Last night I joined some of my women friends for dinner and we had some great laughs while sharing what we call our various “bad mommy” stories (and our dh’s “bad daddy” ones, in which mine won the prize
). These are the kinds of stories that were not necessarily funny at the time they happened, but looking back now we can laugh about our “mommy” mistakes or things that happened while we were around but were not directly responsible. I thought it would be fun to do here and it would have the added benefit of reinforcing to new and waiting parents that none of us is perfect, and you don’t have to be. All are welcome to share their story here and it does not matter if you are a parent, aunt, uncle, special friend to a child, or know of someone who had an incident, etc. The only rule is that no one is allowed to call children’s services on anybody.
I guess I’ll start.
My daughter who we adopted as an infant is now three, so as a first time mother, I have certainly made my share of “mommy” mistakes. The earliest one that I can recall took place during my birthday celebration (first one as a mommy) about three years ago. My daughter was about 6 months old at the time and we took her to a nice restaurant (children were welcome) with a group of friends. She was still being toted around in her car seat carrier and when we got to the restaurant I placed her next to me on the “car seat chair” that the restaurant provided for us. While we were sitting around having a good time and waiting for our meals to be served all of a sudden there was a loud CRASH, and when I looked over, the chair my dd was in had flipped completely over forward and the car seat was face down on the floor.
The restaurant got so silent that you could have heard a pin drop, as I rushed down to the floor to pick her up. And when I reached her and turned her over, she had the biggest grin on her face and was baby babbling/laughing away. I think she thought she was on a ride or something. Her head and body had never hit the floor because I did have the good sense to keep her tightly strapped inside her car seat even though we were not in the car (lesson to you new mommy’s). The people in the restaurant started clapping. I was so embarrassed and upset that I was the one that started to cry, and needless to say I did not enjoy my birthday dinner.
I didn’t let her go and had her in my arms the rest of the meal. Because the restaurant thought it was a bum chair (to this day I still feel responsible) they ended up comping our meals.
I’m embarrassed to say that I have others but am more interested in hearing yours. Any other good, but “bad mommy's” out there?
Best wishes,
Kelli