When my youngest was that size, a real chunky rugby player to be....
I was off sick with a bad back... and he decided he wanted to go after Mommy who had just left for Uni...
Fuck me!
I couldn't stop the wee bugger!
Eventually I gritted my teeth, one arm over his shoulder, one arm between the legs and link and lift.
Chunky leggies and arms flailing wildly in the air, my back in extreme pain, wee bratty wailing.... I walked the block homeward looking like a kidnapper.
If anybody had challenged me, I might just have given him to them!
I helped raise my niece and nephew which involved a mix of fun kid adventures and dragging them along during errands. One day my 4yo nephew decided he HAD to have a souvenir MLB baseball he saw at the grocery store. The child had never seen a baseball game and couldn’t name the team if his life depended on it, but decided it was worth a screaming, flailing tantrum in the middle of the checkout aisle.
When that tactic didn’t result in me buying him the ball he started trying to backflip out of the cart while screaming, “YOU’RE NOT MY MOM! I’M NOT GOING IN YOUR VAN!” At the top of his little lungs.
I’ve never spanked my own kids, or any others, but trying to stuff that otherwise sweet child, who somehow spontaneously grew several new sets of arms and legs, into my minivan was the closest I’ve come.
I threw a tantrum only 1 single time in my life in public.... Because that 1 time my mom got onto the floor of the grocery store and started throwing one too! Kicking and screaming and everything, the whole 9 yards!!! I guess I was confused or something maybe even embarrassed? I don't know, all I know is my mom said I never threw a tantrum in public ever again after that!!
My mother loves the story of when I was a little guy, I ran up to her, and for no real reason she can determine, decided her exposed thigh, she was in shorts, looked delicious, so I should latch on and bite as hard as I could.
She naturally screamed, pried me off, grabbed my forearm and bit me hard. I naturally screamed, and she said she felt horrible and didn't even realize what she was doing.
I don't know though, I never bit anyone again after that ... :)
That's some humble mom tea. ❤️ If you have a good one, love em. If they care for you, support you, they know your smiles, your tears, your walls, and late calls,.... Love your mom.
My daughter once threw a tantrum buying groceries, I put her over my shoulder to carry her out to the car so my wife could finish shopping and the whole way out of the store she screams over and over "YOU'RE NOT MY DAD!" Other parents just smiled with empathy, childless adults gave me dirty looks as I left! Ha memories!
I apparently did this to my mom as a toddler, because we didn’t have time to stop at the pet store and I was NOT having that, I guess. Anyway, someone DID call security on my poor mom for trying to “abduct” me. I’m in my 40s now and feel such shame imagining this!
I was about 11 or so. My younger brother was 4 or 5. We lived off a very busy highway at the time. That day, my parents were having a garage sale. My little brother took off for the streets with no one watching. Despite our long-standing enmity, I took off after him.
I tried to just grab his hand and pull him back to the house. He pulled away and took off for the road.
So, I wrapped my arms around him and lifted him up. It was an awkward carry, but I managed.
I even held on when the ankle biter bit the shit out of my shoulder. That was the thanks I got for saving his ass.
My parents initially got mad at me for carrying him around, but were quickly both relieved and horrified to learn just why I was carrying him.
My youngest decided, as a toddler, that when they didn’t want to leave somewhere they liked (such as the park, library, zoo, etc), they would just start yelling “help me!” when mom or dad insisted and carried them out. One day, dad hoisted our 3 year old over his shoulder and walked out of the children’s room at the library…just as a sheriff was walking in and heard the little tot yelling for help. Thankfully, the librarians knew our kiddo and both me and dad well. They stopped the sheriff from arresting dad and explained that was the child’s father, and the kid was going through a phase, and all was well.
I don't have kids, but I have a niece and nephew. I would much rather someone stop and ask when a kid is pitching a fit rather than ignore it and it really be a case of kidnapping. Better safe than sorry.
It has been one of the unexpected gifts of watching Mad Max as a dad of little kids. They don't get the joke but dammit if I don't find it hilarious every time.
He still remembers the pain of living from his previous life and he realized he wasn't born rich, so he's trying to go back to the character creation screen.
