Topic: Bad mum alert!

[coznbob]

This morning my 2 1/2 year old managed to lock herself in my car with the keys!

And, it was all my fault.

Coming back from the school run, let Faith climb into the car as I am not allowed to lift her up yet, put the keys in the ignition and start chatting to my friend.

I closed the car door as I was gossiping and let Faith pretend to drive the car. The next thing that happened is that she pushed down on the drivers door lock and hey presto one car fully locked with keys and child on the inside!" ::)

Now as a mum of 4 i should know not to leave a child in the car with the keys, it had to happen really didn't it.

After ringing M in law to get spare keys from Rob at work, and with much persuasion, Faith unrolled the back window low enough so I could get my arm in and unlock the doors. M in law arrived with spare set minutes later!

It was all ok in the end but boy did I get into a panic. Half of me is thinking she did it on purpose as she turned on the radio and sat down to play after she did it with a very big grin on her face!!!

[davyw1]

A tip for when this happens hold your mobile next to the car door lock and get who ever has the spare set to send the auto lock bleep down the phone.

[grawrc]

Hey! What a good idea. Does it work?

Reminds me of moving into a new house tweny odd years ago and lying on the floor (very pregnant too)  trying to ignite the central heating boiler.  Just me, the dog, the 3 year old and the bump in the house.In comes 3 year old to help and pulls the door to behind him. Of course the boiler cupboard door was on  a latch so no way could I open it.

Some time later the metal grid had been knocked out of the door and I had managed to open it by "fishing" with the dog's lead. I don't know who was redder faced when we finally got out but James (the 3 year old) has never done it since. :) :) ::)

[OliveOil]

OMG you must have been in such a panic. 

Just to make you feel better I was ironing before school one day and daughter then aged 4 was getting dressed. I told her to go in the front room away from the iron, turned my back and there she was balancing on one leg stepping into her knickers holding on to the ironing board... yes you guessed it, scalding hot iron was falling, i went to grab it, but missed and 'pushed' it onto her arm.  Raced down to the drs and major burn mark - she still has the scar.

So anyway, no such thing as a perfect mother, we all make mistakes and learn from them. Dont be too hard on yourself!

[Jeannine]

Oh no, don't beat yourself up about it, they may be some perfect Mums in this world but I have never met one.I am surprised mine made it to adulthood when I look back,

Pride yourself on the things that you do that are great, the others are just chances to learn something .

Hugs to you XX Jeannine

[emmy1978]

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Coz - done it too! My eldest did it at about the same age. The worst thing was it was my dads cronky old banger, no bleepy thing to unlock doors. The front passenger window was open a crack so i had to run up the road trying to find a wire coat hanger from a neighbour, she was sat in the drivers seat laughing and turning the radio up. I managed to get the hanger in the crack but couldn't get any grip on the pully uppy lock thing. In the end i had to heat up the wire and push it into the pully uppy. She was singing away and fiddling around in the glove box all this time. It was when she produced the matches that i stopped laughing. She definately did it on purpose and all the "wind the window down for mummy" was just met with scorn and laughter.

One day i went out to take the bin out and the front door banged behind me leaving her locked in the house. I had to get her to climb onto the dining room table, fetch the keys from the shelf, then bring them to the kitchen where she had to get her step and climb onto the draining board to pass them through the window!!

Bad mother? Nah. Happens to the best of us Coz!!! OO, scary story about the iron, youngest did similar thing with cup of coffee at my mums ( what is it with my parents?) i tried to knock the cup away as she'd grabbed it and was in the middle of pulling it off the dining table. In trying to knock it away i sort of fluffed it in panic and covered her in hot coffee. If i had done nothing it would probably have just hit the floor.  ::)Amazingly no scarring. I did squash her into the kitchen sink and blast her with cold water clothes and all though. Going to shut up now as sound like TERRIBLE mother, never mind bad!! 

[OliveOil]

Ooo emmy i could tell you more stories but i think social services would be round LOL

[emmy1978]

Ha! Me too, as i was typing more were popping into my head. No, stop now I thought, while you're ahead!

[kenkew]

My son was about 2 ½  years old when we were living in a block of flats in Singapore. We had all just showered and me and my OH were sat on the sofa cooling off and he was playing on the floor behind it. I heard him shout, ‘Dad, Daaad’.  I looked over the back of the sofa…no sign… he shouted again, ‘Daaaad’. The shout came from the iron grilled window….all I could see were two tiny arms, the rest of him was dangling outside, 6 floors up. My OH screamed.…. I don’t think I even touched the back of the sofa, I flew over it to the window and grabbed his arms. The windows were quite low to allow more cool air in, but we never thought there was a danger because of the grills.  I had a tight hold of his arms and I said, ‘Let go’….He screamed back…’No, no, no’. I said, ‘Come-on, let go.’ ‘Noooonoooonoo!’
My OH had to prise his fingers open but we had a heck of a job getting him back through the fancy grill work. It seemes his newly showered body was slippery enough to allow him to slide through, but hanging there he’d dried off a bit and wouldn’t fit back through! It was probably 3 or 4 min’s before we managed it although it seemed more like hours.

[Esre]

Wow Ken, that gave me shivers just reading it!

When my son was small we lived in a largish flat and he had a big double room to himself so we stored bits and pieces in there. Went to check on him in his cot before we turned in one night and couldn't open the door, the ironing board that was leant against the wall had fallen over and was trapped between the door and a wardrobe so we couldn't push it open.

