{"id":3283,"date":"2014-01-27T17:47:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T00:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nebulous-oyster.flywheelsites.com\/?p=3283"},"modified":"2021-06-02T10:57:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T17:57:37","slug":"i-let-my-kid-watch-a-polar-bear-eat-off-a-womans-rear-end-and-other-bad-parenting-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/i-let-my-kid-watch-a-polar-bear-eat-off-a-womans-rear-end-and-other-bad-parenting-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"I Let My Kid Watch a Polar Bear Eat off a Woman’s Rear End and Other Bad Parenting Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Did

Did you send your feverish kid to school? Have you done all your kid’s chores? We’ve all had our bad parenting moments.<\/p><\/div>\n

Any of these bad parenting moments sound familiar?!<\/p>\n

You banged your baby’s head against the door on the way to the bathroom by mistake.<\/p>\n

You let your toddler stick a pussy willow up her nose while you were watching and somehow managed not to stop her.<\/p>\n

You forgot to take your kid to soccer practice.<\/p>\n

We all have a bad parenting story to tell. Some of us have many.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The honest truth is that sometimes I feel like I\u2019m screwing up all the time, unable to keep on top of the everyday exigencies that other people have no trouble handling.<\/p>\n

On the worst days I wish my children didn\u2019t have to have me for a mom. Then I feel guilty for having such low self-esteem. But secretly I know they\u2019d be happier, better adjusted, and have more confidence with a different mother.<\/p>\n

One who uses humor instead of temper to make a point, one who doesn\u2019t use the f-word, ever, in front of or at her children, one who manages to keep the house clean and fold the laundry with a good attitude.<\/p>\n

I have a friend with four children who is an attentive and loving mother but was the only parent to miss an event at her kids\u2019 school where her son actually gave a speech (no one told her).<\/p>\n

This\u2014and my own struggles lately\u2014started me thinking about how, though we don\u2019t often talk about them out loud, we all have bad parenting moments. I’ve had dozens of bad parenting moments myself. I suspect you have had your share of bad parenting moments too.<\/p>\n

So I asked some of my favorite bloggers, who are all moms I admire, to share their worst moments.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My hope for moms, dads, caregivers, and friends without children who read this is we\u2019ll all see something of ourselves in these stories, and that other people\u2019s spectacular screw-ups will help us be a little kinder to ourselves.<\/p>\n

I compiled this round-up, a different version of which was published on Mothering.com, to honor all of us parents who make mistakes.<\/p>\n

Worst Parenting Moments Ever. We’ve All Had Them. These Six Moms are Brave Enough to Share Their Bad Parenting Moments…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kristen<\/div>\n

1. I Gave My Husband and My Daughter Food Poisoning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once I left yogurt that was past due in the fridge (the thought was that I didn\u2019t want to stink up the garbage and I would toss it on trash day).<\/p>\n

My hubby and my youngest daughter ate the whole thing\u2014hubby had tummy pains, my daughter, who has a sensitive tummy, threw up all morning.<\/p>\n

That was about a year ago but I still feel bad. —Kristen Gough<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. I Let My Kid Watch a Polar Bear Attack a Helpless Lady<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was struggling to meet a writing deadline. My husband was out for the evening. My daughter was home, but it wasn\u2019t bedtime yet.<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cHey, do you want to watch TV?\u201d and turned on either the Learning Channel or the Discovery Channel.<\/p>\n

One of them had a show about sharks, and my kid\u2014then age 5\u2014loves sharks.<\/p>\n

She starts watching. I start typing. She interrupts me a few times\u2013for a drink of water, to pause the TV so she can go potty, and so on. I give her the \u201cMommy is working. Please don\u2019t bother Mommy when she is working\u201d talk. Now I\u2019m really jamming away on my assignment. My daughter is saying quietly, \u201cMommy, come here please.\u201d I say, \u201cIn a minute.\u201d She says, \u201cYou said \u201cin a minute a minute ago.\u201d I say, \u201cReally, I\u2019m just trying to finish this up. Just a sec.\u201d This goes on, her asking me to come over, me telling her in a sec.<\/p>\n

Next thing I know she\u2019s screaming, \u201cMommy! I need you now!\u201d and she\u2019s crying. On the TV there\u2019s footage of a polar bear and it\u2019s eating the rear end off a woman who somehow fell into the polar bear enclosure at the zoo. That\u2019s when I realize that she was never watching the nice little show about sharks that was supposed to be on. No, that entire time she was watching something like \u201cZoo Animals Go Wild\u201d on the television<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It took me forever to calm her down. All the while she kept asking, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you come when I asked you to come?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, even months later, she mentions that show and asks, \u201cWhy did you let me watch that show about the polar bears?\u201d —Alisa Bowman\u00a0<\/strong>(read more about Alisa Bowman here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n

3. I Took My Laptop On The Ferris Wheel<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019ve accidentally knocked the baby\u2019s head against the doorframe many times. And once, I insisted, against much protestation that my son STOP MOANING AND PUT HIS SHOE ON, only to discover quite a bit later that there was an old sock crumpled up in the toe of the shoe the entire time. But my real BAD MOMMY MOMENTS are much less obvious and much more insidious. Subtler than eating all the chocolate Easter eggs, fooling the children into thinking bedtime is 30 minutes earlier so I can get to my Chardonnay, hiding the vegetables so a 5 year old is tricked into eating something healthy<\/a>. My BAD moments all involve my laptop\/Blackberry\/cellphone\/INTERNET addiction<\/a>. The need to be constantly online working\/emailing\/blogging\/Facebooking and of course, my latest addiction, Twitter.<\/p>\n