Yes! When we went to a water park when my kids were little my son got away from my ex at the time for just a second he had pulled his hand away from my ex’s hand for just A SECOND, and straight darted at full speed ahead for the wave pool and immediately jumped in. No hesitation no looking around just saw water and ran straight for it , my ex was right behind him hot on his trail and immediately yanked him out. He had water wings on but still very scary. He definitely was my wild child who had to be watched extra closely anytime I took them outside bc he always seemed hell bent on doing the most dangerous shit.
As it should be. I see kids running away from their parents laughing in busy parking lots and such and all I think is I would have never. My kids would have never either. If a car didn’t get ya mom or dad would and that would be worse.
Omg I did this exact same thing to my mom’s car, except it hit the telephone pole across the street. I vividly remember thinking I was being helpful by switching it to reverse so she wouldn’t have to shift it when she got back in 💀 instead I caused thousands in damage and gave her a full blown panic attack as she watched the car with her child still in it reversing away from her lmao. So yeah, no capri sun for me either
Every. Single. Time. I see one of these kinds of videos I think of this scene and him screaming. This scene has to easily be one of the most shocking and morbid scenes in a movie for me.
And the way he built suspense panning between the truck and Gage running after the kite? Fucks me up every time man.
None of us can remember it thanks to the weird phenomenon of childhood amnesia, but imagine what it must be like to be effectively handicapped for two years, watching the inscrutable wizard giants that control you move around effortlessly, and one day the door opens and you unlock the deep magic they possess.
I imagine it like making a sculpture from a fresh block of clay. You can try to engrave writing (memories) on the block. But there's so much happening -- pieces being moved, shaped, removed, that very little of the written memories from the early days stay legible. It's equally difficult to make detailed memories when you don't have any concept of language or descriptors yet, with which to describe and recall your memories. That's not to say there's no memory though -- clearly the brain is being remodeled to remember and reinforce how limbs move, how language is processed. Physical/behavioral "memories".
Naturally, sometimes people are able to encode memories that survive the massive remodeling, or lack of language, or they start developing language sooner.
Anyway, major digression. Imagine how weird it must be to see your hand for the first time, before you have any concept of what an arm is. A wobbly weird shaped moving thing that follows you around, and keeps appearing in your vision. Wah. You put it in your mouth and something feels weird. You don't even know what feels weird, where it feels weird, or what it means. Just something feels weird, different, new. Wah.
Eventually you realize it's part of you and even, you can make it move. Wah. Amazing.
eh I slightly remember. It's just fun asf to run and even better is to run with purpose such as not getting caught.
Sometimes you're curious on an object and you don't have the mental capacity or experience yet to focus on the cars. You don't feel any sort of danger/avoidance on the road
Oh I worked daycare off and on for several years and it's mind boggling how fast they change and the things they do and say. I started with a group of babies around 9-13 months and they were soooo cute and sweet, doing patty cake and everyone said how well behaved and quiet my babies were. By the same time the following year, they had lost their fucking minds. Literally, I was like, IDK what happened but this is not okay, no I will NOT move up with them. I watched one run full speed into the wall. My dumb ass just stood there because....there's a fucking wall there, surely he's going to stop. Nope, head first. It's a wonder any of them survive being toddlers. I will say if I had a runner, I nipped that shit in the bud quick, including with my own. I so wasn't fucking chasing their little asses.
My kid didn't even wait until she could walk. She was six months old and at an in-home daycare. My kid was playing in the middle of the room and the woman took her eyes off my kid for a minute to help another kid. She looked back at where my kid was playing and she was gone. She had rolled right out the back door and was now playing in the yard. She nearly gave the poor woman a heart attack.
My kid also started walking at 11,5 months and disappeared every chance she had, so she had to wear a leash in busy places. Otherwise you'd blink once and she was gone.
As a father of four, I can absolutely say my middle two are way more likely to see a sibling die but not really do anything to prevent it. Not out of malice, of course. Just like, “Why are they…oh well that happened”
My mother did that once. “Accidentally” left me at a friend’s house for 2 weeks during the summer. He had went to his dad’s house but I was stuck at his mom’s. When she called my mom and asked when she was coming to pick me up my mom said “oh, he’s still there? I thought he was in his room.”
Based on several years experience working in Juvenile Court:
It can happen to any parent. This is a typical example: gate accidentally left unlatched. Another typical is toddler learns to unlock the front door; parent didn't know.
Parents typically get the first one free. If the toddler got out per a typical example and parents were surprised. Helps if parents are out searching when child is found. Exception: If toddler gets out and parents are drunk/high/etc., no free first one.
