I do more shoddy parenting by 9am than you do all day. (Today wasn't exactly a high-point in my mothering career.)

All three boys go to the same school, and every day I usually drop Chip off last. He loves to go to his brothers’ preschool rooms first and play with all the big kid toys. He knows all the teachers names and walks around like he owns the place, and I never worry about him making a mess or getting hurt. It is great to let him run around while I settle one of his brothers into their day.

Today was no different.

We dropped off Mike and then went next door to Robbie’s classroom. As usual, Chip headed for the music area and dove into the throng of kids to get his favorite drum. He’s happily serenading everyone, so I get down to the business of getting Robbie squared away and ready for me to leave.

Lately for some reason he’s been getting upset when I go, and it has taken extra effort on my part to get him (quickly) to the point where I can walk out and he’s not in a pile of tears trying to run out the door after me. Today went fairly well, and when I left he was going with one of his teachers to wash his hands for snack time.

I head out and start re-focusing my brain on the things I need to do that morning at the office, errands I want to remember to do this weekend, and so on. Walking out to the car I run into one of the school’s directors on the sidewalk and my first thought is “Oh right, I need to give her that proof of vaccination form today. Good thing I remembered to put it into Chip’s backpack this morning!”

Oh shit.

Yes, you guessed it. I left 2 year old Chip in the preschool classroom!

I start laughing and walking back to get him, all the while telling the director what I had just done. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to think I’m too insane, but the woman she’s walking with looks SHOCKED AND APPALLED. I’m pretty sure she was a new parent getting a tour of the school, and well, let’s just say she won’t be coming over to give me a big pat on the back at the next potluck.

I guess this is what Friday the 13th does to me.


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22 responses to “I do more shoddy parenting by 9am than you do all day. (Today wasn't exactly a high-point in my mothering career.)”

  1. AbsolutelyBananas Avatar

    ooh boy… I love it! It’s always good to know that other moms pull this type of stunt! And you’re lucky you have Fri 13th to blame it on!

  2. :: Suzanne :: Avatar

    ha! If they are not near me, I’m constantly panicking that I have forgotten them somewhere. I’ve only been a mom for 7 months now, so it still feels surreal. Maybe it always will.

  3. Mitch McDad Avatar

    Nice work. My fear is that i blow that mistake out of the water. Soon my oldest will be going to pre-school, while the little one will be stay-in at her daycare. With two seperate venues, I’m curious how many times I’ll forget to pick one of them up. Could be alot.

  4. mothergoosemouse Avatar

    Shocked and appalled? What a sheltered life that lady must lead.

    You sound like a pretty normal parent to me. Or else I must be much shoddier than I think I am!

  5. mamatulip Avatar

    Hey, at least you didn’t get in the car and drive away, right? ;)

  6. andria Avatar

    I let my youngest run wild in the chuck e cheese and he almost ducked out a back door. I would never have let the oldest do that. At least Chip was supervised.

    My friend had left her third baby at the church nursery when she was about three months old. They picked up the older two and drove all the way home before they realized what they had done. At least you didn’t leave the place.

  7. problem girl Avatar

    What matters is that you realized what you had done before you left the place. I wonder why that lady was so shocked. It’s not like you left the kid at a crack house.

  8. Jennifer Avatar

    The lady who was shocked will do the exact same thing one day!

  9. Pendullum Avatar

    Ohhh… What a sheltered life if she is shocked and appalled over that!!!

  10. CharmingDriver Avatar

    Dude. My mom chaperoned an unreal number of field trips for both my sister and I and more times than not she also had a car full of kids to drop off afterwards.

    More times than not, she packed her car full of everyone else’s babes….and LEFT ME!11!!

    Not that I’m bitter. I’m sure IT WAS A MISTAKE. Every-single-time. Heh.

  11. boogiemum Avatar

    Thats great! I love the fact that I am not the only one doing these types of things. One time when picking up my 2 boys from preschool, I left one in his clasroom and started to drive off with only one of them. Whoops! That is the first time I admitted that publically. Feeling much better :)

  12. slackermommy Avatar

    What’s worse is when you forget someone else’s kid. Once I forgot to pick up a neighbor’s kid from school. It didn’t dawn on me until his dad called to find out where his kid was. Oops!

  13. Colleen Avatar

    Hey… you left him in a safe place.

    I guess I have the opposite problem. I have days where I’m sitting at the computer and I suddenly panic and think “oh no, I didn’t get Zoe!” and then I remember I did get her and I gave her lunch and put her down for a nap!

  14. Elizabeth Avatar

    I was just going to say what Colleen did, at least you knew he was safe!

    And, I just read your tagline, and HA! You must be a reader of I Has Cheezburger?, right?

  15. goldcoaster Avatar

    I bet Chip didn’t even care that you forgot him, did he?

    http://goldcoaster.wordpress.com

  16. Allison Avatar

    You won’t get “shocked and appalled” from me. I have 4 kids, remember? To this day I’ll be riding down the road and get this panicky feeling that I’ve left a kid somewhere. I’ll start screaming, “Maddie (my 8 yr old), do a head count!”

  17. jen Avatar

    Ooops! I laughed when I read this as it sounds just like the type of thing I would do.

  18. Suzanne Avatar

    If that woman was shocked and appalled by a little thing like that, she’s got a lot of living/learning to do.

  19. moodswingingmommy Avatar

    Ohhh, that’s got my name written all over it, too. Just hasn’t happened yet.

    Seriously, my greatest fear right now is that on one of my trips to the supermarket I’m going to load my car with the groceries and drive off, leaving my 5 month old daughter in the parking lot, still strapped to the shopping cart.

    Mommy brain can be terrible!

  20. liv Avatar

    yeah, that pretty much sounds like me. in line with leaving my $4 coffee on top of my mom-mobile and running over tricycles. awesome.

  21. Maria P. Avatar

    I love the SHOCKED and APPALLED looks.

  22. west coast mama Avatar

    hey,

    Last month, we were at Legoland, and I parked the stroller in stroller parking before going on a ride. My husband was with my 8 year old and 5 year old, and I had the 3 year old. I parked the stroller and proceeded to the attraction. I walked about 50 feet before realizing, I didn’t take him out of the stroller. OOOPS! He was sitting there happy as can be.

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