little feetEarlier today, I read a post on a message board from a mom who is absolutely mortified because she accidentally dropped her 4-week-old baby.

The poor woman was carrying her little guy in his Moses basket while heading out to the car. When she tried to put the basket on the back seat so she could pick him up out of it and put him in his car seat -- the door handle slipped and the baby fell out onto the pavement.

Thankfully, he's ok, but the mom naturally feels like the worst mother who ever walked the face of the Earth. And after I heard her story, all I wanted to do was reach out and hug her and say, "Oh, honey. Don't be so hard on yourself. This stuff happens to all of us -- and it happened to me."

Yep, when my son was about 3 months old, I laid him in the middle of our king-sized bed so I could fold the laundry. I'd done it a million times before, and he never moved an inch. On this particular day, however, I quickly ran down the hall to turn on the dryer -- I was gone for all of about 30 seconds. And as I was running back to the bedroom, I heard a thud. And I knew.

Much to my horror, I found my poor baby on the floor, staring up at me all wide-eyed and confused. And as soon as he saw the look of distress on my face, he burst into tears, and so did I. He wasn't hurt or anything, but I sure felt like an awful parent, and I never turned my back on him for one second from that day forward.

But just as I suspected, I'm not the only mom who is willing to admit having either dropped her baby or done something that led to her baby falling onto the floor.

Here's what 10 other moms on Twitter and Facebook had to say.

  1. "Oldest rolled off the bed with my husband once. I fell down the stairs carrying her once as well. Just lost my footing and down I went."
  2. "When my daughter had finally learned to roll over, I had put her in her swing and strapped her in. In about 10 minutes, she had flipped onto her belly and then shimmied out of her straps and fell onto the floor."
  3. "The oldest rolled off the couch at about 3 weeks old. He also shimmied out of his bouncy seat, fell out, and pulled the seat over on top of him."
  4. "When my daughter was 7 months old, she rolled off our bed, hit her head, and lost consciousness. Concussion. Felt like the Worst. Mom. Ever. I was sitting right there when it happened -- it was just so fast. But she was ok."
  5. "Mine is an early roller too! Rolled off the futon multiple times early on (he's 2 now, so I cannot remember exactly what age he did the roll-off thing, VERY early though). I started napping next to him after that to prevent more roll-offs."
  6. "Put her on the bench in the Forever 21 dressing room. Next thing I know, she was on the floor. The thing couldn't roll over yet, so my mind was blown! (It was bad, though. Screaming, etc.)"
  7. "My oldest rolled off our bed when she was a baby. Somehow I actually managed to catch her before she got to the floor."
  8. "A friend put the car carrier and baby on top of her car & it fell. Baby laughed, Mommy horrified. Car carrier saved the day!"
  9. "My baby rolled off the sofa onto the floor, it was carpeted, and she didn't even cry. I still felt terrible though."
  10. "I put my daughter in her car seat, which was on the kitchen counter. I turned to grab my keys, and the next thing I knew, she was on the floor of the kitchen. It was horrible."

Have you ever dropped your baby?

 

Image via sethbaur/Flickr