Monday, June 22, 2009

Knew it would happen someday...

I got the Bad Mom Award. On Father's Day, no less. Let's see, where to start...

We were all getting ready for church, and I was quite pleased that things were going fairly smoothly. No one was searching for lost shoes, and it looked like we'd even be leaving the house on time. Usually for morning church we take two cars because Marc has to be there early for prayer with the pastor and other elders, and we often give one or two other members a ride to church. Ryne and Anna are usually the first to get ready on Sunday mornings, so it is not uncommon for one or both of them to ride with Marc. Usually Marc will tell me if any of the kids are riding with him, although I have had to call a few times on the cell phone to find out who is in his car.

So yesterday morning before we headed out the door, I started calling for the kids. I wanted them to sign a Father's Day card for their uncle. Grace and Ryne both signed the card, and I called again for Anna. And called. And called. I turned to Ryne and Grace, asking, "Where's Anna?" They both simultaneously, without hesitation, replied, "She went with Daddy." In the back of my mind a little voice told me that didn't seem right because no one was ready when he left, but they were so convincing. So we left for church.

The next part of the story is unrelated to my bad mom award, but adds more drama. We've had trouble with our car the last couple of months, but after $1,800 in repairs everything was supposedly fine. Or not. On the way to church some mysterious vapor started coming out of the vents, making me and my passengers very nervous. But everything on the dash looked okay, so I continued driving. The vapor disappeared, but then I felt something burning my right heel. I had anti-freeze oozing out all around my feet (same thing that had happened a month ago). The heat gauge still was okay, so I just prayed we would make the last mile to church.

As we pulled up to the church, I told the kids to go find Daddy to come see the car. He came out to the parking lot, and with that calm expression he has when everything is going wrong (love that about him) he asked, "So do you know you left Anna at home?" Oops. With Octomom and John and Kate dominating headlines these days, keeping track of three kids seems like it should be a piece of cake. But I'm telling you, it was just a mater of time before something like this happened. It's amazing this was the first time we left a kid behind.

Thankfully, it was Anna I left. She could hold her own. We live 20 minutes from church, and it was my week to volunteer in nursery, so she was going to have to stay at home. With one operating vehicle we were going to have trouble getting everyone home as it was.

To Anna's credit she handled the situation very well. She even had her own mini church service, playing the hymns "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and "A Mighty Fortress" on the piano and having some quiet time for prayer. I'm going to give her the benefit of doubt that had we not taken her Bible to church with us she would not have neglected the reading of God's Word. : )

What I found most amusing was that once the church family heard what had happened everyone started sharing their own stories of children being left behind at various places. One lady even told how her son (now my age) was left behind at a service station in Wyoming and no one discovered he was missing until they were 30 miles down the road!

Despite the car troubles and my bad mom moment, we had a wonderful Father's Day. Not only were we able to show our love and appreciation to Daddy/Hubby, my own dad was in town. Double blessing!

So, I'm curious. Have you ever forgotten a kid? I'll share my Bad Mom Award with you!

7 comments:

  1. I had the opposite problem - a while back Abigail (then three) decided to walk to church all on her own. It was only when I was calling everyone to leave that I realised not only had Jeff left early, but Abi was no-where to be found!

    Remember when you awarded me the Blogger Oscar and said I was a great mum? It was right around then. I posted about the two events together here:
    http://equipacademy.blogspot.com/2009/03/ive-been-awarded.html.

    When it comes to going places like the museum or zoo, we have a few sets of matching jumpers and t-shirts. I can just count the red jumpers, or green t-shirts as applicable, and know for sure we haven't left anyone behind.

    ~ Sharon

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  2. Yes, Sharon, I remember! I thought about you when I wrote this post. : )

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  3. Oh bless your heart! I gasped when I got to the fluid-leaking part. I feared it had hurt your foot. Praying for your car situation.
    You read about one of my bad mom moments yesterday. :) But, the worst one ever was when I lost Wilbur at his birthday party. It was a skating party, and he was not a good skater at the time. We called the kids into the party room, lit the candles and started singing. Then one one of the guests noticed he wasn't there. They said, "Hey! Where's the birthday boy?" I went into a panic, ran through the rink yelling for him, and found him sitting in the middle of the rink. I couldn't sleep for 3 nights. It took huge measures of grace for me to forgive myself.

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  4. Haven't done this yet, but with four I know it's only a matter of time! I HAVE lost one that I was holding before - seriously. I was looking and calling for him to the older 2 kids and they gave me funny looks. That's when I realized he was on my hip - lol!

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  5. I think we all can accept that award at some point. lol

    The worst thing I have ever done was put my son's favorite pet lizard outside in the morning to bask (in the summer time mind you).

    Later on that day, I had a sudden sick feeling as I realized what I had done. It was now noon and that poor lizard was dead due to heat exhaustion.

    It was terrible!! I cried. He cried. We cried together and I held him. I will hopefully never do that again. Yikes

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  6. You poor thing! Praise the Lord you've raised your Anna right (we have an Anna, too!) and she was able to be at home alone and not tear the place down!! I was reading through the other comments and I did the same thing mom24 did - had the baby on my hip and was wondering where he went!! :)

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  7. Wow! I was left behind as a child when my parents went to McDonalds and they only realized it when they walked in the front door and saw me playing in front of them. lol

    I know what you mean about the OctoMom and Jon & Kate! I only have 2 kids and I don't know how they do it. I can barely keep track of the 2 I have!

    Cute blog! I enjoyed visiting!

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