This morning, my nightmare (which is every mother’s nightmare) came alive for me… at the coffee shop. I was having breakfast with the hubs, Baby and the helper. I was busy chatting with the hubs and my helper was busy eating her food. Baby was seated on double stacked up plastic chairs – in between my helper and me. My helper would normally feed her and eat her food at the same time. Today, she must be so hungry that she had forgotten all about Baby and I think Baby must have kicked her legs and all of a sudden, we heard a loud bang and and and…. Baby who was on the double stacked up plastic chairs fell together with the chairs!!! The chair fell backwards and Baby followed suit. When I saw Baby on the floor with her arm twisted behind the chair, I really thought she broke her arm. Gawd, I tell you, I almost wanted to puke in shock. I quickly pulled her up and she was screaming in shock and in pain. It was really quite a scene and all heads and eyes were zooming on us. After a few minutes, thank GOD, Baby stopped crying. Our friends who were nearby came running to us and checked the situation. Questions like “why you so careless ah huh??” were flying everywhere.
Lesson learnt from this incident for me and for every parent:
1) Make sure one of your hands is holding on to your child’s hand if she/he is seated on double stacked up plastic chairs. Those chairs are very light and topple backwards very easily. Even if you are eating, hold your spoon with one hand and hold on to your child’s hand with your other hand.
2) If your maid is also with your child, don’t assume that she is watching your child. Never ever leave your child’s safety to another person and assume that your child is going to be safe.
3) If you want to chat with your spouse / other kids, make sure that one hand is still holding on to your child’s hand, to prevent her/him from climbing up. A toddler is a toddler. They will never sit still when they eat. They tend to move about a lot. If the chair is without a seat belt, it is really dangerous to leave your toddler there without anyone holding on to him/her.
I thank God that Baby only had blue-black bruises on her arm with some of her skin grazed off. Thank GOD that her arm is not broken, head not broken, nothing broken. Only her guilt-corroded mummy’s heart was broken into pieces. Thank GOD! I am still in shock. After this incident, I now have a phobia of high chairs and stacked up plastic chairs whenever Baby sits on one and I know this phobia is going to stick with me for a very, very, very long time…. just like how I have a phobia of doors up until today after Sherilyn’s thumb was bloodily squashed by one 4 years ago.
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