This was back in the days, of, about 1971, when only the overprotective had kiddie car seats installed. My mom drove a van, and she had put my bro, then aged four, in the back, figuring he wouldn’t go anywhere.
When the fourth car had passed her, honking like mad, she looked over her shoulder. Her kid had managed to open the back doors of the van! He lay on his belly, head outside, peacefully watching the asphalt moving below him.
I love conversations with people who don’t understand how you can lose kids. I don’t think I could lose my daughter. She just isn’t that kind of kid. But my son is ninja quiet, had no interest in sticking by Mom in public, and was QUICK.
“Well, you just watch them”
Yeah, and when your eye’s are on the credit card receipt you are signing and in that moment your three year old has already hit housewares? Other parents obviously have more eyes that work independently than I do. I only have two and they don’t work independently.
(On the plus side, he never did the crawl under the bathroom stall while you have your pants around your ankles and can’t quite move quickly and run out of the ladies room trick. Or one of my girlfriends tried the “I’ll try on one dress” trick and ended up chasing her toddler through Macy’s in her bra and panties. Not far, the sales clerks caught on and caught the escapee.)
Now see? This would never have happened to me because my kid was such a wild man I don’t think I ever even brought him to Macy’s. It sure is funny to think about though. 
My son as a 3 month old had a Broviak that required a saline cleaning via injection everyday. Eventually they became routine. So routine in fact that after a month or so my wife forgot to clear the air bubble out before the saline injection. Ambulance rides, panicked 9-1-1 calls, hysterical self- recrimination ensued. He was fine. FYI if you inject an air bubble into a line and the kid doesn’t die right way - like in the next few minutes - he is going to be fine as the air bubble kills or cripples really fast or doesn’t do anything.
Flash forward the boy is now 4 and we are in a Mall. Somehow mom and son are separated. Security alerts, panicked 9-1-1 calls, hysterical self-recrimination ensued. SEARS (witnessing) will always have a place in our hearts for the kind way their employees looked after a 4 so upset at losing his Mom that he vomited. Now maybe being ESL I would wish that in their particular 3-4 countries of origin that these employees would culturally have thought to call Mall security a little quicker rather than just assure him his Mom would be along soon [she was racing with security from one end of the Mall to the other] … but still they were kind and kept him from harm. Total time probably the longest half hour of our lives
The Princess did that to me last year. The ONE time I let her stand outside the toilet stall while I was using the bathroom at Target, she walked out the door. As soon as I realized she was gone, I cleaned up as fast as possible, washed my hands in 1.5 seconds, and dashed to the nearest cashier. Less than a minute after they announced the missing child over the loudspeaker, she was found in the accessories department, standing next to my grandmother, who had accompanied us to the store. Neither of them seemed the least bit fazed.
(Note: She just read this post over my shoulder and apologized for her actions of that day. I just had to give her a hug.) 
As far as the other horrible thing I almost did to her, there was the time I nearly didn’t take her to the emergency room or provide all but the most minimal treatment for what I thought was just another cough but turned out to be croup.
A few days after my daughter had just started crawling (commando-style on her belly and very slowly at that), we came home from shopping and I put her on our bed while I got changed (I forgot she was now somewhat mobile). I changed my shirt and turned back to the dressing table to remove my earrings and necklace. I turned around to the bed just in time to see HRH nose-dive off the edge to the carpeted floor! She hit the ground nose and forehead first, so I was completely hysterical and trying to calm an hysterical baby at the same time! It must have taken at least an hour for my pulse to slow to normal, although HRH was back to playing and giggling within minutes!
:sigh: I miss the days when I could put her somewhere and she would just lay there!
The Smaller Girl, aged 6 months. I was parked outside our old house (we were moving) ready to go in and help Mr Aspy clean up - she was asleep, the Not-So-Small Girl was awake, and had a stinky butt. So I decided to bring her in and change her first, before leaving her with Dad and going back to the car to watch over the sleeper.
I did so. I went out to the car. It Wasn’t There. Panic, etc etc. I looked up and down the road (it’s a busy three-laner). There was the car, drifted off about 50 metres, sitting side on in the middle lane.
I’d forgotten to put the handbrake on.
Fortunately there had been a big gap in traffic, and I managed to dash over, get in and drive back to the house before anyne else pretty much noticed, apart from a couple of confused-looking pedestrians. Still, gives me the heeby-jeebies to think what might have happened if the road geometry were just a little different - she could have rolled right into the intersection and gotten slammed from the side.
That’s definitely the worst thing I’ve ever almost done to one of my children, but runner up is nearly as bad. Same daughter, about 3 weeks ago (she’s 2 now). We were driving down to the country for Christmas. It was a dream run - all three kids slept the entire way. When we stopped the car, they all wake up, and Smaller Girl nonchalantly steps out of her seat - she had been unbuckled the entire way.
“Didn’t you strap her in?”
“Um, I don’t think so, didn’t you?”
:smack:
Sometimes I think I just shouldn’t drive at all, ever.