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Original poster

Please tell me it’ll be okay… closed motorway

33 replies

ZaHaK · 29/08/2025 21:31

I came home later than I thought I would from a shopping centre. Usually it’s fine, but there was a motorway closure and it was close to baby bedtime.
shes 9 months old and I literally couldn’t get to her and she cried so much and she was scared but I couldn’t stop anywhere. She was crying and struggling to breathe. Never been like that before.
as soon as I got off, I parked in a side street, fed her and made sure she was asleep.
She’e still sighing in her sleep from all the crying she did. I feel like the worst mum ever 😢🥺

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tripleginandtonic · 29/08/2025 23:44

BoredZelda · 29/08/2025 21:34

I’m sure she will be fine, but if my child was struggling to breathe and I was on the motorway, I’d have pulled into the hard shoulder and taken her out of the car until she calmed down.

That is inadvisable and dangerous.

nocoolnamesleft · 29/08/2025 23:45

BoredZelda · 29/08/2025 21:34

I’m sure she will be fine, but if my child was struggling to breathe and I was on the motorway, I’d have pulled into the hard shoulder and taken her out of the car until she calmed down.

Don’t do that the hard shoulder is an incredibly unsafe place to stop. People are regularly killed there.

FictionalCharacter · 30/08/2025 00:07

She was upset, she isn't upset any more, she'll be fine and she won't remember. Loads of us have had similar things happen, it's just one of those life things. She hasn't been harmed.
Please remember that if she's crying hard she is not struggling to breathe. She may have been making sounds that worried you but she was most certainly breathing!

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ReadingSoManyThreads · 30/08/2025 00:23

No help now, but I always had my babies in the front passenger seat with the airbags turned off. That way, they could always see me. We did a lot of long car journeys and they were always very content. Situations like stuck at a standstill on the motorway, you can place your hand on them to soothe them etc.

Sonolanona · 30/08/2025 00:28

My darling dgd (7 months old) screamed at the top of her lungs for the whole 2 hours driving back from a lovely day out yesterday. She had been fed and changed before we set off, she was warm enough and comfy in her seat... but she was raging. Her poor 4 year old brother was trying to cheer her up. We stopped briefly to check she didn't have a soiled nappy or anything... the second she was lifted out of the car seat she was all smiles... the second she was strapped in she screamed.
My DD's inlaws live a 6 hour drive away, so you can imagine what that drive is like! She just hates being in her car seat.

By the time we got home she was tear stained, red round the eyes and exhausted (as were we all!) but all smiles as soon as she was out, had a feed and went to sleep.

There will be lots of times that you can't change the situation, but your baby will be fine. She won't remember or hold it against you:)

DietQueen2023 · 30/08/2025 05:35

I’m not a driver so sorry for the question, but why is it dangerous to stop on the hard shoulder?

helpfulperson · 30/08/2025 06:31

The risk of stopping on a hard shoulder is getting hit from behind by another car.

This normally happens because another driver doesn't realise you are staionary and pulls over into the hard shoulder thinking its a lane. Or when traffic is moving slowly and some impatient eejit decides to speed up it.

DietQueen2023 · 30/08/2025 13:50

Thank you @helpfulperson(living up to your name ☺️)

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