The first child spent his first year at home with Dad and his second year in a home daycare, so he was two years old before he was in regulation daycare --er, I mean, school. It was Valentine's Day and I didn't realize until we showed up at school empty-handed WHY they had sent home a list of all the kids in the class just days before.

I was devastated that he would be the only one in his class with no valentines to hand out, but when I got to work and called the school, they told me he didn't mind at all. (Little did I know he would carry this Oblivious nature well into his teen years.)

Well, congratulations on raising such a resilient child!

Mine (or like you one of mine) happened last year at Artsplosure. There was this performer who used hula hoops in her act (I kid you not). And she encouraged others to use hula hoops. So my daughter, then 2, wanted one.

So not really thinking, I got up with her and we walked over to where they all were. Of course, my head was not at the hula hoop level. Hers was. And she got reamed in the head with one as we walked by.

She cried and cried and cried. There was this huge welt on her head for a week or so - a reminder of my occasional obliviousness.

I would love to say that I have one memorable one that pops out in my head, but I don't. Unfortunately, my moments happen at least once a week, so for self-preservation, my brain tries to block out the memory as soon as I finish trying to correct my latest bad mommy moment!

My bad mommy moment happened today at Yates Mill Pond. My 5-year-old son was across the bridge climbing a rock and I was a few feet from the bridge taking pictures of the mill. There's a lot of noise from the water rushing, so I heard my husband yelling, "Alice!" but didn't hear my son's cries. Turns out he'd fallen twice because he slipped on the wet rock and I was totally unaware. But everything turned out OK.

Alice Osborn, MA
www.aliceosborn.com

Isn't it funny how our kids forget about the welt or fall or whatever, but we never do?

Maybe we should have a "Forgiven Mommy" award too!

You can read about one of my favorite BMOTY (bad mother of the year) entries...from my best friend...here:

http://www.trianglemom2mom.com/content/we-interrupt-year

But I have had a running contest with my friends for years. You have to accept the Bad Mommy moments because they are going to happen anyway...and if you don't laugh at them, you will cry.

I look at the Mom of the year award like this.....
Every Jan 1 I start w/ a clean slate and see how long I can keep it. OK so far I have yet to make it past 12 noon on New Years day, but I keep trying.
I am now setting my goals lower...you know to just trying for Mom of the Day?

Claytonmom - I'm impressed that you tried to only start with a clean slate once a year. I have always had to start with one every day! Then again, I can be exceptionally hard on myself (aren't we all?), so if I didn't start with a clean one each day, I'd be a wreck and useless as a SAHM.

Why is it that teenagers can act like two year olds, yet adults are expected to treat them like adults? Perhaps, we should treat them like two year olds and they will act like adults?

My bad mommy moment happened when treating my 15 yr. old daughter like an adult, instead of like a two year old. We were on a ferryboat in the ocean on a delightfully pleasant day. I was standing in the shade in my sleeveless shirt thinking how the comfortable weather was so perfect. My usually cheerful daughter glared at me with bratty displeasure and complained in her exasperated voice, "I am so hot!" She was wearing her zipped FLEECY in the direct noonday sun. And she was clearly not having a good time. I had previously suggested that she remove her coat.

My babying, helicoptering, overly caregiving self would have said, "I know sweetheart, but if you stand in the shade and take off your coat, it really is much cooler," and coaxed her over under the canopy to chat with her distractingly. But her whiny tone was inconsiderate, and instead, I sarcastically laughed at her for being ridiculous. I thought to myself, "Jeez, kid use your brain cells." The tears ran down her face as she stared at the ground, and walked away, continuing to stand in the sun, in her coat, complaining of the heat.

Her older brother or friends would have said much worse to her in response, but perhaps it is not my role to "toughed her up", but to always be the loving voice of reason--even when she does something stupid. Perhaps it is true what neurobiologist say of the lack of reasoning skills during adolescence.

I know I've had quite a few of bad mommy moments. The most recent was a couple of weeks ago I left the light on in my daughter's room at night. She was in her crib and kicking the wall (which is nothing new), so I thought nothing of it. I even looked at her with my video monitor, and I didn't even notice the light was on! Later on when I was going to bed and turning off all the lights in the house, I noticed the light shining from her room. I felt sooooo bad!

At least I know she can sleep with the lights on!!

Oh, dear. I just had one of these. I took my daughter to the park this morning. Right before we left, I took her to use the potty. Lately she's been having an, um, aiming problem (how a girl can sit on the potty and still manage to miss the toilet is beyond me). She ended up splashing on her panties and shorts.

No problem, I thought, as I stripped off her clothes. I went into the diaper bag for new panties. My hands hit her water bottle, a bag of goldfish, hand sanitizer, a book, two toys, but no panties. No pullup, either. Not even so much as a diaper.

Poor kid went commando on the way home. It doesn't seem to bother her any, but I'm mortified. And busy trying to find a way to blame my poorly-stocked diaper bag on my husband.

We had just started potty training our two year old, she was 22 months at the time, and we were out to dinner. She said that she needed to go teetee so I took her to the bathroom..... three times. Nothing happened. So when she said it again I told her no. She got this very sad look on her face, poked out her lip and looked at the table. A few seconds later she was fine but when we went to leave her diaper was wet. I felt SO bad that she had wanted to go and I hadn't let her. She was probably so distracted by everything in the bathroom that she couldn't go, but really needed to. That was three or four months ago and I still feel horrible about it.