Parenting failures.

I remember when my eldest son was a toddler he ran into a lift in a department store and the doors promptly closed. I told the lady on the desk and she said it would be best for me to wait by the lift as I had my other children with me. So I stood there waiting until the doors eventually opened and there he was, standing with a rather cross mature lady who snapped 'I presume he's yours' at me

I'm sure I have failed more momentously than that, just ask any of my children, they have a list that comes out unprompted at family functions

BlueBelle The Mcanns left their children on 4 consecutive nights.
The day of Madeleines disappearance she had asked her mummy “ why didn’t you come when I cried last night?”
The parents still went out that evening.

They certainly didn’t deserve to pay the ultimate price but I feel they were careless.

I've had many parenting failures but I did my best. My children have grown into decent adults thankfully.
My parenting "success" was the day I trusted my instincts. I was collecting my 3 year old daughter from playgroup and she came out with her new best friend who was being collected by her father. He was unemployed at the time and mum was at work. He looked at my daughter and remarked on how pretty she was and that he could take her back home with his little girl for the afternoon for a play and lunch/tea.
Maybe I was overreacting but took against him straightaway and said no.
Years later, whilst at school my daughters friend admitted that her father had abused her for years.
Sadly she committed suicide in her mid teens.

My biggest regret was not staying in hospital with my 7 yr old son, after he’d strained his neck at gymnastics.
I had two other children at home, but my DH was there so I SHOULD have stayed with my little boy. ?. He was fine and when I went back the next morning, he was playing with the other children. What was I thinking, ?

This was why I felt so sorry for the McCains and the huge swords thrown at them
When my children were small I lived on a RAF camp and it was common practise to pop over to another house for a coffee after the children were in bed and asleep you d pop backwards and forwards a few times to make sure they were ok (only opposite or next doors, but still sends shivers down my spine )

We had a day out with friends to Salts Mill, after wandering around the galleries and the shops we decided to walk to Saltaire village.

After nearly an hour our friends had to leave, as we were saying our goodbyes my friend noticed we were 4 and not 5!

Our then 5 year old was hopefully still somewhere in the huge mill and had been alone for an hour.

My husband ran back to the bookshop where he had last seen no 3, there he was sitting at a table crayoning and oblivious to our absence.

On the same holiday I did a little better with the boys. They, aged about 10 and 12 were playing pool in a cafe with a boy who invited them back to his dads yacht. The cafe owner called me over and warned me not to let them go as the dad was some sort of gangster.We also had an incident when the security police guard came up to our room. There had been a report that someone had climbed into our room. It was the girls who were in the next room who decided to climb over the balcony and surprise me and the boys who had the adjoining room.Not a relaxing holiday.

My son was too unwell to go to school but a very persuasive friend convinced me he was ok and to send him and go out for lunch with her. It was in the days before mobiles and I went to collect him only to find he's been throwing up all day. I felt really bad for going against my instincts. Sadly, years later I found that friend committed suicide.
My other major fail was getting my daughter all excited and dressed up for the playgroup Christmas party. When we arrived there was no one there and I will never forget how she crumpled when we found out it has been the day before.
I still feel bad! I did go out and buy a diary so I could start and write these things down.

My massive parenting fail also involves a holiday abroad.While on holiday in Corfu we left the girls aged 5 and 2 in the care of the scuba guides wife while we went diving?We had never met her before.She took a lovely photo of them with our camera, whenever we look through all the old photos I am reminded of the day I left my children with a total stranger on a foreign beach.