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This week I think I would be more appropriately titled the Crazy Lady as opposed to the No-Frills mum. You’ll see…

Recently bub has become a lot more mobile. Which has really forced me to straighten the house out and remove as many potential hazards as possible. Actually, I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence of timing or not, but I’m all of a sudden seeing more and more hazards everywhere I go. In fact, everything I look at is a potential hazard.

I was at a family gathering recently where all the kids were in the pool. There were seven children under six plus some older than that. My cousin happened to mention to me that for a baby, all it takes is 10 seconds for their lungs to fill with water. I suppose the insinuation was that it only takes 10 seconds for them to die. That got my heart going. This just happened to be a few days before I took bub to his first swimming lesson. I was totally freaked out about slipping or tripping in the pool with bub. I was on edge the whole time. As we were leaving the lesson, the teacher gave us a booklet to read about swim safety. So when I got home I started reading through it. I was immediately drawn to all the testimonials. There was one on every page. I only read two of them though as I soon realised they were all testimonials of people who had lost their children to drowning. I couldn’t bare to keep reading. When hubby got home I was close to telling him that we needed to pack up and move to the middle of Australia, to a place where there are no dams or pools of water near by. What are we all thinking living on the coast of Australia?

The other night when I had finished putting bub down for the night, I came out to see hubby inspecting his car, which is parked outside. He had just looked under his bonnet and saw evidence to suggest that rats had been there. So without a thought outside of his car, he grabbed some ratsac and carelessly sprinkled it all around his car. I watched him dropping it on the ground and then walk over it in the very pair of thongs bub had had in his mouth the previous day. I was in disbelief as I watched this happen. Am I the only one that sees how easily this poison could get to our baby, let alone anyone else? Needless to say the next day I spent the time sweeping it all up and threw the rat sac in the bin. And threw out the broom that I used.

A fear of mine is that someone will try to take my child. Whenever I’m out and about I am super diligent about watching bub. If I have to look away from the pram, my hands and often feet are securely on it/in front of the wheels, to prevent anyone from coming along and racing off with it.

The other day while at home, I heard a noise out the back. Before going to check it out, I made sure the front door was closed and locked just in case the noise was a distraction so that someone could sneak in and take my baby while I was busy out the back. This has probably come from watching too many CSI type shows.

Then I saw on Facebook that someone who lives in my area had their child almost kidnapped. If I wasn’t freaked out enough already I am now. I don’t know the details but it was all over Facebook that a couple on a motorbike had tried to take this woman’s child. And they live in my area!!! Since then, when I’m out and about, I’m always looking over my shoulder.

If I’m out for a walk with the pram and I see dogs, especially the scary looking ones, I watch them so closely and I’m ready to jump into action and do whatever is necessary to keep them away from my baby.

The other day I was getting bub out of the car into the stroller at the shops. There was a step to get the stroller from beside my car to the footpath, so I tipped the stroller back to get the front wheels up. At the same time a man was walking on the path. I know I shouldn’t do this, but I instantly judged the man because he was dressed in old clothes, lots of facial hair and fit the typical description of someone that could be homeless. He started coming toward me and the pram, and actually lent down towards bub. I had no idea what he was doing. All I knew was that a strange man was coming towards my baby for no apparent reason. I got a bit of a fright and stopped, possibly even started moving backwards. He backed off immediately. I then realised he was leaning down to help me get the pram up the step. I quickly said, ‘Oh thank you’ but kept going. I’m sure that some might think I’m not very nice for my reaction. For all I know he could be the most gentle and friendly guy out there. But this is the world we live in and I’d do it again on the off chance that I'm dealing with someone that will hurt my baby.

Bub’s room has a sliding door to the backyard. I pretend that it’s not a door and I make a habit of never opening it because I don’t want to accidentally forget to lock it one day. I lay in bed at night straining my ears to hear if anyone is breaking into his room to take him. For extra safety I’ve placed a fan in front of his sliding door so that intruders would trip over it thus making noise to alert me, if they tried to break in.

Everywhere I look there are batteries, chords, choking hazards, kidnappers, deadly germs, chemicals, dogs, criminals, bad drivers and the list goes on. I’m forever asking myself the question, ‘how could this thing or situation potentially hurt our child?’

So you tell me; am I crazy or is this normal? I’m new to this mum thing so I have no idea if others do this. But I suspect it’s quite likely that I lean more towards ‘crazy’ on the sane-crazy scale.

FreeAndEasy
19/1/2014 10:42:25 am

Wow - I'm the complete opposite. I just think - who'd want to take my kid? Who'd want all that hard work? As if any sane person would take them! I resist actively any pressure to be paranoid - it steals my peace and joy as a mum. So I guess I'm on the other side of the spectrum. I just hate the worry. But perhaps it wouldn't hurt me to be a bit more balanced!!!

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