A Stupid Decision Leads to a Moment of Panic

Late this afternoon, Elliot and I arrived home from a shopping trip to Target. We entered the garage and I began to unpack my purchases: 14 boxes of cereal, 10 boxes of Kleenex, the world's largest package of toilet paper and several bags of odds and ends that I invariably discover I desperately need every time I'm at Target. Add to that my purse, the diaper bag, a bagful of mail and two water bottles..in short, I had a lot of stuff to haul into the house.

As usual, I began by making several trips to and from the car -- Elliot in one arm and a very heavy bag of merchandise hanging on my other wrist. On my next-to-last trip, I made a fateful decision: to leave Elliot in the kitchen playing with my keys (which he'd been wanting) while I gathered up the last few bags from the car.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Rather than staying in the kitchen and rifling through my bags as I expected him to do, Elliot ran to the screen door leading to the garage. As he leaned against the glass, I saw him reach up, and I figured he was trying to open the door. Wrong. Instead, he locked it.

I panicked. My baby was inside the house and I was locked out. "Turn it, turn it," I screamed, which only served to scare him. I clawed at the screen door thinking I'd reach inside and turn the lock, but quickly realized this was pointless due to the glass door underneath.

How could I be so stupid? What kind of idiot parent leaves her child inside the house -- even if only for a few seconds -- while she's outside (with no phone and no keys)?

Elliot was scared and I could hear him crying. "I'll be right back, baby," I said, as I suddenly had a brainstorm. I ran out of the garage and around the house to where we keep a key hidden outside. Within seconds, I was in the front door and hugging my baby.

Thank God for the spare key. I keep thinking of what I would have done...what might have happened if it hadn't been there. The whole incident lasted only a few minutes, but will stay with me for a long time. I'm hoping that Elliot has already forgotten.

All I know is that I most definitely will not make a similar mistake again.