Have you heard that comedy bit that Jeff Foxworthy made famous? Well, I totally deserved my {Stupid} sign yesterday and probably the Worst Mommy Ever sign, too.
When Caroline and I returned from her day at the Goddard School, I routinely went to the back seat to unhook my sweet girl. She’s going through this weird latch-obsessed phase and so I unhooked her and let her rehook herself three times (it was her lucky day…I’m in a decently good mood.) Well, as she was rehooking for the third time, I noticed that her CAR SEAT WAS NOT BUCKLED IN! Holy freak-attack mommy moment. A million questions went through my mind: 1.) When did this happen? 2.) How long has this been like this? 3.) Why did the car seat not move from side to side when I was turning? And then I snatched up my daughter (like we just escaped a near-death experience) kissed her five times and just scratched my head puzzled!
I AM STILL FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS!
Have you ever had something really scary happen? I just feel like the most awful mother! I know I’m not alone and that we all have our days (read about Allison’s bad-mommy moment here) but man I’m stressed about it. (Editors Note: I know exactly what happened now…last week, on Saturday, I had a passenger in my car. They must have accidentally unbuckled Caroline’s car seat instead of their seat belt.)
I’m not the most spiritual person in the bunch, but in that moment, I felt like someone must be watching over me because accidents happen every minute of every day and my precious girl wouldn’t have been safe if we got into one. Whew.
Do you have any stories to share or a scary mommy moment? Or am I the only bad mommy out there?
You are most definitely NOT alone in that department!!! The same thing has happened to me and a few of my friends. It is so very scary when you realize it though, took me a few days for my nerves to calm down. Once after leaving Dinseyland {and being there from 10am-1am} we were deliriously tired, put the kids in the car and made our approx. 1 1/2 hour drive back to Laguna….at a light Brandon had to hit the brakes pretty hard {ALL 3 kids were asleep} and G fell onto the floor board of the car. I tripped the hell out. Brandon and I each thought the other one buckled him in….and of course we didn’t. Scared me to death.
You are a great mommy! Hugs. Oh and I think it is great that you are so candid about this…a lot of mommies wouldn’t share this story with anyone for fear of being judged, high-five Vanessa!
Oh, Vanessa, this simply belongs in the “thank heaven nothing DID happen category”. If this is the biggest mistake you ever make as a parent, I will nominate you for World’s Most Perfect Mommy!!! Lol
So crazy that you just posted this….you are definitely not alone. SO- on Wednesday this week (the 23rd) I took my car through the car wash, both kids were in school. After, I used the free really good vacuums ( I love those things-they get ALL the food crumbs) & while vacuuming out my 7 year olds car seat & all around it I noticed it wasn’t in the seat right. It seemed very loose. I am not in charge of car seats – my hubby is a crazy car seat safety guy (researches, checks & re-checks all the time & hardly lets anyone else drive our kids but us & my parents!) He’s still in a high back booster using the 5 point harness. So- my bad mom day didn’t end yet… I forgot to tell my husband in our rush that evening to get to our 4 yr olds last t-ball game. I tell him when we get home & he checks it out & sees that it is not buckled into the seat, it is strapped to the headrest of the seat, but not fastened into the seat… so, not safe at all. We finally got our 7 yr old to admit that he had unbuckled it one day… but he ‘thinks’ it was about a month ago… knowing he doesn’t have the best concept of time is making us feel better- praying it was really only a few days ago. SO scary. This prompted us to switch him to his high back booster with just a seatbelt which he was ready for anyway. Thank God we didn’t get in an accident! And to make you feel even better – I have been guilty of forgetting to buckle them as well, but when it happened the kids freaked out & told me when we were just down the street from our house! There are definitely angels watching over our babies all the time!