My Stroppy Miracle

This is one I have saved from WU

One day last year I nearly lost my daughter for good. It wasn’t through illness, but because she’d developed a couple of new skills I didn’t know she had and because she was a normal stroppy toddler.

Last summer, a group of us decided to take advantage of the nice weather and have a picnic in a local park. It was set back from the road and had a childproof gate on it. We had a great time sharing sandwiches and drinks and taking it in turns to supervise our children on the swings, slides and climbing frames.

When it was time to go, I collected my daughter and stooped down to pick up our bag. When I looked up, she was gone. My heart stopped. I looked around frantically and saw her heading towards the road. I called her; she ignored me. This is normal toddler behaviour. She raced away – I hadn’t realised she could run so fast. Even while I’m typing this, my heart is pounding. I raced after her, realizing that I couldn’t catch her before she reached the gate, but at least it was childproof, so she couldn’t possibly reach the busy road.

Then she opened the gate and ran outside. My heart stopped and I screamed for her to stop, still running after her. I was sure that this would be the last time I would see her alive. After all, she was in ignore mode, so she probably wouldn’t listen. The thought of those big, bad cars and my defenceless little daughter was more than I could bear.

Then she stopped. That was the first miracle. The lady who was across the road dragged her three children across and came to stand by the pavement so my daughter couldn’t get past. That was the second miracle. I grabbed my daughter’s hand and didn’t kill her for nearly killing herself. That was the third miracle.

What did I learn? That my daughter was even more capable than I thought she was. That she needed to learn the Green Cross code (she knows it now) and that I should treasure every moment with her.