A must read
This is a guest post from our frequent commenter "marian", and it's a good one! Haven't we all had experiences like this!
First, let me introduce myself. I’m a mom of one incredibly active and very very strong-willed 2 year old son, Max, and we (Max, myself, and hubby) have just moved from a small apartment in NYC to a rather large and old house in the country. One thing to note is that our house, being very old, has what are called “registers” in the floor on the upstairs – these are basically holes in the floor with iron grates in them, which allows the heat to come up from the downstairs. On the downstairs side, there is an additional vent cover.
Max and I have had a challenging last week or so (dad away on a business trip, Max waking up for the day at 4:30 am, etc.) and I'm very very tired and have had a bit too much of him. Which still doesn't totally excuse this, but whatever...
The latest thing that is driving me nuts is that he is once again refusing to nap, which results in a complete mess of a child from when I finally give up on the nap until bedtime. The other afternoon, I was stretching him as long as possible (hoping that would result in a nap, but having a pretty good feeling that it wouldn’t) and I was doing that tired mommy "I'll just lie here on the couch and close my eyes while you play with that puzzle" when I was rudely awakened by Max coloring on my face with a marker. Luckily it was a washable one, but I was NOT happy. So I decided it was bedtime. I put him to bed, knowing full well that it wasn't going to work, and then headed back to the couch, threw a pillow over my head, and promptly fell asleep for 45 minutes.
So I wake up and Max is yelling, and I know he hasn't gone to sleep. He starts to yell louder and harder, and I figure I'll get up and go check on him, that he probably has a dirty diaper. I step from my tv room into my kitchen, at which point I see Max hanging through the ceiling from the armpits down He had removed the register from his floor, kicked out the vent cover in the kitchen ceiling, and had then decided to climb through it, resulting in him being suspended over my kitchen table, screaming his lungs out. I was momentarily lost over what to do, but then decided it was better to stay below him than to take the time to run upstairs and pull him back up through the floor (I didn't know how long he'd been there and how long he'd last). So I grabbed his feet and talked him into dropping through the hole, at which point I caught him.
Ohhhhh I'm such a horrible mother.
And yes, he did have a dirty diaper. And yes, the floor vents are now screwed AND nailed into the floor. And yes, I don't think he'll live to see 3.
posted by Heather O. at 1/03/2006 05:26:00 PM
11 Comments:
Oh, my! That story made me laugh so loud my baby stopped eating and started to cry. Oops!
And then it made me check to make sure all our grates are screwed on.
I was incredibly tempted to take a picture, but the camera was just a few too many steps away, and I knew I'd never forgive myself if he fell while I was snapping away.
This is the best story I have heard in a while! Being a new grandmother I feel obligated to read it to my daughter! It's great. Thanks for sharing, and all I can add is get prepared the best is yet to come!
I found this so funnny. The trouble that children can find themselves into is just to much sometimes. No you are not a bad mother, just a normal everyday, worn out mother! We have all been there and done that.
Great story for the baby book and to tell the family!!! How scary and funny all at once!!
After reading your post I feel a little better about myself.
New baby sleeping on the bed, I felt tired so tired, toddler gone with Dad, lay down and just close my eyes for a second, baby crying, so far away like in a dream, baby not on bed, but crying, baby in a crack by the wall between the bed, head down, feet up, bad Mommy.
Oh. My. Gosh.
I gotta admit the mental picture is priceless. It never ceases to amaze me that kids can go through so much and escape unscathed. And they're smart too, how many of us would've thought to try that? I fell asleep today and all my kids did was throw the clean laundry all over the living room. I'm feeling pretty lucky.
Someday you'll tell that story to Max's wife, and she will laugh, and pray to heaven it never happens to her!
Hang in there, 2 doesn't last forever!
I was painting the living room one day, with Jacob quiet in the basement playroom. Then I heard a wailing sound that I seriously thought was a cat, until I figured out it was coming from downstairs. I went down, and found Jacob LOCKED IN A TRUNK! Yeah, I got major mommy points that day!
But, somehow, they seem to survive, don't they--amazing!
Glad to hear that none of you are calling social services as you read this...
Abby, I think that most moms have that horrible story about their baby falling when they were exhausted - for me it was the first time my husband went away on a trip and I was all alone with Max, who was 3 weeks old, and I fell asleep on the couch (totally by accident, I was so exhausted) holding him, and dropped him in my sleep. I didn't tell anyone because I felt like such a horrible horrible person.
Yeah, your post cracked me up, too.
I remember so well being tired all the time and longing for my kids to take a nap.
How we survive I don't know, but my sympathies are always with young mothers.
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