Nobody is Perfect But Here’s How We Can Be Better
Week after week my heart was breaking for parents facing terrible tragedies.
A split second is all it takes for an accident to occur. A child to falls into a gorilla pen. A toddler is captured by an alligator. A child is forgotten in a car on a hot summer day. A babysitter gives a child too much medicine which leads to a deadly result.
Trust me, I am not going to be the one to point a finger and tell you you should have tried harder, been paying better attention, or read more parenting books. Motherhood isn’t easy, and we all have our moments of weakness. My own son has run out the front door, tried to escape in a parking lot, and done other dangerous things I have tried to suppress from my memories.
I pray every day that I can be a better mom than I was the day before, and for the strength to do a good job. I also pray for their safety because I know I need all the help I can get.
In addition, I’ve also been learning ways I can be better. Not by reading parenting books or new studies, but listening, observing, and talking to others mothers. By helping one another.
It takes a village right?
Earlier this month there was a tragic mistake when a babysitter gave an 8-month-old baby a lethal dose of medicine. I love how helpful the KnowYourOTCs website is for helpful reminders for parents.
It served as a reminder to me to double, triple check the dosage on medications we’re giving our kids, and make sure we’re using the right measuring tools and reading the labels. But beyond that it was a clear wakeup call to me to make sure that anyone watching my kids knows the same. My sister, or even my mom, who hasn’t had to dose children as young as mine in many years. Or maybe my friends or some of you could use this reminder too.
A 2014 pediatric study showed that every 8 minutes a child in the U.S. receives the wrong medicine or dosing. The KnowYourOTCs website has so much helpful information and charts of dos and don’ts to help remind us.
Nobody is a perfect parent. We’re all trying our best. But we can also do our best to help one another when we see someone who needs help, and instead of pointing a finger, we can lend a hand and be helpful, not critical.
After all, it takes a village. Let’s build ours.
*I love finding ways to keep my family safe and helping others to do the same, which is why I’ve partnered with KnowYourOTCs on this post and why I’ve loved being a KYTOCs ambassador for the last year.
Tags: know your otcs, kyotcs, motherhood
Await can’t wrap my head around the freak accidents that kill children. No matter how vigilant you are, accidents happen.
That is so scary about the babysitter and the medicine. Life in general is scary with kids. I’m glad you shared this. There are many known dangers outside the home, but this is one we can think about inside the home.
Parenting is no doubt the toughest job on the planet and the older I get and the longer I’m on the job of parenting the more I realize how not-perfect I am at it, which is why I work really hard not to judge anyone else. I’m pretty sure you’re doing just fine. 🙂
I think as parents we all hug our children a little closer and realize that life happens. Just listening to the news makes me more aware of just how imperfect I am. Accidents happen but I am striving to be careful.
It’s so terrible that accidents like this happen. We have to do the best we can with the best information we can find.
I agree that working together makes mothering so much easier! As a single Mom I feel like I have to be ‘on’ all the time, so that makes me so much more thankful for my village.
Great advice. I always use a measuring syringe to make sure I get the proper dosages. Hope these kinds of mistakes are cut down in the future…
This post is nicely done and well written. It does take a village! And that’s okay to need to rely on others a bit. We are human and a helping, non judgmental hand is always a nice offering.
Good for you for being supportive. I totally agree. I consider myself a very responsible parent, but I’ve had moments too (my most awful being my oldest son, who is 28 now) going under the stall in the bathroom at the beach when he was two. I was trying to scurry to get my swimsuit up and get out there after him but he was gone, and I was panicking. 20 minutes later (a lifetime!!) 2 much older ladies brought him to me, he’d followed them down the beach ramp, to the parking lot and to their car. I guess he thought one of them was his grandma from behind, 26 years later, it’s still a heart-stopping memory for me.
It’s one of those things you need to check and recheck. Those little bodies just aren’t equipped to handle much going wrong!
this is such a great reference for parents as I remember when my daughter was little and being a lil concerned as some medicines do NOT make it that clear.