just made the worst mistake ever....

[bumbly]

...parents in law were ditracting me and i ended up putting baby in car seat without being strapped in....

arrived at destination to find 3 1/2 month lo all leaning forward in his seat!!! but asleep

oh my gosh i bet he bashed his head backwards and forwards several times

luckily i drive slowly but bumps and braking would have jogged him back and forth

argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FEEL SO SO SO SO BAD

but one thing - he wa asleep so perhaps all is well????

can't live with myself

how did it happen??

have i hurt lo???

I love the way these threads always turn into a catalgue of baby-related disasters.

Here's mine - this morning I trapped DS chin into the zip of his coat. There's a mark and everything.

I put dd (very small 2 year old) into ds's (strapping 6.5 year old) booster seat the other day and I was so distracted that when I looked in my rear view mirror and she wasn't in her usual seat I had a moment of panic that I'd left her at Sainsbury's. She now wants to travel in the booster all the time so we've had a fair few strops about that.

And dh and I have serious form for stopping at motorway services and forgetting to check ds is strapped in again when we set off.

Nine, I've done that to, and ds always brings it up. Every time we put his coat on he says 'mind my chin, Mummy' and leans his head back really theatrically. It was two years ago! And I have never done it since!

Bumbly, I've done it the opposite way round, strapped baby ds in carefully but forgot to attach seat to seat belt. And let him roll off a bed (while I was stood there in front of him with legs braced across the bed to stop just such an occurence)!

oh ive ticked all the boxes too

car seat (with baby oh so very carefully strapped in the seat) driven miles and then discover seat not strapped to car.

its part of being a mum

my dd opened the door of the car, as we were rounding a corner, albiet a slow corner.

it made me feel awful, she's not one to fiddle, she's 5, but we had another little girl inthe back and she copie dher. the child lock wasnt on onthat side (not her usual side to sit)

I wasm ortified.She didn't fall out of the car, but it was close.

I guess we never forget things next time.

Thankfully Edam my DS is only 14m so too young for the theatricals

I've done it too, as has dh. Thankfully dd1 is old enough to point out when we've forgotton to do up her straps

More recently I've heard dd2 coughing on the baby monitor, ignored it assuming she'll go back to sleep, which she did, then when I went up to feed her later on discovered she'd actually thrown up and had been sleeping in a puddle of her own sick for half the night.

My mum let my sister roll off the back seat of the car onto the carpark when she was 8 weeks old (was in the days of carry-cots being nonchalantly tossed into the back of the car, mum had taken her out to put the pram together). Then she dislocated her elbow when she was 2 yanking her out of the road (understandable) but didn't take her to the GP for 48 hours because she thought she was crying because of teeth . And both my sister and my brother were in plastercasts at the same time once. Actually thinking about it, either I am made of much sterner stuff than my siblings or I am secretly mum's favourite.

While we are confessing...

While trying to send an important text on a cross channel ferry I ignored DD while she tried to tell me she was going to be sick, until she vomited in my lap and all over the phone. That did get my attention.

Of course I have also driven without LO's being strapped in, let 4 months old ds fall off a high bed, jammed fingers and chins variously.

They are fine by the way.

I'm not but that's what wine was invented for.

I did something similar when DS1 was about 2-3 months old. He was safely strapped in his seat and as I put his seat in the car my phone rang. Dealt with that, put the shopping in the boot and then drove across about 3 spaces in the car park before I realised something was wrong.

You will be just be extra careful in future. Don't beat yourself up about it, the baby is fine.

soupdragon i see all your ticked boxes..
and raise you a 'snip finger when cutting nails, blood and everything.'

I've done so many of these and I like to think of myself as responsible:

Driven off with Group 0 seat not secured
Driven off with DS in Group 1 car seat without straps done up
Made DS's finger bleed with clippers at days old
Allowed DD to fall down a full flight of stairs and land head first on laminate at 11 months (night in children's ward for that one)

The main reason both children are always fastened in now is because DS does his own and DD brings it firmly to my attention if I omit to do hers.

