I'm such a bad mother........

[RayKay]

I think that would be a good idea.

 

I've seen some new cell phones for kids with only 5 buttons! you can program in 5 numbers, and that is it. So, he won't be calling his school buddies and talking to them for hours on the phone and running up a bill!

 

Yup, I think those are pretty good personally...I have seen one called Firefly or something. More like emergency or specific use phones - has a picture of "Home" for example and a couple other quick button numbers.

[Tigris]

It sounds like a good idea to me!

[alteer]

Is he your youngest child?

 

I know you said he's 11 so isn't it time he was given a little more responsibility so he can become more independent? Couldn't he get a bus home?

 

At 11 I had to walk to the next village to catch the bus to school.

 

I'm just being curious. I don't mean to offend in any way.

 

He is my youngest child yes. I also have a 14 yr old daughter. He catches a bus home from school everyday.....but the buses don't run regularly after 5 in my area.

 

My kids are latch key kids.....(I hate that term, but that's what they are) they have to get themselves ready for school because I leave for work at 6am and they have to organise themselves in the afternoons because I don't get home till after 5. So they don't lack independance. It's only walking home in the dark that freaked me out. Oh, and the fact that I forgot about him.

[annie24]

ah, well, it happens. he's alive and in one piece. you are not the first parent to ever forget a kid. My mom forgot me ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!! *sigh*

[Tigris]

Now I understand why you've been so hard on yourself. You've probably got to much whizzing around your head at the moment and that's why it slipped your mind. I'm sure the mobile phone can solve this problem.

[alteer]

Tigris I always have a lot going on in my head.....you know so much to do, so little time to do it in.

 

Not only that.......I'm also hearbroken at the moment. So I'm not really myself right now.

 

Ummmm I think I'll have to buy that phone for him asap.

[Tigris]

I'm sorry to hear that.

 

Take care

[annie24]

It's ok, buy him the phone, it will all be alright. (((HUGS))))

[yeawutever]

Yea it happens to every parents once in a while on that one single occasions. Your case wans't serious as this woman who forgot her like 9 month old baby in the car and then when she remembers, he/she was dead already.

[justpaisley]

My friends forgot my middle goddaughter in the car once. They work together, and they both assumed when they got out of the car that the other was going to drive her to the sitter's house and in the normal course of the morning, they didn't see each other going to their respective desks. They finally realized that neither had taken her to the sitter's about 2 hours later. Thank God, it was a cloudy, cool day, so it didn't get hot in the car at all - she was such a quiet baby, she had just been sleeping the whole time. The mom brought the baby in and was screaming at her husband, "You'll NEVER touch my daughter again!" Her husband sat down next to me (these are both my friends, but I was their secretary) and went on this "How can I possibly be a good father" self-lamenting rant. When the mom calmed down, she came out and apologized for yelling, saying it was basically both of their faults - they were both crying. It was a pretty scary day.

 

You're not a bad mother. You're a mother with a lot of things on her mind. It's not like you forgot your child, per se, but rather forgot to do something involving your child. Maybe try to put subtle reminders around your office or your house, something that will remind you to pick them up. You could buy a cheap, small travel alarm and set it to go off for when you have to leave work or home so that you don't let your daily tasks take your mind completely off of what time it is. Or put a post-it note pad in your car, and write on the post-it that you have to pick him up.

 

Don't worry, sweetie, I'm sure if you ask any parent, they'll tell you about some time that they have done something they think makes them a terrible parent. My mother-in-law, when my husband was 8, told him that his arm was just bruised. He could move it and everything, but it just kept hurting. It turned out to be broken, and she spoiled him rotten for like a week, kept telling him how awful she felt. Parents aren't perfect people, they're only human. I'm due in August, so I don't have any stories yet, but I'm sure I will. Every parent does.

 

(((hugs!!!)))

[coollady1957]

I too have forgotten my children before. There would be times I would be so busy at work that I would forget to pick up at school or sports practices.

So don't feel too bad. I think the majority of parents have forgotten at one time or another.

 

However, at that time both of them had cell phones already and would call me with in a few minutes of the time I was suppose to have been there to ask me to come and pick them up.

 

Oh, and a comment on the harness/leash thing,,,,,,,,When my son was little , around 3 years old, we went to a football game at a stadium of 100,000 capacity. He was one of those fast kids that liked to run everywhere he went. So I used one of those wrist attachments that would go around my wrist with velcro and around his wrist with velcro and a snap that was childproof. It had a spiral cord on it, kind of like a corded telephone, and he could get about 15 feet from me but that was it.

 

He was a hard one to keep up with, so the leash thing worked really well in big crowds. My daughter never tried that running thing so she was not nearly has hard to control and keep up with when small in big crowds., She was a daddys girl anyway, and wanted him to carry her.

[alteer]

Thanks everyone

 

So glad to know I'm not alone

[brownie]

hey its ok! my mom left me in the drug store when I was like 12 I was mad at her at the time but now when I think back on it, it was kind of funny.

it happens to everyone dont beat your self up, none is perfect