What is your worst parenting moment ever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I poo-pooed my 7 yr old Dd's stomach ache. It was on-off and really vague and she was playing fine/happy self. After 72 hrs, the pain increased a lot and she told me that she was feeling a new pain on her right side. She was in the ER lined up for an emergency appendectomy that afternoon.

I never again dismiss my other kids' stomach aches.

Definitely don’t beat yourself up over this one, most adults who have appendicitis do the same! My husband and I both had it within the span of a year (really rotten luck) - I had it first - and I’m pretty sure the only reason my husband even knew to go to the ER was because of my experience.

[Anonymous]

Baby was sleeping in a stroller at the top of some steps while I played with older kids at the bottom. I hadn’t locked it and the wind blew it down the stairs; at the bottom, it flipped over. Luckily the baby was strapped in and scared but uninjured.

Actual worst is probably moving our then-5yo away from the neighborhood full of kids her age who all played together all the time to one where no one wants to play with her. She still cries about her friends sometimes, two years later.

[Anonymous]

The time when my just turned two year old disappeared (temporarily) at a crowded park. He was within a a couple feet of me when I took my eyes off of him for a second or two to look down and readjust my newborn in her carrier and he was gone. There were two big birthday parties going on in the park and tons of little kids right around his age running around and I panicked trying to find him in a sea of children. I ended up finding him under 10 minutes later totally safe and playing near some other kids, but that ten minutes was the longest decade of my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly none of this kind of shit sticks with me. My worst parenting moment is when I lose my temper, yell (like my mother) and feel like a piece of crap for yelling at a kid. Luckily it’s only been a handful of times but man I can do better.

I agree. I have a kid with sn who really pushes my buttons. It’s in anger that I feel I’ve been a bad parent not when I’ve made an honest mistake.

Same here. I can't think back on any kind of accident my kids have had like the ones mentioned, but it's the moments where I made a bad choice about how to handle things (i.e. raising my voice) that I feel bad about. Not something that I didn't even know was happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly none of this kind of shit sticks with me. My worst parenting moment is when I lose my temper, yell (like my mother) and feel like a piece of crap for yelling at a kid. Luckily it’s only been a handful of times but man I can do better.

I agree. I have a kid with sn who really pushes my buttons. It’s in anger that I feel I’ve been a bad parent not when I’ve made an honest mistake.

Same here. I can't think back on any kind of accident my kids have had like the ones mentioned, but it's the moments where I made a bad choice about how to handle things (i.e. raising my voice) that I feel bad about. Not something that I didn't even know was happening.

This is me too. I have had some anger that I am not proud of and have been working incredibly hard to never repeat. I have done a lot of work to stay on top of my emotional reactions. One of my kids is really an expert at pushing every last one of my buttons. I have had to do a lot of untangling of WHY she is able to get to me and figure out how to get ahead of it. It's honestly the hardest part of parenting.

So while, sure, having a kid fall off playground equipment is scary. Or having them bump their head is unnerving, the REALLY scary shit is fearing you are doing emotional damage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly none of this kind of shit sticks with me. My worst parenting moment is when I lose my temper, yell (like my mother) and feel like a piece of crap for yelling at a kid. Luckily it’s only been a handful of times but man I can do better.

I agree. I have a kid with sn who really pushes my buttons. It’s in anger that I feel I’ve been a bad parent not when I’ve made an honest mistake.

Same here. I can't think back on any kind of accident my kids have had like the ones mentioned, but it's the moments where I made a bad choice about how to handle things (i.e. raising my voice) that I feel bad about. Not something that I didn't even know was happening.

This is me too. I have had some anger that I am not proud of and have been working incredibly hard to never repeat. I have done a lot of work to stay on top of my emotional reactions. One of my kids is really an expert at pushing every last one of my buttons. I have had to do a lot of untangling of WHY she is able to get to me and figure out how to get ahead of it. It's honestly the hardest part of parenting.

So while, sure, having a kid fall off playground equipment is scary. Or having them bump their head is unnerving, the REALLY scary shit is fearing you are doing emotional damage.