My lowest (highest) moment was when I found myself going round and round the Ferris wheel with the kids with my laptop on my lap, working! In my defense, I had to work (really, promise! It was actual work this time) and they wanted to go to the amusement park. So we decided to do both. I took my laptop on the rides with them. It was a win-win situation, although I did get quite a few horrified looks from the other (better, more focused) mothers. Hey, at least I made my deadline AND the kids had fun. —\u00a0Tertia Albertyn<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

4. I Was So Busy Talking On the Phone That I Let My Daughter Get Trapped in a Box<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On our patio is a deck box which is supposed to hold all the outdoor toys.<\/p>\n

Since our kids don\u2019t actually put toys away, it\u2019s usually empty.<\/p>\n

One night we were having a barbecue with family and the kids thought it was funny to go in the deck box and \u201chide\u201d while we were all sitting there. My daughter was three years old.<\/p>\n

One week later my mother calls me and I\u2019m walking around the house cleaning and doing whatever as she rambles on, interjecting \u201coh my god.. you\u2019re kidding! so it was on sale?\u201d and just going about my business. The boys come in because my husband is about to mow the lawn and they turn on the TV to avoid helping. My mother is still talking, the lawn mower starts up, and I\u2019m still walking around the house now straining to hear her over the mower and cartoons on TV.<\/p>\n

My daughter’s not in the house and so now I\u2019m going from room to room to look for her in the yard assuming she\u2019s either on the swing set or in the sand box.<\/p>\n

I can hear her calling me but it sounds far away. My mother talks a LOT and it\u2019s hard to interrupt her to say, \u201cI\u2019ll call you back\u201d so I just keep \u201cuh huh\u2019ing\u201d while looking for Annabelle.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m getting more annoyed at all the extra noises (mower, TV, my mother\u2019s Walmart rant) and I say, \u201cHave to go\u2026 no\u2026 I have to go\u2026 I\u2019ll call you later.\u201d Without waiting for the answer I hang up.<\/p>\n

I can hear Annabelle crying, \u201cMama!\u201d but she sounds so far. I suddenly turn my head and look at the deck box. I open it.<\/p>\n

There she is, so small, all sweaty, clutching her blanky, tears streaming, crouched in corner. She went to hide in the box but when nobody came looking for her she wasn\u2019t strong enough to open the top. —\u00a0Claudine Jalajas<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

5. I Let My Baby Almost Drown<\/a> Because I Was Too Scared to React\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When our first-born, Will, was still a baby, we took him swimming in our wonderful bay. We live on the Old Mission Peninsula which juts 18 miles into Lake Michigan, just north of Traverse City, Michigan. So we have East Bay on one side (that\u2019s the side we live on) and West Bay on the other side of the peninsula.<\/p>\n

Hubby Tim had Baby Will in his arms near the shore, and stepped wrong and fell over.<\/p>\n

I was on the beach\u2014and they were just a few feet into the water, so they weren\u2019t very far out or anything\u2014but I almost passed out when I saw Tim start to fall over.<\/p>\n

I felt like I was moving in slow motion \u2026 trying to get to them before Will hit the water.<\/p>\n

When Tim was scrambling to his feet under the water trying to get to the baby, he looked over and saw Will happily swimming under the water, eyes wide open, like a little fish.<\/p>\n

So I can now confirm that babies really can swim when they\u2019re born\u2014at least in Will\u2019s case. He loves the water to this day. —Jane Boursaw,\u00a0Reel Life with Jane<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Meagan

Meagan Francis and her children. Photo courtesy of Meagan Francis.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a06. I Was The ONLY PARENT Who Didn’t Show Up For My Sons’ Thanksgiving Feast at School<\/strong><\/p>\n

My sons (now 12 and 10, at the time 8 and 6) had just started at a brand-new school in a small town where we didn\u2019t know many people yet. A note had come home about a special Thanksgiving lunch for the two oldest, but I had kind of blown it off\u2014I was hugely pregnant (about a week from my due date), and at the school my sons had gone to previously it seemed there was always some big \u2018event\u2019 or other to sign up for. I was picturing a \u201cspecial\u201d dinner of cafeteria sliced turkey and cranberry sauce.<\/p>\n

I happened to run into one of the other school moms in town that afternoon, and she said \u201cOh, I wish I had your cell phone number\u2014I would have called to remind you about the Thanksgiving feast!\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, at this school, the Thanksgiving lunch is The Event Of The Year, with real home-cooked turkey, giveaways, games and a little concert from the kids\u2014and my sons were literally\u00a0the only children there<\/strong>\u00a0who didn\u2019t have a parent or some other special person with them.<\/p>\n

My oldest son had wandered around with tears in his eyes until this other mom felt sorry for him and \u201cadopted\u201d him for the afternoon.<\/p>\n

The worst part of it was, I didn\u2019t have any good reason for not going to the lunch.<\/p>\n

I just didn\u2019t realize how important it was, and was feeling tired and uncomfortably pregnant and blew it off. Now I am so much more careful about carefully reading those notes that come home from school, and if I don\u2019t know much about an event, I ask other parents to get a sense of how big a deal it is. —Meagan Francis<\/strong><\/p>\n

What bad parenting moments have you had?! Ever\u00a0forgotten to pick your kids up at school or been the only mom (or dad) with spit-up on your shirt and unkempt hair at a fancy kid function? If you’re brave enough, we’d love to hear about\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0worst parenting moment in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span>Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any of these bad parenting moments sound familiar?! You banged your baby’s head against the door on the way to the bathroom by mistake. You let your toddler stick a pussy willow up her nose while you were watching and somehow managed not to stop her. You forgot to take your kid to soccer practice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[118,501,502],"yoast_head":"\nI Let My Kid Watch a Polar Bear Eat off a Woman's Rear End and Other Bad Parenting Moments — Jennifer Margulis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You forgot to take your kid to soccer. You let your toddler stick a bean up his nose. 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