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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omg!!! thank goodness she’s alright! thanks for sharing too coz very often we also have the chairs stacked for our kids.
so scary. luckily she is ok. normally if i let my kids sit with those plastic chair, i will put my leg at the bottom of the their chair for backup.
i saw once incident where the little girl fell down on the floor, it was at road side hawker stall….she cried badly, guess she is very very pain.
really thank God Baby C is fine!!
ya…stacking chair is common with us too, when there is no baby chair. how many chairs did baby C sat on actually? still cannot figure out how it could have topple backward. Did she stand up?
phew.. luckily baby C is alright…
thank goodness baby is ok. sometimes accident really cannot be avoided
My heart fell off hearing baby fell off the chairs. Some stackable chair are not stable. Emily also fell down once from it. Now I test the chairs first, if not stable she just have to sit on a single chair.
Thank God Baby is fine. Phew! When Ash was around that age, I bought a seat belt and take it out with me wherever I go in case some chairs don’t have any. But then again, accidents happen 🙂
Luckily baby is ok. Next time don’t let the maid eat first, maid needs to look after the kids, when you are done with your food and can look after the kids only her turn to eat. That’s what we do.
The other day I brought 4 kids out by myself without maid to 100 yen for snow ice, JL also fell off from the chair, because she was so greedy wanted to hold on to the empty bowl with both hands and lick the empty bowl and at the same time wanted to climb down from the chair. She fell right onto the concrete fall knocking her forehead, I saw her fell, but was helpless coz of my inflexibility (holding n balancing bb)..now I have to think twice before bringing 4 of them out on my own.
ayo. Glad bb c is ok. Don’t blame yourself. Pure accident.
Oh dear. Poor Baby. Luckily she’s not seriously hurt.
glad that baby c is fine! i will remember what you said, hang out to the chairs no matter what!!!
Accidents do happen. Glad that Baby C is alright.
luckily no serious injury… accident in kids r freaky! so many heart-attack incidents for us parents hor 🙁
even my scot also fall backward at 4yrs old when he kneel on the chair 🙁
Luckily her head was OK. A fall is not dangerous if the child didn’t vomit or show unconciousness.
I will always tied up my almost two years old when were were eating out. I always bring with me a long strap just in case the restaurant high chair didn’t have a proper seatbelt. I cannot rely on my eyes or others, as my baby is too active. I also strapped her up when she was seated on a supermarket trolley.
Yes.. accident is preventable.
My no.2 also gave me a near heart attack recently @ my mother high rise apartment, when no one realized she went out to the balcony and climb up the trails.
So glad she is fine. My heart cannot take any more heart attacks. Thankfully, children are very resilient and bounce back quickly altho as we have witnesses, baby C has lots of her Mama’s strength of steel.
Oh dear! Poor baby! Thank God she’s ok, very important is the head and spine. For me, we always eye our maid like a hawk wherever we are out, eventhough she has been with us for 2 years. We also don’t allow her to eat and ignore baby, and will tell her off. Afterall, she’s the maid, right? Baby is the anak majikan. That’s why hubby and I never have our “alone” time eventhough with maid and kids around. We cannot trust the kids with these foreigners!
Glad BBC is alright. 🙂
Lucky….Baby C is alrite…
shireen, what i did with my gal when she was younger, was to tie a long scarf around her belly to the back of the chair. i usually bring this scarf out coz we never knew what kind of chairs we put our gal on it. be it the double chair or high chair, i will tie the scarf around her. that way i dont need to hold bb’s hand. ya maid, si beh bodoh!
don’t count on the maid.. but mistakes do happen. you cannot be 100% vigilant all the time. . I do have this fear of her falling of our dining chair too, my little monkey also boh-tiam type.