Accidents Happen: When Someone Else's Kid Gets Hurt on Your Watch

I had the worse experience possible. It was a beautiful spring day and all the neighbor kids seemed to be playing in our back yard on the wooden play set with a slide.(You know the ones with the canvas tops and the big slides) One of the neighbors had 5 kids and they were there with thier youngest brother who was about 2. I was sitting on my deck watching them all play, and when I was speaking with another child, the two year old boy, apparently fell off the back of the deck where the slide was. Probably an 6-7 foot drop!!! I ran over, there were tears, obviously, but the older siblings shushed him and took him home. He had calmed down, so I ignorantly assumed he must be OK.

I didn't know these neighbors very well, and only found out a couple days later that the poor boy had in fact broken his arm from falling off our playset! I was mortified that the parents must have thought I was horrible for not taking him home or following up about his injury. I went over to thier home to apologize and they laughed it off. I guess after five kids, you are used to things happening. But I still feel horrible about it many years later.

Tue, 2010-02-09 15:08

I think the only thing worse than having someone else's kid get hurt on your watch, is when your kid does the hurting. Watching your child beat on another child is AWFUL, much worse in my experience than watching another kid beat on your kid. No. Fun.

Oh, and sort of off-topic but the whole ER bill thing makes me glad to be Canadian. No such thing as an ER bill here, it makes things much easier. Or, at least, it eliminates that issue.

Fri, 2010-02-05 22:07

I really don't think it was necessary for Jessica to pay the ER bill, and I find the fact that the parents asked tacky. What I want to know is how old was the child? To be at someone's house with such a severe allergy the child should be aware of any health issue they have, and be responsible enough know their limits. If it is an issue, which in this case it clearly was, perhaps the parents should be more careful and have playdates at their own house.

Moving on, accidents happen, I have 3 sons and we have had, broken bones, stitches, glue, various plasters and surgery. Each and every one of them accidents. The fact that people are willing to leave their children in my care is a miracle in itself with my boys track record. But they do, because they, like me, realise that accidents happen and when they do you deal, then move on. That is life. In fact this weekend I have 2 extra bodies in my care while their parents (my brother & sil) take a well deserved break.

Having said all that it would not stop me from feeling guilty if something happened to a child in my care, luckily for me that hasn't happened....yet.

Wed, 2010-02-03 17:50

I agree with you Bad Girl. It's not the same as tripping or ruining a t-shirt. I don't think I would have asked Jessica for the money, but I think it was fair of them to do so.

Wed, 2010-02-03 11:04

I'm with Barb on the issue of paying for someone else's accident. They're ACCIDENTS they HAPPEN. If it wasn't the milk, it might have been something else. He might have tripped on something & needed stitches later...Which he could also have done at home, right??

I babysat and nannied for a decent amount of time before I had my own kids. There were never any serious injuries that freaked me out too much. I had taken a couple of first aid courses, CPR, etc...I'd volunteered in a hospital, my mother had medical knowledge...so I always felt pretty okay that whatever came up I could handle. And I'm not an idiot, I know to call 911 if it's serious.

Well...I was watching 2 children, a boy & girl, ages 6 & 4. The little girl was the older of the two and they were allowed to play outside without direct supervision. I was going to be with them for 4 days, while their parents went out of town. The first 2 days were good, then on a Sunday they went outside, I was in the house doing some breakfast cleanup. The girl comes in and goes to her room. Umm, Helloo!?? Where's your brother. "I don't know." FRICK! So I walk outside, give a call...see if he responds. Nothing. I go back in, get the girl out with me, I try to figure out where they had been playing, who had been with them, etc. I start calling his name, I walked to the back yard...b/c all the back yards are open to each other and I thought maybe he lost track of the "boundries" of the yard while he was playing.

Nothing. He is NOWHERE. I am 2 seconds from frantic screeching and police calling. Then another kid comes up & says, "He got in the van!" My heart stopped. I tried to compose myself enough to not shake the oblivion out of this kid and scream, "WHERE? WHAT VAN? WHERE DID IT GO?" I calmly asked, "What van did he get in?" And the kid pointed down the street to a van parked in a driveway. I walk down...phone still in hand, b/c if he's not HERE, then I'm calling the police. I open the door of the van...and there is the little boy, playing with his friends and some little action figures.

When his parents called to check in later, I did mention that he had wandered during play time, and he was staying in for the rest of the day. I explained the full story to them when they got home (not about my panic, but about where he had been, how long he had been "missing", etc). I felt like he had been gone for HOURS, but when I checked a clock later, it had been a total of about 6 minutes. At the time, I waited for HIS parents to call ME...I felt like if I called them, they might already be concerned b/c I had been working for them long enough (since the kids were 3 & 1) that they knew I wasn't going to call unless something bad was happening.

And I think if the injury itself isn't life threatening, and doesn't need a hospital visit to take care of, I would do the same thing. Take care of the situation, patch the kid up...report to the parent when they called or arrived to get their kid. If it's more serious, obviously I would call the parents, try to be as calm as possible...and hope no legal action would be taken! ;)

Wed, 2010-02-03 07:40