(Stressed Out) Parent of the Year Award
I catch so much flack about this story, and fortunately it’s all good natured. Before you give me some too, let me give you a little back story to help you understand how it happened. I was in school at the time, taking a full course load (four courses per semester), working full time, and taking care of my children who were in the 7th and 5th grades respectively (my son being the oldest). In a nutshell, I was one stressed out single parent.
I’d picked my children up from afterschool care and made a quick stop at the grocery store to get something for dinner. As I made my way through the aisles, kids in tow, I was thinking about my homework and getting home in time to log into my online classes (I had two, one hour classes, back to back, on the same night).
I went through the checkout, loaded my groceries in the back of my vehicle, buckled my seat belt, and headed for home. As I turned the corner to leave the parking lot, my cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Mom?”
The voice is familiar, but I’m confused. I immediately look in the rear view mirror at the seat behind me, where my daughter usually sits, and it’s empty. “Haley?” <not my daughter’s real name>
“You left me!”
Embarrassed, and feeling completely incompetent as a parent, I try to think of something clever to say. I have nothing. “Well, it wasn’t on purpose. Why aren’t you in the car?”
“I was right behind you guys.”
“If you were right behind us, you’d be in the car right now.”
“Didn’t you see me running after you?!?”
I stifled a giggle as I imagined her running at top speed behind the SUV I had at the time. “Of course not, don’t you think I would’ve stopped?” At this point I’m wondering how she got to a phone so fast (she had no cell phone at the time), and as if she could read my mind, she tells me.
“This lady saw me running after you and let me borrow her phone.”
As I circle back around into the parking lot to pick her up, I give a quick glance at her brother through the mirror. “You couldn’t tell me she wasn’t in the car? You couldn’t turn your head one eighth of an inch to the left and say ‘mom Haley isn’t in the car?’ Really son?”
He remains silent and gives me the universal ‘kids salute:’
I got home in time for class, my daughter, to this day, holds no grudge, and we’ve got a funny story that we laugh about every now and again. Especially when we think about her sprinting after me as fast as her little legs could carry her.
When I share this story with others, more often than not they respond with one of their own, about how they’ve either accidentally left their child somewhere, or they were the child accidentally left behind. Some of them have even been left behind as adults. Like maybe at a wholesale store, in Antioch, TN. Maybe even by an older sister, while they were visiting with her in Nashville. But that’s a story for another time. 🙂
So let this be a lesson. When you ride with me and you’re not in the passenger seat, rider beware. Whether you’re a child or an adult, I’m not in the habit of doing a head count before I put the car in Drive and go.
Keep up or get left behind,
Angela
