AUTHOR: M. DATE: 5:18:00 PM ----- BODY:

Recently, the son of a woman I know had an accident. She had put him on the counter, and was holding him with one hand. She got distracted by something and turned around, keeping her hand on him, and he fell and cracked his skull. He's okay, blessedly. She is a disaster, as one would expect after your infant son has cracked his skull and spent almost a week in the hospital while your family undergoes an investigation by Child Welfare (which, fortunately, recognized this as an accident). Recently I recounted this story to my mother. The conversation went a bit like this: Me: You know, the more I talk about these kinds of things with people, the more I think every parent has endangered their kids' lives at some point. It's kind of amazing that more people don't accidentally kill their kids. Mom: Huh... I don't think I ever endangered YOUR life... (Pauses). Oh wait: the first time we left you and went out of town you cracked your head open. Oh! And there was that time I left you in the car alone and you drove the car down the hill into the woods. Oh, and...

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: M3 COMMENT-DATE:8:43 PM COMMENT-BODY:Ok, now you're worrying me!!!! I'm going to suck at this. I'm such a klutz and I have NO experience. Oh man... -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Foxxy One COMMENT-DATE:10:26 AM COMMENT-BODY:Too crazy. Dylan decided to try to launch himself off the changing table last night. Luckily I had a good grip on him. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: LilySea COMMENT-DATE:10:50 PM COMMENT-BODY:In a sleep-deprived trip to the doctor for a well-baby visit, I drove the car across a railroad track with a TRAIN COMING. It was a poor, black neighborhood, so there was no arm that came down, no "ding, ding, ding," just a red light that was hard to see in the sun.

And that car runs like crap, too.

I have never felt my heart pound like that before or since. I didn't drive for a week after that until I was sure I caught up on my sleep. --------