+1000

Sometimes I end up yelling. It's rare, but seems to be happening more lately as I'm under a ton of stress and its not healthy for anyone. The guilt just feeds into the cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just at the playground with my 2 year old and my 7 year old. I was busy watching my 7 year old because a homeless man was sitting on a bench close to where she was playing and he was drinking beer while watching her. I obviously looked away from my 2 year old and she fell from the top of the playground. It had to of been at least 6 feet. The ground was bouncy/absorbent thankfully, so I don't think she got hurt. She did cry from the scare of it all. There were 2 other moms there, judging me I'm sure. I'm so embarrassed and feel like the worst mother right now.

What's your worst parenting moment?

Oh, bless your heart. Check back when you have teens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just an FYI, homeless people are not inherently dangerous. Even homeless people drinking beer.

Give me a break! I would absolutely keep a closer eye on a homeless man openly drinking (which is illegal) next to a playground. Mental illness is much more prevalent in homeless people. This is common sense.

Me too. Single man at playground drinking? Sketchy.

Except the child was 7. What did you think was going to happen?

[Anonymous]

Front carrying my 6 week old in a baby bjorn and I slipped and fell and she hit her head in a parking lot. I fell on top of her. Caught myself but not her head.

She's fine.

[Anonymous]

I yelled at my kid (who was maybe 3?) because she broke my glasses. I had told her a bunch of times not to touch them and she picked them up off the bathroom counter and snapped them in half. Wouldn't have been as big of a deal except that I had to drive us home from VA Beach solo and I didn't have other glasses and can't really see without them. (had to tape them together - after buying tape.)

I felt bad about it afterward. I mean, she was 3.

Other one: my ex let her roll off of his bed onto the hardwood floor and I got mad at him for not supervising her. Then she somehow fell out of a high chair onto her head on my watch when I was sitting RIGHT THERE. Then I felt bad for getting mad at him.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure there are more, but the first two I can think of:

1) When my twins were babies, while attending to one twin who was sick, allowed the other twin who was next to me to fall off the couch and break her wrist.
2) Didn't take a child for an xray of his wrist for weeks. Finally did and found out it was fractured.
3) Told my 9 year old DD who always seemed to be coming down with something to suck it up and learn how to cope. Turned out she had pneumonia and was sick for more than a month. She brings that up at least once per week.

[Anonymous]

My DD was newly potty trained. I was getting her in the tub and she said she had to go potty. I got her out. She didn't go. This happened two more times. Finally I said you're getting a bath. When we are done you can go potty. She started crying and then sort of passed out. I totally freaked out. like head fell under water while standing.

As it turns out - she held her breath and passed out. (I took her to pediatrician) It was a temper tantrum reaction (not intentional). AND...she got this from me. I used to do the same thing.

From that point on when it happened we were like - yep, she's pissed. But didn't panic.

The last time she did it was when she was 5. She got hit in the head by a swing. Cried hard and zonk. She eventually grew out of it.

Scary though. And i felt like shit.

[Anonymous]

I told my non-athletic son one day after a soccer game, that his play on defense was "surprisingly not awful." I can't believe I said it that way. My kids use that phrase all the time to make fun of me.

[Anonymous]

In the dead of winter at around 6pm on a Sunday my 10 month old, who had been running a fever, suddenly started having a seizure and was barely breathing. I screamed and my husband ran in and grabbed her and opened her mouth to make sure she could breathe. I called 911 and it was the longest 5 minutes of my life. They raced her to the hospital. It turned out the seizure was related to her fever really spiking and she had two more of them over the next year or so until she outgrew them. But when she had them again we were prepared. One night my husband and I were in bed and he simply sensed something was wrong and he went into her room and she was having a seizure. Sixth sense or God on our side?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the dead of winter at around 6pm on a Sunday my 10 month old, who had been running a fever, suddenly started having a seizure and was barely breathing. I screamed and my husband ran in and grabbed her and opened her mouth to make sure she could breathe. I called 911 and it was the longest 5 minutes of my life. They raced her to the hospital. It turned out the seizure was related to her fever really spiking and she had two more of them over the next year or so until she outgrew them. But when she had them again we were prepared. One night my husband and I were in bed and he simply sensed something was wrong and he went into her room and she was having a seizure. Sixth sense or God on our side?

I'm happy everything was fine. Not God on your side, though, unless you want to believe that God is against all the other babies that have died for one reason or another.