a powerful message. "mother, father, are you there? grandma, grandpa, are you there?" are we really there?
answer: no i'm not.
funny/traumatic story. traumatic to me. funny to the rest of the world.
today i played the piano for a couple who sang in sacrament meeting. we met in the relief society room 45 minutes before church to practice. ethan, being the ward clerk, was attending early morning meetings, so i had my normal charge of all the little ones. i set lincoln on the table in his car seat (he has to be out of reach of libby), and gave the other kids paper and crayons to keep them busy (never works by the way). we practiced until the relief society sisters started to come in. by this time ethan had come and then left again to attend a stake priesthood session. i quickly gathered up all our stuff: crayons here, paper there, shoes . . . wait, why are the kids shoes off? here's one of libby's shoes, where the other? "hudson get your shoes on now!" sisters filling up relief society room. "libby, i just put your shoes on, where'd they go?" a sister offered to take hudson and maria to primary. i was so grateful for that because i had to take libby to nursery and see if her teachers were there yet. it was time for church to start and i needed to be in the primary room to substitute for the chorister. luckily, libby's teachers were there and i was able to head to the primary room. it was a little crazy but we got our practice done, it sounded good, and i made it to primary in time.
fast forward 30 minutes.
"oh my goodness! i left lincoln in the relief society room!"
oh, ya. i did that. i totally forgot about him. i rushed up to the relief society room to see lincoln on the lap of a sister in the presidency. at least i left him in a room full of grandmother, mothers, and hoping-to-be-mothers. the sister holding him saw me standing in the doorway and i mouthed "i forgot!" she laughed and mouthed back, "he's fine! go." i left him with her. but i came back to the primary room feeling like a, like a, well, like a big poo. sorry, but yes, that is what i felt like. i can't believe i forgot my baby! i never thought that would happen to me. i didn't think i would ever be one of those moms. you know, one of those moms who is so frazzled and unorganized and disoriented and crazy that she'd forget one of her own flesh and blood!
please tell me i'm not alone. now is a great time to share stories of forgotten children. those poor, poor, abandoned children. i'm not the only one, right? make me feel better! please!
so, in answer to elder hales question, "mother, are you there?" sadly no, i am not. i'm in the primary room forgetting about you.
6 comments:
We left Joseph at a McDonald's once for an hour on our way back from Utah. He was 3. Ooops. I don't think it was a case of frazzled parents, but he was left just the same.
~Kimberly
well we didnt leave a kid anywhere, but jon forgot that anna was at home and he was out working. he came in and heard her screaming and found her under the sidetable by our bed. she had woken up, rolled off and somehow under the table. dont know how long she was like that. but he had completely forgotten that he had a 3rd child.
Kibbey was young and so has the Joseph story wrong. We had been rock climbing at Horse Thief Butte across the river from The Dalles and because it was late stopped at McDonald's for some dinner. Joseph was older than three (at least 5 or 6 or more), can't remember for sure exactly. Anyway he went outside to play on the playground equipment when he was done eating and when everyone else finished we hustled everyone up and put them in the car and took off. Within about 10 minutes I was asking something about Joseph and quickly realized he was not with us. Paaanic! We quickly turned around and went back an got a little boy who had not even realized that we had gone. Whew! Also I remember when I was young that one of the young ones in our family was left at the Box Elder Canyon campground. That is when we instituted the sound off. When ever we went anywhere we all had call out our names starting with the oldest to the youngest. Dad
I'm pretty sure it was from Utah because we were in the old suburban, and we had a bed in the back. Plus, the first time I went rock climbing was when I was 10.
Anyway, you guys thought he was in the 2nd row of seats with Ethan and I, or on the bed, and we thought he was up with you. And yes, we did leave him for a long time, because we had been driving for quite a while before one of you in the front started to say something to him. You were getting mad that he wasn't responding, and then we said he wasn't back there with us. You had us check if he was in the bed in the back too. He could not have been much more than 3 or 4 because Kathryn didn't exist yet. We were all pretty young.
~Kimberly
ok, i feel like that CRAZY person everyday! and thank you for seriously making me laugh out loud really hard. i haven't done that for a while! sometimes when i'm on my way to town, i have to look back and see if emerson is in her seat. it is only a matter of time for me! and i totally agree w/ your post abt libby. that is my bridon!! my parents i think just shake their heads that i'm raising a wild hooligan, but come on, there are 3 of them under 4. what do you do...just your best! i miss ya after that post. can you believe it's been like 10+ years since college. holy cow!
It's happening to me a lot lately. I always feel bad when I forget a child. One time we left our 5 year old Zachary at church. He came out the door and saw us driving away and tried to chase us down. Poor kid. Someone found him crying and took him to the bishop's office for candy. We didn't get far up the road before we remembered to do "roll call" and realized he was missing.
Tasha
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