Bad Parenting Club

I’m guessing that this is probably not an original idea but I was inspired by @chickenruby’s recent blog about her accident prone boys and my neighbour’s drama last week when she accidentally locked herself out of the house when her 18 month old was asleep inside.  I need to stress that I don’t think these two are bad parents in any way.

As parents we are not perfect, even though some parents purport that they are, which exacerbates the societal pressures on us parents.  I’m not looking for stories that border on abuse but those that horrified you at the time but you can look back and laugh on them now.

To get the ball rolling I’ll share a few stories.

  • We were at one of Madame’s pals 1st birthday.  I had a couple of glasses of wine but was in no way intoxicated.  We were all sitting out back.  She was in a Handysit on the patio.  To this date I still don’t know exactly what happened but at some point I turned, unfastened her and then I must have been distracted.  The next think I know she is lying face down on the concrete, screaming.  She had the biggest goose egg on her forehead.  I didn’t sleep for days beating myself up over it.
  • At that birthday, a friend of mine shared a bad parenting moment of one of his mates.  He was running with their child on his shoulders, great fun.  But wasn’t thinking and ran into the house through the patio doors and didn’t calculate the clearance!  I’m sure you can work out what happened.
  • Last summer, when I was home in Canada my cousin was telling us about when his daughter was a new born.  They had a menagerie of cats and dogs.  He was in bed, felt what he thought was one of the cats on the end of the bed and kicked it off.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the cat but his daughter.  Eeek!

To join the club, just post/share one of these stories and take the badge.  As usual, this is open to everyone so please feel free to pass it on.

PhotobucketPhoto Credit

However, I would love to hear tales from:

@notefromlapland

@chickenruby

@tattooed_mummy

@vegemitevix

@tiddlyompompom

@mysevenkids

@zooarchaeologis

@muddlingalong

@pennynash

As I’m sure they have goodies!  Do let me know if you do one so I can link back to you.

Author: mediocremum

A slightly older mum of one, who drinks far too much red wine and has an unhealthy obsession with her slow cooker. During the day she's an ICT Trainer, Social Media/Online Marketing consultant and does a bit of public speaking. Full Profile on Google+

25 thoughts on “Bad Parenting Club”

  1. As a single mum, and desperate for some time to myself, I once dropped my 5 year old son off in the Ikea ball room (told you I was desperate!). My freedom was short-lived; five minutes later I heard my name being paged throughout Ikea. I returned to be confronted by a sobbing child. “You didn't say goodbye so I didn't think you were coming back” he wailed. Lesson learned. Always say goodbye.

  2. When L was a baby she didn't sleep *EVER* (2 hours was a lot) so I was a bit sleep deprived. I was doing a yet another night feed about 6 weeks in and was rocking away……about an hour later I woke up. I wasn't holding her anymore, looked down and there she was at my feet. Ummm so I may have dropped her, but she was fine and thinks it's a hilarious story now!

  3. My worst has to be the day I was on a ridiculously tight deadline … everything had to be left where it was so I could get the translation of the day finished and I was way behind. At the last minute, my child minder called to say she was sick and couldn't take my then 2yo so he had to stay at home … Stressed beyond belief, I pulled out a stack of 'interesting' and 'stimulating' toys and put them in same room, begging him to 'just play nicely Darling! Please'. He seemed happy and, eternally grateful, I knuckled down for the last few pages. I glanced up every couple of minutes to make sure he was OK and he was within eye-shot anyway, just getting on with it for a change. To this day, I have no idea how he got past me without me noticing and I therefore jumped a mile when I heard the scream … which came from somewhere else! I was out of my seat like a shot and entered the bathroom to see my son leaning over the toilet with blood pouring out of his mouth ….I'll spare you the next couple of minutes' drama, but the upshot was, he had removed the plastic tablet holder from the loo (you know, the thing that hangs over the side to dispense REALLY NASTY STUFF into the toilet with every flush …. ) and had chewed it!! … It had cut his tongue, hence the rush of blood. Luckily, (if there is anything at all positive in the horrible story) the holder had been deliberately empty (just in case, Ha!), so a few force-fed beakers of water later, he was absolutely fine – the cut was only small. Scared the hell out of me though. Brought it home what can actually happen in very, very little time. Thank you so much Mediocremum for setting this up – I have tortured myself over the incident ever since, so it's almost a relief to see from others that things do happen and it doesn't necessarily make us atrocious parents … does it??

  4. I had similar last week…madame did a face plant in a playground…an almighty bang, the kind that all parents stop and look. Loads of blood, but similar to you, lip and mouth wounds bleed a lot. She was fine…bounced back and was playing within minutes and I'm sure she will never remember it!

  5. hi from the mbc! i've lifted my daughter out of her car seat and hit her head on the roof…twice. she was fine and she didn't hit it hard but you would have thought i learned my lesson the first time. ugh.

  6. I couldn't decide which was the best story… um there was the one where I was all dressed in work suit with high heeled court shoes. I rushed to the coffee morning with the baby popped him down the rug on the floor with all the other babies and started chatting with the other (stay-at-home) Mums. Mid-conversation I jumped up to get a cup of coffee. I felt something squishy underfoot. I looked down into the eyes of my startled son. Yeah, I'd stood on MY baby. Oops! (he survived he's now almost 16)

  7. Oh and the time when son was newborn and exhausted I popped into a shop to try on something in the changing cubicle. I popped the baby in the changing room with me and tried the item on. Much gnashing of teeth later I stomped off – sodding skirt was still too small! I got half way down the main street until I realised that I was travelling light. I'd left the baby in the changing room by mistake! Can you imagine how embarrassed I was going back 'er I forgot something..'

  8. My brother in law went with his son to pick up my sister in law. When they got to her, my nephew got out of the front seat to get into the back and let his mum sit in the front seat. Sis in law gets in and they start nattering away as brother in law drives along. They continue like this for 15 minutes before realising that my nephew was not in the back of the car. They had driven off before he'd got into the back seat and left him there! Phoneless as it was in the car! He was furious! Luckily he is 14!

  9. I'm enjoying reading these. I don't know if I will ever be secure enough to share my bad parenting moves. I haven't done anything terrible yet, but the girls are still infants. Okay, one time, when the twins were about 3 months old, I was taking one of them out for a 2 a.m. stroll when she was freaking out. I groggily stumbled out the front door with the kid in the sling, and "thump"–bonked her head on the doorjamb. There was a little mark on her cheek, but I never fessed up to my wife. Please don't rat me out.

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