Yes, you heard that right and I can admit my mistake because I want to show Mom’s that it can happen easier than you may think. I would have been the first person to say “There is no excuse, how can a Mom forget their child?” Well, I did it and thanks be to God alone it was only for 5-10 minutes at the most, and she is now eleven years old and healthy. She is the baby of my 3 daughters, she was somewhere between 8 months and a year old, still in an infant car seat, rear facing. My other two kids were 6 and 3 years old. Because one was in school, one was in daycare and the baby either went to her grandparents house while I worked or went to work with me; that meant three kids getting transported to three places each morning. It became very habitual, load kids up, drive here get out drop-off then next kid, then next kid, then work, this same routine 5 days a week. On this particular day, it was in the summer time, my oldest daughter was attending summer school and had to be picked up at noon. My 3-year-old went to daycare, but, when I attempted to drop off the baby at the grandparent’s house something was wrong (don’t remember now) and I decided to just take the baby to work with me. I worked at the family business and on occasion I would do this and keep a play pen in the office, I didn’t get much work done on those days! Well, it was a busy day at work, I had already had to breastfeed and answer phone’s at the same time, if you can imagine. So I realized time had passed and I was going to be late to pick up my oldest daughter who was in first grade. I quickly loaded up the baby in the back seat and nervously drove to my daughters school. I knew I would be about 10 minutes late, you know the Mom guilt that happens in these situations right? The worry, the beating yourself up routine, “Im such a bad Mom for being late”. Anyhow, you can see where this is going, I pulled up to the school and locked my car, jumped out and as fast as I could without running, I walked into the school and got halfway to my oldest daughter’s classroom before I realized the baby was in the hot car! Well, needless to say I RAN back to my car……. the baby was fine, I immediately turned on the air conditioning to cool her down then got her out of the car and walked back in to pick up my oldest from school, who was now in the office waiting for me. In an instant, I decided that I would never beat myself up again for being late to get one of the kids from school because it’s better to be a little late and have everyone arrive safe, than to be stressed and make a deadly mistake.
In no way am I making excuses for what happened, I could have kept my stress level in check with a little more effort but, it was just a rough day. I thank God every time I read one of the horror stories, that my baby survived. Looking back it was probably less than 4 to 5 minutes that she was in the car but, it was a really hot day nevertheless.
There is my story! I didn’t intend this to be the topic of my first blog. However, I read some young Mom’s on facebook wondering how in the heck these things happen and I just wanted to write about how it can happen to anyone if we don’t keep our stress level’s in check. Looking back, I should have been at home with my kids instead of trying to work and run everybody all over town, It wasn’t worth it to me. There is no other more important job than being a Mom.
A Blooming Heart 