Oh baby where art thou by Rhianon

[advert:mpu]Gosh. Still, at least I remembered the bin bags this time.

I asked around and seems this is a pretty common phenomena – my sister had the dreaded call over the tannoy at Tesco’s recently, ‘will the mother of a small boy in dark shorts and a red top please return to collect him in aisle 16, where he is waiting with a member of staff’. Coincidentally, aisle 16 was where the Disney DVDs were stocked, so part of me thinks that was one three year old who wasn’t completely lost…

One friend left hers behind in the kid’s section of the library and only remembered when she went to strap her daughter in the car seat. Hummm,.. no daughter. Another told her son to go ahead and get changed at the swimming pool whilst she washed her hair… and promptly got dressed and left without him. Both returned to the scene to face disdainful looks from staff who handed over their snivelling children with that ‘well, you’re just lucky I didn’t get on the phone to social services!’ look in their eyes.

My dad’s one was the best, though; he dropped my brother and our cousin off at the Science Museum when they were 10 and told them he’d be back from his meeting in two hours. But only my brother was waiting there on his return - the two had become separated - my cousin was nowhere to be seen and a stranger to London. Turned out he could only remember dad’s surname and the town in the suburbs where we lived, so the poor policeman that found him had to go through the phonebook (pre Yell.com… how did we survive?). Which explains why they didn’t get in touch with dad until 11pm that night, long after my parents had pulled all their hair out in a blind panic (he says he’s not sure even now that my cousin’s parents know the whole story).

What really keeps me awake at night is that I also left a load of shopping on the pavement by the car and drove off. I didn’t even think twice till I was home and I discovered the boot was empty. Now, you’re following my thinking, aren’t you? So what if that had been the car seat on the pavement and the shopping in the boot? Just sends a shudder down you, doesn’t it? I’ve taken to writing EVERYTHING on my hand.