Took my eyes off her for two seconds…

[anonqrtb]

And she was walking around with a knife.

DD is only 13 months and she found a knife I didn’t know was there in a drawer. I saw her pulling out shoelaces, a face mask and then looked down to read a text from my sister - to which my DP says why has she got a knife. And sure enough she’s walking around holding a kitchen knife (luckily by the handle). DP took it off her before anything awful could happen

But I just cannot believe it. I keep thinking about what could have happened due to my lack of attention. Please can everyone tell me how awful am I because I really deserve it, my poor baby girl

Oh my god this happens with my dc a LOT! DC loves to be in the kitchen with me when I'm cooking and can't resist grabbing whatever is within reach. I just gently take it away and say, No darling, you don't need that. If dc gets hands on a knife, scissors I do the same. The key I've learned is to be calm and gentle. Otherwise my dc thinks it's a game and begins to run away with it. 🤦‍♀️
You're not a bad mum by any means. You've just learned how quickly they can get into things.
I've got child-proof locks on all the drawers and cupboard doors, but now that dc is a toddler has figured out a few times how to open. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Don't worry OP, something similar happened to me with DS2, it happens to us all!

Gosh definitely move straight on after the heart stopping moment! I remember I was bringing in shopping and ds, around 20m, was in the house with me. I stopped got a v quick glass of water only for him to have completely disappeared. Luckily found him quickly, about 50m down the road on his scooter!! (On the footpath in a quiet cul de sac at least!) Another time I looked away briefly to ds1 and he stepped in front of a zipline and got floored. These things really do happen OP so put it out of your mind as best you can.

Also laughing at tortillas from the bin!! 😆

Omg this literally happened to me the other day too! Thought I took all the dangerous objects out and then looked up and he walked into the lounge with a vegetable knife so can relate 😬 He usually throws stuff when we confiscate it too but for some reason thank god he just dropped it.

Don’t beat yourself up too much, no one got hurt thank god but as other PPs have said definitely a
a learning experience

Oh god, don’t even worry. He’ll be doing worse things in a year. Mine is stacking objects on top of each other to try and reach the knife block. I gave him a cup of water the other day and in the time it took me to turn and wind the baby, he’d chucked it down the toilet and refilled with the toilet water and was happily drinking it. We did painting as a nice wholesome activity, in the kitchen with me supervising, took a phone call and turned round to see the dog had been made into a Picasso and he was gleefully forming paint spikes in her fur. All this happened in the last week and he’s only just turned two!

Wow thank you everyone for your support, I feel much more human now! Moral of the story - ensure no knives are hanging around in places I shouldn’t expect them, and she will also keep trying to kill herself for the next few years. God help me!

Let the poster who has never taken their eyes off for a minute be the one to tell you how awful you are. That'll not be me.

When my DDs were 4 and 2, DH and I went to a small shopping centre with my mum in tow to buy some school uniform for the elder DD. While DH and I were looking through skirts, we thought DM was watching DD2, and a minute or so later we realised she wasn't. DD nowhere to be seen and us going into panic mode, running around, shouting her name. As we exited the shop and ran into the centre itself, we were met by two elderly ladies who had found DD running around by herself (she was a runner). Thank goodness she was found by such nice people. We learned a big lesson that day.

DS was crawling in the hall, there was a stair gate to stop him going upstairs.
I took my eyes off him for a minute or so a he’s climbed up the outside of the banisters 🫣
He would also push a kitchen chair upto the work surface, climb up and try opening the wall cupboards too…..

Honestly, most of us have been there..I daren’t give examples here of the kind of situations I failed to anticipate when mine were that tiny.. (mumsnet isn’t the kindest place, so please be kind to yourself). Being a parent of small children and trying to keep them safe is relentless and mentally exhausting.

These things happen. You've child-proofed and there were 2 adults in the room. Don't beat yourself up about. It happens.

We've all been there.

Around that age my daughter picked up a sharp knife from the dishwasher and massacred the parasol for the pram.
I ordered a new one to be delivered to my sister to avoid the tricky conversation about how she got the knife and ensured to remove the sharp knives from the dishwasher as soon as it was finished to avoid her "helping" me from emptying with dangerous things.
If all digits and limbs are intact take a deep breath, count yourself lucky and trouble shoot how to stop it happening again

It's not really "self-flagellation". They want told 100 times how it's fine and they're such a good mummy for caring so much. So brave hun. Thoughts and prayers. No bully.

It's like no one can say "I fucked up, tell me about your parenting mishaps too"