Everyone forgets their kids sometimes ( don't they)

Its not an excess of wine, its not even due to sleep deprivation, in fact there is no excuse. However I do seem to keep misplacing or completely forgetting children.

Some would say that with 4 kids I can afford to lose a few, but I do love them and would miss the noise if I lost them on a permanent basis.

When Aidan was little on several occasions I walked away from the house or the car completely forgetting about him. Even more worrying on several occasions he had been in the travel system car seat, which I then merrily chucked into the car and drove off, only to realise mid journey that the seat belt was undone and he was in no way secured to the car.

Over the years I have learned to do a mental check every step of the way to ensure all children and accessories are present and correct. However I still have managed to forget Elliot. Its not really my fault as he is with the child minder ( who meets me at the school), and to be fair I get busy gossiping and dealing with 3 screaming over tired kids. So its understandable that I suddenly have those "oh shit" moments of clarity followed by a dash to get him.

Now this one is a little embarrassing. Imagine the scene a cold winters day, so alongside the PE kit, swimming kit, book bags, water bottles, lunch boxes we also had all the hats and so on. Then add to that all of Elliot's stuff for a day in child care. Then add to that my mind being on my dash to work in 10 minutes time. Then put the extra distraction of a friend coming over to talk to me.

So to be fair as I walked away from the car and said "where is Alex?". Its kind of understandable that I had managed to lock her in the car. She was not impressed oh dear.