"Bad Mommy" Moments / Happy Mother's Day!

With Mother's Day right around the corner I've been thinking about what it takes to be a good mother and I've decided that near the top of my list is the ability to laugh -- at the many ridiculous situations we encounter, the wonderful and silly ways our children behave, the many hilarious memories, and most importantly, our own "bad mommy" moments (once we're assured everyone's OK, of course).

Two incidents in particular make me laugh now, though not at the time -- then I felt inept, mortified, ashamed, scared (of the authorities?!) and well, like a bad mother!  The first involved my son...

Davey was about three months old and he and I had just returned home from some errand or another.  I parked and walked around to the other side of the car (a two-door), opened the door, pulled forward the front seat back, reached in, unbuckled Davey's seat belt, removed him in the car seat, turned to step onto the curb/sidewalk and THREW the car seat (with Davey still in it) across the sidewalk and onto the yard!  Well, I didn't MEAN to throw him, it's just that my foot got caught in the seatbelt and my momentum of turning and pulling that gawd-awful, heavy car seat (this was 1982 and those suckers must've weighed 20 pounds -- without the kid!) kept going while my foot was stuck.  OMG!  I just chucked my baby on the lawn!  I ran to him, turned the car seat upright, and there he was -- smiling at me, no idea that his mother had just tossed him like a trash sack.  No cuts, no bruises, just a sweet smile -- whew!  I scooped him up and quickly went inside the house, only to wonder the rest of the day if someone had witnessed this?

My other most memorable "bad mommy" moment occurred when my daughter, Natalie, was seven.  As was her routine, she'd call me at work when she returned home from school each day to let me know she'd arrived safely (a two block walk).  On this particular day I was extremely harried at work when she called, and she had the strangest question for me, "Mommy, what's lock jaw?"  I told her that it was a disease and that I was very busy, that I'd talk to her about it when I returned home.  Not a good enough answer for her, she persisted, "Well, is lock jaw bad, Mommy?"  Again, I answered (probably uninterestedly and a bit curtly) that I was really busy and I promised we'd discuss it that evening.  Finally, she pleaded, "Mommy, can lock jaw kill you?"  "Bad Mommy" replied, "Yes!  Why?"  Natalie burst out crying, telling me that she'd been bitten by a squirrel on the way home from school and that the crossing guard told her that people could get lock jaw from rabid animals.  I rushed home, immediately sped over to the pediatrician's office and Natalie explained what had happened...walking home, she'd encountered a "friendly" squirrel on the sidewalk, bent down to pet it, and the squirrel spun around and bit her on the thumb!  What?  Who gets a squirrel bite?  Her injury looked a bit like a staple puncture; the doctor cleaned the wound, bandaged it and gave her a tetnus shot before asking me to step out into the hallway with him.  He told me that he'd never heard of a squirrel biting a human and was concerned the animal might be rabid.  The doctor sent us to the waiting room and he set about researching the human squirrel bite issue.  Finally, after two hours of agonizing waiting (me trying to convince Natalie she wasn't going to get lock jaw and secretly feeling the louse for frightening her so terribly on the phone), the doctor (after confering with the CDC) determined Natalie would likely be fine since the CDC had no cases on record of rapid squirrels.  Whew again!  Except for Natalie's enduring hatred of squirrels, all ended well and her thumb shows no evidence of the "friendly" squirrel bite!

So in the end, my children survived my mommy skills, good and bad, and they've matured into wonderful adults!

Happy Mother's Day!  And to some of my favorite mothers of all... Pam, Mary Ann, Caroline, Suzanne, Melanie, Renee and Emily (my second mommy!), I hope you all feel the love you so greatly deserve!
I'd love to hear from you if you care to share your laughable mothering moments (and you'll be entered into the drawing for the May blog giveway -- the pretty eye/sun glass case).