thought..And just as DH emerged out of the restaurant, DD chose to ran across the road, greeting him, in the same way that she does when he gets back from work...Heard a few screams and the van screeching to a halt..It was a narrow road and I was right behind her, I caught hold of DD's collar from behind and literally lifted her off the road and put her on the pavement...I was terribly shaken...and the image of the white van and the looks given to me by the driver and people around, including comments on me holding my phone still...DH says DD stopped on her own after the screams, and that me lifting her happened after that..

Though, thankfully, absolutely nothing happened to DD, I felt extremely bad as a parent, for not being vigilan; Yes, talking on the phone was a contributing factor. but, it could have happened even otherwise..say, when you are really tired...

The funny thing is: DD is the ever vigilant one and always makes announcements to watch out while crossing the road and sometimes while on the bike (much to my annoyance) insists that I should ride on the pavement if a car passes too close to us..:-) I think all that possibly made me complacent..A few months ago, when she hadn't quite understood the concept of danger, I would have been extremely vigilant in a similar situation.

That was my lesson, just because they have understood something doesn't necessarily mean that they will obey/abide by that always..They can get carried away by a situation and completely forget everything else..

Gave DD a plastic bag to play with. She was in a supermarket trolley at the time. Within minutes it was over her head. Not sure what possessed me.

Forgot to attach 10 week old dd's car seat to the car. One slightly sharp bend and dd's seat skittered across the car and almost fell into the foot well behind the passenger seat. I had to stop with hazards on and calm a frantically screaming and horizontal facing the floor dd whilst feeling like a completely shit mum as onlookers drove past with judgey pants faces.
I told dh when I got home that perhaps not taking dd on the Air ride at alton towers in the future in case it dredged up repressed traumatic memories.

I am so glad they're seems to be a group of us that forgot to strap our kids in to the car .... It makes me feel better about myself

DD1 fell when she was about 1 in the garden and complained of a sore arm. I gave it a rub gave her some calpol and thought no more of it. Noticed a full week later that it looked a bit weird. Took her to A&E where we discovered she had a fractured wrist that had actually started to heal itself!!

potty training DS3 whilst coping with 5 (car) school runs a day just after moving house was fun ... thank goodness for those wide-necked mcDonalds orange juice bottles which were handly when he was was caught short.

So a few days later, it's dark (winter) ... DS12 is spluttering in the back of the car: "this water tastes mank, mum".

Loving them all.

Forgot to pick up dd from nursery because too busy having liquidishlunch to celebrate my birthday! I hardly drink normally!

Car seat unstrapped. Left pushchair with no brake at the top of a hil in our local park. Sprinting for England...

Took dd1 to work at 18m, walked through a doubke door between dept and forgot she could not possibly hold the door open - the laudest of scream: fingers caught between the doors.

Regular PMT shouting (patience non existent)

This one is terrible: still shiver at the thought. Back home on holiday. Pop in to get something from a friend who lives on third floor of a block of flats. Dd2 asleep. Think "i run quickly". Start chitchat forget all about dd for five ten minutes. Suddenly remember and run down in panic.

Dh left her on the table for just a minute...

Dislocated wrists (three times, not all myself, dr agrees dd has weak wrist, thankfully.)

I am sure there are more...

(Love the one about the cereal bar tasting like gravy).