I won't mince words here: I forgot to pick up my daughter from school today.
The caregiver who picks her up every day has been reminding me for a week that she will be unable to pick up the little girl due to a prior commitment. Each time I assured her that it's not a problem; between me, my husband, and my parents, someone will fetch her.
The problem was that the task of communicating that need to someone - anyone! - literally, 100% slipped. my. mind.
Until my cell phone rang at 12:41 pm today and the teacher calmly told me that Yael is still at school, and are there plans for her to be picked up or should she nap at school?
I was so mortified I almost fell over.
Fortunately my mom was available and swooped in to pick her up. I called the teacher back and with all of her experience she could tell I was about to lose it on the phone. She tried to calm me down. I called my husband and told him I get the "worst mommy of the day" award, and he tried to calm me down. My mom called from the car with said daughter in tow, and she tried to calm me down.
I need a drink...did I say that out loud? I didn't articulate what type of drink...
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I have my own "worst mommy of the day" story to share:
ReplyDeleteAt Devan's 9-month check-up the pediatrician prescribed fluoride drops because our water apparently doesn't have fluoride in it. I picked them up from the pharmacy, talked to the pharmacist, then left them in a drawer until the weekend when I would have time to calmly read the directions at home. And that's just what I did Saturday morning. I was a little surprised when I didn't see a marker on the dropper like I expected, so I read the directions again, then gave him a dose according to what I understood from the pharmacist.
And then, almost as soon as he'd swallowed it, I had a horrified "oh no!" moment as I realized that the directions on the bottle (which I'd read about 4 times) meant 1 DROP, not one DROPPER of liquid. I called the pharmacy--closed for the weekend. I rummaged around to find the alternative Kaiser pharmacy that's supposed to be open for the weekend. Couldn't find that, so instead I called poison control. I was horrified, HORRIFIED, to admit that I had to call poison control for something that I had given my child. The man assured me that even if I had given him 16 times the recommended dose, he'd still be fine. Probably I'd "only" given him 10-12 times the dose. But sheesh! I was off by an order of magnitude!
By this point I was already giving him yogurt in the hopes that it would absorb all the extra fluoride (directions recommended NOT to give with dairy because calcium binds fluoride so it can't get absorbed into the teeth). We eventually tracked down a Kaiser pharmacy that was open and got final confirmation that, yes, I had overdosed my son. Fortunately she also said it wasn't a big deal but sent a note to his pediatrician anyway just in case she wants to follow-up. Who knows that the pediatrician will think of me now. She already thought maybe Devan wasn't eating enough table food because he was way low on his growth curves. (My mom assures me that when she saw him 2 weeks ago he look chubby and fine. Happy babies are almost invariably healthy babies, and he is definitely a very happy kid).
Needless to say, I felt like a totally horrible mom the rest of the day. I still don't know how I misunderstood the directions on the bottle, which in retrospect are quite clear. A very major brain fart I guess. It makes me want to defer all medication dosing to daddy from here on out. I am going to be paranoid about this forever.
Devan, by the way, showed not even the slightest hint of a tummy ache or any ill effects. Maybe that yogurt did it's job afterall.