Not My Proudest Mommy Moment

Last week, as I was preparing to leave the house, I did what I always do—I grabbed my purse, car keys, house keys, cellphone and 3-year old son, put everything in the car, turned on the ignition (to warm up the inside of the car) buckled my son in his car seat and shut his door.

Then, I went to open my door, and voila! It was locked!

Oh, my goodness. Did I just lock my 3-year old in the car with the ignition running? Yes, I did. A moment of panic came over me as I realized what I had done. I stood outside the car for a moment, thinking about how I could remedy this situation—quickly.

To make matters worse, I was leaving to teach a class at my oldest son’s school, which was scheduled to start in 30 minutes. I had eight fourth- and fifth-grade girls eagerly awaiting instruction on how to make custom, sparkly headbands! I would not let them down.

Before running across the street to ask my neighbor if I could borrow her phone, I yelled through the glass, “Jackson, mommy locked the door by accident! Don’t worry, the fire truck will be here right away to open up the door!”

I am so proud of my son. He was calm and collected throughout the whole 25 minutes of waiting. He just sat in his little seat and said, “OK, Mommy, I love you.”

After all, he had his favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Bubbles, with him, as well as our 70-pound German shepherd. He was snug as a bug in a rug, and not standing out in the pouring rain, as I was. This is the moment that I wished I had trained my dog how to unlock car doors.

Luckily, my neighbor was home and was willing to lend a helping hand. First, she gave me a spare key so that I could enter my house. I frantically ran through my home searching high and low for a spare car key—no such luck. (My husband later informed me that there is a hide-a-key underneath the car. It would have been nice to know this in advance.)

I then looked for my son’s school phone number, so I could call the school and let them know I would be late. The office manager answered the phone and immediately said, “This is a 911 call.” We hung up the phone, and she proceeded to call 911 for me.

You are probably wondering why I didn’t call 911 or AAA roadside assistance before phoning the school? Well, I knew that Jackson was completely safe. He was not in a state of panic (if he had been, that would have thrown me in to a full-blown mommy panic as well) and the car was outside and in the drive way, so I didn’t have to worry about exhaust from the car entering the vehicle.

Just for the record, I do have AT&T roadside assistance, but seeing how my cellphone was in the car, I could not get to the number.

Surprisingly the fire truck went to my son’s school instead of coming to my house! That is why it took 25 long minutes for them to get to my home. By the time they arrived, roadside assistance had also arrived (my neighbor called AAA for me).

We thanked roadside assistance, sent them on their way, and let the helpful folks of the Santa Cruz Fire Department work their magic. Within a minute, the car door was opened, and Jackson was rewarded with some pretty cool red-and-gold stickers.

And, yes, I made it to the elective class only 10 minutes late, and every little girl was able to make a pretty, sparkly headband.

This experience shows me how unprepared I was, and it immediately made me think about how I can be bettered prepared, should this or any other non-life-threatening emergency take place again.

Following the guidelines below will ensure that you have a drama-free experience if you should lock your own kids in the car.

1. Keep a hide-a-key underneath your vehicle in one of those little magnetic safety boxes.
2. Keep a hide-a-key to your house somewhere on the property (preferably not under the mat or in a planter box—too obvious).
3. Ask a neighbor to keep one of your house keys in case of emergency.
4. Inside the home, keep a list of emergency phone numbers (neighbors, family members, roadside assistance, police department, etc) in case you do not have access to your cellphone.
5. Memorize which phone numbers you feel are most important (we rely on our cellphones so much these days, and most of us don’t even memorize numbers anymore!)
6. Never start the ignition to warm up the car until you are physically in the car itself.
7. Do not shut your child’s door unless you are certain it is not locked.
8. Open your driver side door before shutting your child’s door.
9. Obviously, call 911 right away if your child is in danger, or if it is a hot summer day and you fear your child will over-heat.
10. If you child is waiting patiently, it is not necessary to dial 911. You can call roadside assistance instead, and they will treat it as an urgent call.