If it happens again, no free ones. Multiple escapes look more like neglectful or negligent parenting.
My daughter learned how to unlock our front door when she was four and ran around to the back of our building before I even noticed the door was open. There’s nothing like seeing that open door, having the moment of realization, then running outside and there’s no kid in sight. My heart stopped.
We got permission from our HOA to install a second, higher lock after that, which she still struggles to open many years later. Highly recommend.
Mine learned the same thing at 5 am, I had to get more difficult locks. The officer was acting like I did it on purpose, but what am I supposed to do if they learn new tricks and wake up early to implement them???
I’m CPS and I’ve had several cases with wandering toddlers where the kid was found wandering again while the case was still open! You’re correct- first time is usually a safety plan, but the second time is almost always a removal and criminal charges.
Me too apparently since they tell this story at big family gatherings to this day even though I'm over 50 now.
I used to disappear from my mom and grandmother so often when they would shop that they resorted to tying a string of yarn to my wrist to keep me leashed. My dad was mad about it, how it was embarrassing that they had to leash me, how it was ridiculous that they couldn't keep a toddler controlled.
So my dad made a point of it by taking me with him to the mall to prove that it was easy to not lose your kid. He held my hand the entire time except for one quick second when he let go to get his wallet out and poof I was gone. I was found a half hour later at the other side of the mall by security, just riding up and down the escalator for fun.
He didn't complain about the leash ever again and we all get a big laugh over it now. Some kids are just runners.
My cousin was found at the escalators by mall security when she got away from my Aunt. They even got her an ice cream cone while my Aunt was a tick away from having a heart attack. I was also leashed, but only cause I liked playing hide & seek and winning at any cost in the clothes racks. I joke how I knew my Mom loved me cause she did leash me cause honestly, I probably would've just let a child like myself go.
My aunt did something similar in a department store and I tripped over a rack, cracked my head open and found out at emerg I also had chickenpox. I was two and fast.
When my cousin was just a toddler, my aunt and uncle had a backpack/harness that had a leash on him whenever they were out in public. They lived in a big city and he was obsessed with buttons and would run off and try to press them on sight, such as the street crossing ones. I was just a teen at the time and couldn't help but think that it was a bit degrading for my cousin to be leashed like a pet.
Now that I'm older I realize that they were completely in the right and I'll probably do the same for my kids. Simple and effective. Can't trust anyone, and certainly not the toddlers themselves!
Lol, I had to have a leash when I was a kid because I have ADHD and I was fast as fuck. They didn't sell child leashes back then so I had a backpack with a dog leash clipped to it. I figured out how to get out of the backpack so my mom had to carry zip ties and zip tie me into it and my car seat every time we went anywhere. I'm a very determined goal-oriented person, what can I say?
Who browses anything with the sound on? Maybe tiktok or reels ig, but otherwise it’s a dangerous game. I remember being a teen and scrolling over an ad that made sex noises while I had my speakers blasting. My whole family was home, it was weird. The early internet taught us to trust nothing.
We lost our toddler son in Japan at the Osaka Aquarium at their outside front courtyard for 15 mins or so. Literally we lost our attention to him for 3 seconds and he ran off. If you do lose a child Japan is a good place to do it. Very well organized staff found him within minutes of notifying them.
Japan is the best place in the world to lose your kids. When I lived there my little brother wandered off and strangers brought him right back and then wanted to take pictures with us. Also one of the teenagers in the neighborhood ran away off of the military base and turned up a couple of days later completely fine.
Also left my camera on the train one time and it got returned which is unfathomable around here.
Kids do stupid things, has always been this way, will always be this way. The real problem is that we intentionally designed a world in which this is life threatening.
And to all people saying that it's the mums fault: EVERYONE can get distracted for that long, you're not better than her, we're all humans and make the same mistakes.
This is why I will never judge parents who use the backpack leashes. It's just impossible to keep 100% focus on a toddler 100% of the time. Especially when there's other stuff going on. And no matter how much you teach them it only takes one single impulsive moment for them to end up somewhere dangerous.
And people who say they are child abuse are witless simpletons..
My parents had one for me when I was young and I enjoyed it because it meant that I had more freedom and didn't have to hold my parents hand all the time.
