Before I became a mother I thought I was a pretty ‘together’ person, handling most of life’s curveballs with grace and ease.
Ha. Then I had children.
And life became a truckload trickier, stickier and more… chaotic.
I’ll never forget the time my then 2-year-old lost his mind halfway through the weekly grocery shop when I refused to buy him a toy car. Every parent can picture it. He cried, screamed and thrashed about while I madly whipped the trolley around the aisles throwing groceries in and desperately trying to calm down my kid.
Ten minutes (read: basically a lifetime) of high decibel screaming – and many judgemental stares – later, I couldn’t take it anymore.
But I was stuck. No way was I abandoning my 90 per cent finished grocery shop, but my child was hysterical and I wasn’t far off, either.
So I stopped short in the toilet paper aisle, pulled him into a cuddle sat down on the floor and together we sobbed our eyes out. We sat bawling, while other shoppers avoided eye contact, then I called my husband to come and get us.
Ah, memories.
Side note: Listen to Mamamia's podcast for parents of little kids, This Glorious Mess. Post continues below.
Inspired by Chux’s movement to have us all share our funniest stuck moments, I asked 8 other parents to throw caution to the wind, and put their most entertaining, chaotic, how-could-this-actually-happen kind of stories on the table.
While Chux can’t exactly stop us parents feeling stuck in these tricky parenting situations, they’re the experts in stopping food from getting stuck to our sponge. Chux’s new DishPro Non-Scratch Scrubbing Sponge (for pots, pans and plates) and DishPro Non-Scratch Flexi Cleaner (for tricky corners and curves) help to solve tricky problems in the kitchen. The Chux DishPro loves doing dishes more than you — it avoids food clog whilst resisting odours and bacteria, and prevents food from getting stuck. Ultimately, giving you a more hygienic clean.
Now, to the stories. I felt much better when I heard these stories from 8 fellow parents. If you’re ready to hear them, strap in.
Leah: “It went… everywhere.”
“I took my newly toilet-trained daughter to the park sans spare clothes because finally, we were over that phase. Soon she needed a wee and there were no public toilets, so I thought, ‘bush wee it is’ – quite hard with toddler girls. Wee went… everywhere. I’m talking dress, knickers, socks, her shoes, my shoes. I stripped her off, found an old too-small zippy suit in my bag, shoved her legs in the armholes and carried her all the way home.”
Ursula: “One word: gastro.”
“My one-year-old got gastro while we were on Christmas holidays with my in-laws. Ten days of symptoms she was finally better by New Year’s Eve, so off we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. We’ve just relaxed and started enjoying our meal when my daughter projectile spews (exorcist style!) all over our table and the floor.
“I stripped her down and wiped her off with paper towel in the bathroom, then carried her, starkers, through the restaurant out to the car while the poor staff dealt with the aftermath.”
Tanya: “My toddler thought the handbag was a potty.”
“My toddler thought that a handbag sitting on the ground at a festival looked like a potty. I was busy feeding his younger sister and before I could stop him, he’d weed in the bag. As in… someone else’s bag. I gave the lady all the cash in my purse to replace it, apologised profusely and left!”