Near misses, please tell me yours and steady my nerves...

[seriouscase]

I had a near miss today with DS2. He is fine, I am a wreck. Please tell me I am not alone. I feel crap. So scary how things can go wrong in a few seconds.

Well I turned my back on DD2 on our driveway for what felt like just a few seconds. Our house is at least 10 metres from the road and she was right by the house. When I turned back, she was standing in the gateway, just contemplating stepping out onto the rather busy main road. Still don't know how she moved so fast or why she chose that particular day to do it.

DD got out of the door and the front gate and was about to run into the road when DP shouted her. She hesitated just long enough for the car which was speeding down the road to pass. DP is still suffering flashbacks.

Do you want to hear something really AWFUL?!?!?

I was once someone else's near miss with their kids. Was driving along (when I really shouldn't have been, was very upset about a really horrible thing that had happened, had been cying etc).

Came upon some cars that seemed to be turning right (indicator on etc), so pulled out to the left to overtake them. Everything fine. Look in the rearview mirror and see a PEDESTRIAN CROSSING with kids frozen in the MIDDLE that I had just zoomed through. I pulled over, got out of the car and threw up. The mother came over to me, obviously getting ready to tell me off/call the police etc - when she saw what a state I was in and I just kept saying OMG sorry sorry) she ended up comforting ME.

I still have nightmares about it and still get that sick feeling whenever I think about it. Am uber careful driver these days - a second later and I would have killed a couple of little kids.

So glad she had been holding their hands crossing the road and that she was obviously watching the traffic.

Near misses SUCK.

my baby was about a month old and we lived in a flat with concrete steps from the street to the front door.. I slipped and fell, dropping her in the process... thankfully she was a winter baby and really well wrapped, not a mark on her but I got really badly grazed and a sprained ankle.

She'll be 18 next month

I once found my ds in the sitting room with the biggest kitchen knife I owned. I must have left it on the draining board too close to the edge.

Still makes me feel panicky thinking about it.

(he was about 15 months old)

DD1's room is probably the most babyproofed in the house. I was cleaning the main bedroom and the dd's didn't want to play in the cot so I let dd1 (5) take dd2 (18 months) into dd1's room to watch a dvd so long as dd1 promised to keep the door closed so that dd2 couldn't get out and fall down the stairs.

Had a quick check around, plugs were tucked away behind the drawers, no sharp things, things she could eat etc. Went back to cleaning the main bedroom.

DD1 started screeching "quickly there is a fire run run" and hammering on her door.

Ran straight to dd1, there foruntanetly was no fire but the room did smell smokey. I hadn't noticed dd1's water bottle and dd2 had poured it behind the drawers all over the live plug sockets

Clever dd1 had been watching nina and the neurons and moved dd2 away from the smoke to the safety of the bed and shouted for help. She knew not to touch the plugs when they were wet and she knew to go and get help because there could be a fire.

My heart nearly stopped that day. Thnk god for nina and the nuerons.

When ds1 was a few weeks old I used to sit him in one of those vibrating bouncy chairs and put him in the kitchen with me whilst I did the pots. I always put him in the same place. One day for some reason I put him in another place and as I was drying a big heavy pyrex dish and I dropped it, I went to try and catch it but didnt and it resulted in it flying across the room and it smashed on the kitchen floor tiles in the exact same place ds1 was usually put. I felt so sick but so glad that I had put him in another place

I once parked Ds on the drive ready to do schhol run. Locked door and went. Then postman turns up and hands me a parcel so I turn and put it in the porch. Go back to DS to find the pram had rolled down the drive and rolling down the middle of the road. I caught him and was unhurt but to this day have been unable to speak about it or tell anyone. I was disgusted with myself.

My mum did a good one with my brother when he was a toddler - he fell out of the car while it was moving! We were going up a hill, so not going too fast and he was absolutely fine. This was in the days before car seats. I was sworn to secrecy and she didn't tell my father until about twenty years later.

I had one yesterday.

Had DD in the buggy. A puppy came along with its owner. Lovely thing. It took DD's hat out of her hands and started playing with it. I turned to get it back, not minding in the least about the puppy.

DD's buggy rolled into the road. A car swerved, followed by three others who hadn't seen what happened but were following the first car.

I cannot tell anyone this in RL. I could have killed not only DD but the drivers of those cars because of a knitted hat. Sick feeling.

Brake-on-the- buggy is my new mantra.

I feel better that I am not alone on this.
So sorry we have all had these scary experiences.

WW, hope you are okay from yesterday.

I had a horrible one, but didnt miss. I burnt DD1 with oil
I was cooking and she came into the kitchin and ran straight inot me, I moved pan to stop her burning her head and oil splashed up and then feel on her hand, burning her

I was very grateful it didnt hit her face, but was in tears about it, espeically when it came to hospital changing the dressing.