Like, if you have your 10 year old kid on a lead then, sure, that's fucking weird and I'd assume you're a bad parent. But a 3 year old? Go for it. In fact, I insist on it. Those little motherfuckers are like homing-missiles for danger. They'll fucking sprint headlong into traffic if you let go of 'em for an instant. It's actually uncanny, like they're running on pure anti-survival instinct.
I remember when my kid was around 3, I took him to the Science Museum. He stood up and left the lightning exhibit and I followed him nearly instantly (had my eye on him the whole time.)
He did the toddler run/walk and I unable to keep up with him at a brisk walk given his probably 2 sec head start. He was pulling away so I had to start jogging to close in.
And in that crowded museum, it was tough to see him since he was small and half the height of every adult there. Luckily I thought to dress him in bright orange. Coat, hat, everything. Without the bright colors I would have basically just been eyeing exit points and scrambling to find him. He made it across the entire floor before I caught him, though I had him in my sight long before.
Anyway, point is even if you keep an eye on a toddler, they disappear quickly. If you say check a text for 5-10 sec that’s all it would take.
We lost one of ours at the science museum. We alerted the staff, they had her captured in short order (always take pictures of kids at new events we know the outfit). She got loose from the staff and was gone for another fifteen.
My grandmother invented the backpack leash for my dad: a rope. Before kids were labeled ADHD, he was the kid whose desk was right up against the teacher’s on day one because they heard all about him.
I remember being a teenager at the mall, seeing parents with their toddler in a harness leash, and thinking harsh, judgmental thoughts. Then I became a mom and learned how unexpectedly fast they can jet, as well as the heartpounding panic when your child is out of your reach or sight, even briefly, in those impulsive moments.
I like the Modern Family episode where Cam calls it a child safety tether.
Fortunately Ive been paranoid about this my entire fatherhood. And even then, sometimes they just don't listen and you gotta drop what you're doing and intercept.
on top of that, this is likely also her house which has a gate so the kid can't usually get out. the only reason the kid was able to get out was because the pumpkins got in the way of the gate closing and automatically latching.
It really is. The keyboard warriors really try to tell themselves they’re 100% attentive at every second to stimulus around them and will always be combat ready at the split second.
I guarantee you they all just watched this 30s video and missed dozens of things happen around them.
Redditors trying not to pull the adverbs of degree and time after witnessing one mistake out of someone's 30 years of life, because obviously that person should clearly be banned from doing anything involving resposibility ever again
And usually through a couple sentences of a comment. It boggles my mind how much people on here can just make shit up in their head about who they are talking to/about. It’s very funny though when they are absolutely wrong about their assumptions.
I was so surprised to see people blaming her? It's not like she was in the kitchen making a martini, she was distracted by her two other children and within less than a minute had noticed and ran after the other one.
She fuckin dropped that shit she was carrying and booked it too - even when she already had eyes on him and knew she was going to get to him before she got to the road.
It's only one slice of context of her overall parenting, but I hope to do as well as she did here.
And to all people saying that it's the mums fault: EVERYONE can get distracted for that long, you're not better than her, we're all humans and make the same mistakes.
I am usually the person who yells at my in laws for not watching their kids properly. I'm the holier than thou person people talk shit about, but even I don't see any major neglect here. This is just life unfolding. Tragedy like this is just a series of bad events cumulating. To blame the mother here is dumb.
I will never understand people who act holier than thou about mistakes literally anyone can easily make, as if they’ve never been distracted or absent-minded for 30 seconds. No one is perfect, and parents are a lot more careful now than they used to be…
I was absolutely thinking this. We used to have larger extended families around us and communities of neighbors that would act as another ring of eyes and support beyond that.
And we didn't have to live right next to a 4 lane byway if the kid did make it 50 yards.
I'm always left baffled by little kids. Like the kid wasn't just striding into traffic, he was doing it with full speed and confidence. They're insane!
The irony is that I just saw a person say “found the one without kids” and then proceeded to say how any parent would never look away from their child for 30 seconds. These people kill me, but I mostly hope they don’t have to be humbled by their own hubris.
There are a lot of people who just like to cover up their lapses by pretending they never happened. It's all "I have never lost my temper/went over the speed limit/treated people badly/done any number of negligent things."
I promise you at some point in your 4 or 5 years of sleep deprived parenting delirium you have 100% inadvertently put your child in danger.
