Mommy Dearest – Forgetting Your Child

As mothers, how many of us can watch Home Alone and sympathize with Kevin’s mom when she ran off and left him home alone? If you can’t empathize with her and think she’s the worst mother in the world, please stop reading now – you’ll think I’m not much better and I don’t want to ruin your illusion of me =:)
When my daughter was in daycare my husband and I had set days of the week that we would take turns picking up our daughter. On my off days I would work a little later to get some extra work done. Occasionally we would ask the other way to take our turn for whatever reason. Shortly after I started my current job (which is about a 30-45 minute commute) my husband asked me to pick up our daughter on one of his days and I forgot to mark it down on my calendar.

As I was humming away getting all kinds of extra work done (when I was supposed to be picking up the stinker) my phone rang – you guessed it, the daycare wondering when we were going to come and get Danielle. They had waited 15 minutes after closing time to call and I was a good 30-45 minutes away. On my way out the door I tried calling Mike, my mother, my in-laws and pretty much anyone in my personal phone book to see if they could get over there and get her but no one way available.

After breaking every speed law in the book (did you know that if you were traveling more than 15 miles/hour over the speed limit it was automatic revocation of your license? The nice police officer explained that to me as he was writing me a ticket right at 14 miles over, glad his glasses were a little foggy when we clocked me) I arrived an hour late to the daycare.

Daycare overage $60
Speeding ticket $250
Husband and child having something to hang over your head the rest of your life: Priceless

The point of this story is that all of us mothers (and fathers) no matter how good of parents we usually are fail our children at some point. Luckily for me the only time that I forgot my child she was safe and sound with no emotional scarring (she doesn’t even remember the event except for us retelling the story), I just had to put up with some dirty looks from the daycare director who was the “Perfect Mother” for a few weeks. I try to remember my “Mommy Dearest” moments whenever I find myself judging another mother and finding her lacking.

Do you have any good ‘forgotten children’ stories you would like to share?