I love that you think this is the worst mistake ever! I think the term is "hold tight you are in for a bumpy ride".

Good luck with your baby and I am glad you are all well

(In terms of being a parent and raising vhildren that is!)

I've done both! Was terrified when at 6 hrs old I let babyzoo get in the way of (very whippy) dogs tail. Was convinced she'd be permemantly damaged. Needless to say she's not. It happens to us all! Don't worry.

just been out with DD's 1 and 2 in the car. Arrrived at destination after driving dowm long, windy, dangerously fast road and found DD2 not strapped in. Done this with DD1 before too. (tick x 2)

Cut DD2's finger with nail scissors (tick)

Trapped both DDs (on separate occassions)fingers in doors after wondering why door wouldn't shut (tick)

Allowed DD1 (aged 3) to get too far away from me on a windy day that she couldn't hear me when I called her back. As a result she had no warning of the danger nearby and fell in a fast flowing, deep, tidal river before I could get to her. I don't think the nightmares about that one will ever go away....don't know who was the worst parent that day - me, or the two parents nearby who told their 7 year old boy to go in and rescue her as he had a wetsuit on and they didn't want to get wet

Aww you mustn't beat yourself up over this mistake

When we brought dd back from hospital in her maxi cosi dh took her out of the car but didn't realise that the handle had to be moved back to the middle, we stood there talking to a neighbour and I looked down and she was hanging out of the maxi-cosi upside down!

It's happened to us all. My confession: I bang my dd's head on the roof of the car everytime I strap her in. Yesterday, I somehow managed to do it without banging her head, and she looked at me and said "mummy, head" continuously, until I'd unstrapped her and (gently) knocked her head on the ceiling!

Most of the above, but also tripped over toy stupidly left (by me) on floor and dropped 8 mth old dd.

Sagitta, that's hilarious.

Can I confess to something even worse?
DS2 (aged 2) got out of the house and wandered up the street as I had forgotten to lock the front door. I thought he was in bed asleep, so a knock on the door at 8.45pm was a bit of a shock. He was fine, but I was in floods of tears all night about that one.
Needless to say I am ultra ultra paranoid about the door being locked now.
Do I win the worst mummy award?

Oh yes
I also lost DS (who was only wearing pants and not the sun-suit thing I had forgotten to bring) between the beach and the Aquapark. Spent 5 mins running around the open water trying to see if he had drown or whether he had been taken by a stranger, only to find he had helped himself to a free go on the (covered) bouncy castle. He is 2.

He'll be fine, please don't worry . You were distracted and probably do it so automatically normally. It was a mistake but you'll double check next time. Some of our misdemeanours, to make you feel better :-

car seat not strapped into car or harness not done up (as recently as last year, dd was 5, you'd think I'd remember by now)

roll off bed - pfb ds at almost 1 on Mother's day , dd much younger

fall down stairs - dd did a spectacular dive down marble stairs her head banging each one and echoing around the hall way.

fall from pram - tipped pushchair over with dd not strapped in when she was about 2 1/2 trapping her foot underneath

cut ds' fingernails on day I was visiting the office with him , nicked his thumb

taking 3 month old dd up a mountain in freezing conditions even though she was a bit wheezy and out of sorts - she had bronchiolitis

I bet bet we've all done it. I certainly have. Don't torture yourself over it. All is well. xx

Nineunlikelytales and Edam- snap! Just did that to DD this very morning and feeling guilty every time I spot the mark.

When DS1 (now 15) was nearly 2, someone who lived waaaaaaay down our busy road brought him to the front door and said she'd found him down the street! (The back gate catch was faulty; we'd only lived there a matter of weeks and I hadn't realised!)

What is much worse still, is that we failed to get it fixed immediately, and 3 weeks later it happened again!!!

We then got it fixed!

Regardless, I was not and am not the worst mother in the world. It was a mistake.