Many people only remember consequences. If nothing bad happened to their kid, it’s because they watched them like a hawk 24/7 because they are the best parents.
It's infuriating. When my oldest was about a year old I stepped out the living room to to do the dishes for 10 mins. I could hear him from the kitchen. He was strapped into his little bouncy board thing.
He some how wiggled out and was dangling out the side.
He didn't start screaming just hung there for a few minutes. He definitely could have been hurt but he never wiggled out before dude wasn't even walking yet.
..now I'll get the comments that I need to make sure the straps are tight enough every single time and I should be reported to CPS for being a piece of shit since the little angle fell 9 inches.
That same kid is 2.5 now and trys to run a marathon any time he's cut loose outside.
I question if any of the people criticizing the mom have children of their own….acting like they’ve never taken their eyes off their kids for 30 seconds.
Where I live 4 year olds are expected to walk and sometimes even take public transportation to commute to/from school.
There's a difference between taking your eyes off your kid in a controlled environment, versus taking your eyes off them when something like this is legitimately possible.
Especially when they're very young, like the one in this clip. This mother fucked-up massively, and yes I'm a father of 3.
That wasn't a few seconds, that was a negligent minute. I found a toddler walking in the middle of the road one day, couldn't find their parents anywhere, almost got hit by 2 cars. Dad walked up like "why you have my kid?". Fucking gross ass people in the world.
Also, I don’t see the woman in the clip as a bad mom.
She’s tending to the other two boys(both look very young) and unfortunately experienced a minor lapse in judgement due to I’m sure many different factors but none of them being because shes a terrible, neglectful mother like you’re making her out to be.
Soon as she realized he wasn’t there she hauled ass and successfully grabbed him.
As a parent, scary accidental things happen and any parent who says differently is lying.
That wasn't this mom. This mom was clearly distraught and running after the kid once she knew what had happened.
By saying this story you are falsely equating this mom as a gross negligent person which she clearly was not.
Edit: Oh man you guys have a deep desire to put a loving mom in jail and make her and her other kids pay for 36 seconds. You guys must be the best people in the whole world and sleep so soundly knowing that. I envy being that stupid. Not going to respond to any of you dumbaass.
To add- you guys must be furious about the Epstein files right?? Is anyone in jail yet?
You would be amazed how awful parents can be and I can at least appreciate that she felt a sense of panic and ran after the child. My line of work deals with parents who got their kids taken away and I supervise their visits when they have them. It’s crazy because at first I thought substance abuse issues would be the main reason for most of the cases, turns out it’s violence. Think stabbing, strangulation, or cig burns. It’s really freaking sad, but it’s absolutely necessary. People fucking suck.
She's got 3 kids to distract her here. The toddler was exceptionally fast, and the entire video was less than one minute. People make mistakes, and I really don't think she's a negligent mother. Just took her eyes off the little for a very short amount of time, and in that time little dude booked it. She clearly cares about her children and if she was negligent she probably would have gone inside and completely forgot about him.
The audacity of him to catch an attitude with you instead of being on his knees thanking you for saving his child's life is beyond 'gross', it’s sociopathic.
There's this game on Steam called, "Who's Your Daddy?!" where one player takes control of a parent trying to keep their baby from killing themselves and the other player takes control of said baby while trying to kill themselves.
Honestly 😭
I love kids, I work with kids. And I LOVE sending them home when our time is done. And I LOVE being able to turn my brain off when I get home and relax and not have to worry about a small child trying to kill themselves every 10 seconds
I don't have to worry about my dog trying to kill himself at home, he doesn't try to eat people food or chew on dangerous things. He'a never even tried to stick a fork in an outlet!
I actually found a toddler once in the middle of the road wearing a diaper barefoot I carried it around for about 10 minutes screaming to anyone that had a window open if this was their kid finally someone came out and they said they think it's from down the street so I went down and there was a lady smoking a cigarette in her yard and she looked at me and wondered why I had her kid and I handed it over the fence she never even said thanks. Right in the middle of the road it was crazy I thought I was imagining it but nope just standing in the middle of the road in a diaper. Crazy.
The exact kinda horrible situation where I really DO think the whole "village to raise a kid" thing is correct. We need tighter knit communities, less overwhelmed parents.
1.6k
u/Old-Library5546 5d ago
He was headed right onto a busy street