After several panicky moments my husband took the bouncer apart and used an angled bit to catch the ironing board and hook it away.

I also have the obligatory coffee scald scar on my arm, luckily (touch wood!) my kids have missed out on that one.

[Jeannine]

OK, while we are all fessing up.

I once yelled something awful at my son when he was about 6.He ran out the back door with me fast on his heels.

The little horror went up a  a huge fir tree like a squirrel, right up to the ruddy top, and as I went round to the side of the tree he was at, still yelling I might add, he climbed out onto a branch which promptly started to bend.

I paniced and started yelling for help.

People came out from all over but no-one could get up the tree as there were no branches low down, he must have got up with his toes in the bark!!

He  then slipped and was hanging from the branch while I am below yelling "hang on," he is yelling back, " I can't". Everyone was underneath ready to break his fall when he let go.

Two men got a ladder and managed to get to the start of the branches and climbed up, they just managed to reach him.

I was never so close to spanking a child in my life as that day.

I didn't ,but it was probably because I fainted as his feet touched the ground.

He still tells everyone this story  now, about how he ran away from his Mother and HAD to hide up a tree.

XX Jeannine

[Uncle Joshua]

Hey! What a good idea. Does it work?

Reminds me of moving into a new house tweny odd years ago and lying on the floor (very pregnant too)  trying to ignite the central heating boiler.  Just me, the dog, the 3 year old and the bump in the house.In comes 3 year old to help and pulls the door to behind him. Of course the boiler cupboard door was on  a latch so no way could I open it.

Some time later the metal grid had been knocked out of the door and I had managed to open it by "fishing" with the dog's lead. I don't know who was redder faced when we finally got out but James (the 3 year old) has never done it since. :) :) ::)

They have done that a few times on Top Gear and it worked.

Glad Faith is ok.

[theothermarg]

when my youngest son was a toddler i used to get around on a push bike with him in a seat on the back. one day he was screaming blue murder tantrumes were not unusual so i ignored him to find when we got home his leg was rubbing on the tyre and he had a huge blister no wonder he grew up so strange he is the one i call wild child
marg

[asbean]

I hope social services aren't eavesdropping on this thread!

We have a cupboard under the stairs.  Although it has a handle on both sides, it always reminds me of when I was about 8 or 9.  I had a toy projector - ran on batteries and I had fixed up a cinema under the stairs (in the cupboard of course).  Decided to give my ma a film show, got it all set up and she came into the cinema - and shup the door behind her.  (as you would to, to shut out the light).  But the door only had a handle on the outside.  Dad was the other side of the world, not due back for months, big sister at boarding school, next door away on holiday.  Was I scared.  My mum wasn't all that strong (neither was I, skinny as a rake), but she managed to push the bottom of the door enough for me to squeeze through and open from the other side.  If I had been chubbier ... ... who knows?  ??? ??? ???

[coznbob]

Thanks for all your stories, makes me feel a bit happier  ;D. It was the second time she has been locked in the car, I did it when she was a baby too!

She has been in her element today, full tantrum et al. I think she has sussed out that I can't chase her too fast as well as not carry her..... I just lurve this age.

 We all were down the plot earlier, Rob digging up the spuds, the kids were putting them all in a bag to take home and she was lobbing them out as far as she could into a big patch of weeds that we haven't cleared yet. We had to play hunt the spud for a good 15 mins!

To top it all off, got home to find I hadn't shut freezer door properly yesterday and had completely defrosted, sods law it was full! :( Lots of cooking tomorrow!

[manicscousers]

when my daughter was 3, she came in the bedroom with colours around her mouth, she opened her hand to show me some chewed up tablets and went 'yeuckky, mummy'...she had been in the medicine drawer and eaten lots of pills, including iron ones, fortunately, they tasted 'yeukky'
now, these tablets were in a locked drawer, in pots with child proof caps, the key was hung on a hook at the side of the top cupboard in the kitchen,
she climbed up, got the key, opened the drawer, got the bottles, BIT the top off, tried the tablets  :o
now, that's one talented child  ;D

[carolinej]

My youngest was 3, when we went to the park with friends and their children. OH decided to put all the kids on a sheet of polythene he found (it was huge) and pull them around the grass at great speed (well as fast as he could go ;D) We thought everyone was screaming in fun, but youngest son was screaming as his elbow was off the plastic and rubbing on the ground.

It skinned his elbow, about an inch and half diameter circle. The next day, he was taken ill and had to go to hospital. Well, you can imagine the questions we faced :-[. It didnt help having to explain that his Dad was dragging him around the park on a piece of polythene. ::)

It was such a relief they believed us.

cj :)

[grawrc]

My second son Max went through a phase of tripping over everything when he was about 3. He was constantly covered with bruises.
When I took him to the doctor for a checkup he was horrified at the extent of the bruises. Luckily for me his son and Max were best buddies at play group so  he had no difficulty believing what I was saying although he did comment  that another doctor would probably have notified the social services.

Mind you the serious downside is the small number of kids that do suffer horrendous abuse and never get picked up on.

[emmy1978]

Ken your story gave me goosebumps! Love it that we all have stories like this. I'm amazed that my sisters and I made it to adulthood to be honest the things we used to get up to.  ;D

[cornykev]

I'm ringing social services as I type. :o ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D  Ken that was a neck tingler.