On Mon. I saw an article about a couple different instances where parents left their kids at Chuck-E-Cheese by accident. I remember thinking I can see how that could happen when your with a big group and you think your kids is with an aunt or grandparent. But I think it is pretty ironic that this happened to me the same day I was thinking of how easily it could happen. Here's the story.
On Mon. Kali had a futsal game and Conner had practice. They overlapped each other. So I took Scotty with me and took Conner to practice and Jimmy took Sophie with him to Kali's game. As I was leaving Jimmy mentioned that there were some envelopes he needed me to stop by the post office and get in the mail TODAY. So I tucked that in the back of my head and then went and dropped Conner off at practice about 20 minutes away. Then I tried to find my way to Costco and took a long cut (opposite of short cut). So I get to Costco and get all the shopping done. By the time I got out of there, I thought I better hurry to get to the post office so that mail could go out today. It was about 10 to five. At that point I had totally forgot that I needed to pick up Conner at 5.
Oh, let me back up. In a hurry to get out the door, I left my cell phone at home. So when we were almost to Conner's practice I told him he needed to leave his phone with me so I could have it incase I needed to get ahold of Jimmy or if their practice changed locations like it had last week. (we got a text to pick up the kids at the coaches house half was through practice) So in my head, I was thinking I need to have it just in case that happened today.
So at 4:50 I head to the post office and then head home. I unpack the car and start on dinner. I start thinking about when everyone will be home so I can have it ready. Jimmy and Kali should be home at 6:20ish and Conner should be home at.... ahhhhhhhhh, I was supposed to pick him up at 5:00!!!!!!!
It was after 6! And it takes 20 minutes to get there. It's at a park in American Fork. I hurried and called Jimmy hoping he was still aways from home and closer to Conner than me. But nope he was just around the corner. Within 30 seconds he was home and took my car to go get Conner. On the way he called Conner's couch who lives close to the park and asked him to go see if he could wait with Conner until he could get there. Jimmy asked him to call as soon as he found him. Then Jimmy was supposed to call me and let me know he was okay.
It took the coach about 5 minutes to get there and then about 10 minutes to find him. That was the longest 15 minutes of my life. I was so worried about him. At first the coach didn't see him. He was sitting on the grass close to some cars and so he was kind of hidden.
Poor kid. Luckily it wasn't really cold out. It was in the 60's but there was a bit of a wind. He said he was cold and after awhile he was worried that I might have gotten in an accident. He went and hung out at the park equipment and watched a baseball game for awhile. Then he sat on the slide and put his shirt over his shorts and tucked his hands inside his shirt. There was a dad with some young kids playing at the park for awhile and I told Conner he should have asked to use his phone. (I felt awful that I had HIS phone) He said he thought about it but was too shy/scared to do it. He said he was so hungry too and the guy had Wheat Thins that Conner was drooling over. Poor guy!
When his coach got there Conner got in his car and waited for about 10 minutes until Jimmy got there. I felt scared, guilty, desperate, embarrassed, thankful, relieved- all within 45 minutes. Conner was a bit upset with me but he was also very understanding and didn't hold a grudge. He knew how terrible I felt.
Anyway, not my proud mommy moment but one that I will want to remember and tell Conner's kids about it someday when he leaves them somewhere. (hopefully that won't happen) But I do remember my mom leaving at piano practice on more than one occasion and I would start to walk home after awhile. It was probably about 1.5 miles away and I must have been in 5th grade.