My brother nearly fell through a manhole cover with no guard around it on the Tamar bridge when he was about 3 years old. No warning, men working under the bridge. He would have fallen straight through into the river Tamar about ooooh 100 feet below. Instant death obviously. My mum was pushing oher brother in pram (I wasn't even born)and just saw it as he was running ahead and screamed "STOP" when he was abut a foot away. Fortunately he was an obedient child. She said she was nearly sick.

DS is not an obedient child. He wears reins because of that sort of thing.

And I had a little choking incident that made time slow down with DS about two weeks ago, he had a tiny bit of breadstick in his mouth and I didn't realise and said something that made him laugh. He inhaled as he laughed (he has this funny intake of breath laugh, it is cute - usually) and then couldn't breathe.

I didn't panic - outwardly - I lay him across my knee, slapped hard in middle of back several times (possibly too hard but that was least of my worries) but in my head I was thinking "I am not going to lose this precious boy because of a c*nting breadstick, cough it up, damn it, cough it up now".

I did cry afterwards.

Message withdrawn

I haven't had one of these yet but when me and my brother were little (he was about 7), we went to Ireland to visit my grandparents. There's a huge bog behind their house and one day me, my brother and my mum were walking up the pathway to where my dad was doing farm work on the other side of the bog.

My brother was trailing behind and when we looked back, all we could see were his little blue wellies sticking put of the ground - he has fallen head-first into a hole in the bog. My mum ran and yanked him out and he was soaked - his head had been submerged underwater and he could have drowned very easily. It haunts me now that I have a son of my own...

We have a Svan highchair (don't buy one!) and ds2 bounces up and down when he's sitting in it.
always put him in, then do up his harness straps.
a few weeks ago, i put him in, didn't do the straps up, went and saw to ds1. then thought, silly mummy, do his straps so did them.
turned my back, a loud bang and the U-shaped bit of the seat had fallen on the floor, he then leant sideways and was hanging out of the chair, only the straps holding him from falling headfirst onto hard slate floor (don't get it if you're redoing your kitchen!)
i didn't want to upset either boy so calmly, went, la la la, oh dear ds2 you have fallen out of your chair, let's sit you up, la la la

redid all the screws/bolts before letting him get back in it and check them now for loosening.
ds1 never managed that trick!

oh, and my brother fell out of the car aged about 2. mum went round a roundabout, door opened, he fell out.
people behind were very kind and drove her, and all 3 of us to nearby doc who reassured her he was fine. his big duffle coat apparently cushioned his head. my mum still looks sick when she talks about it.

some of the ones on here are shocking, well done for admitting them though.

what was your near miss seriouscase?

Looked up at the window from the garden to see DD standing on the window sill of the open window. She was about 3yo and DH had opened the bedroom window to air the room. I have never gone up the stairs so fast and so silently in my life. I was terrified that I would spook her.

What happened seriouscase? Are you ok now?

DD1-Last week she was in play pen and was standing on her Winnie The Pooh treehouse toy...was just about to take it away from her and she reached out for something outside the pen and toppled head first out off it.Luckily she was saved from hitting her head as a chair broke her fall but my heart skipped.

DD2-3 weeks old and was crying.I put her beside me in the bed but she was on the edge of the bed.I fell asleep and turned round so my back was to her.Woke up and luckily she was still next to me and not on the floor.I never forget that feeling..never did anything like that again.

DH was in our bed bouncing DD (then five months) on his lap while I cleaned up the bedroom, I was wiping the bedside cabinet with a wet cloth and noticed the light above the bed on the wall was really dirty so quickly ran the cloth over it - not realising the two lightbulbs were exceptionally hot and they exploded showering DH and DD in molten shattered glass.

Luckily they were completely uninjured. I got a few shards embedded into my forehead and DD had a good scream but was fine.

I was petrified for weeks afterwards!

This is quite bad.

First thing one wednesday morning I put out the rubbish and I left the side gate open becuase I knew I was going out later.

At about ten, my dd (17 months) wanted to go into the back garden. I opened the door and let her out into the postage stamp that was garden at the time. About ten minutes later I realised side gate open!!!!

I ran into garden, she was gone. Ran up and down road like a maniac screaming her name. After a long five minutes I found her on the OTHER side of the road sitting on neighbour's doorstep.

It made my blood run cold when I thought of it for months. I would think of it at night and have to sit bolt upright in bed until the flush of dread passed.

oooh, I have a lump in my throat reading this thread!

Liffey - our ds1 ran away a few months ago in a similar incident.
The side gate is usually locked but wasn't for some reason, but at the time we thought he couldn't even reach the handle anyway so weren't checking.
He was playing in the garden, i was feeding ds2, dh was mincing about with a bad back!
doorbell goes, have you lost a little boy?
no-ooo......
OMG! as ds1 is walked home by a lady we didn't know.
she had seen me voting the week before at the council elections and remembered my surname.
she saw ds1 wandering alone and asked a neighbour getting out of their car if they knew where we lived

bizarrely he hadn't gone round the corner towards the sweet shop - i could have understood that
and that would not involve crossing a road.
he had crossed our road, gone the other way, round the corner and heading off into the distance.....

still a bit freaked by what 'could have been'....