Ever forgot something really important...?

[Exian]

When my daughter was about 5 (I'm currently having a physical reaction while recalling this story, not my proudest moment), we went to the park with two of my friends who were also parents. It was my kid, Becca and her 5yo daughter, and Kim and her 5yo son and maybe 1yo daughter, old enough to walk. We're all playing in the sandbox with a bunch of other kids. My two friends want to go have a cigarette so I tell them I'll watch the kids. They go off to benches out of eye line to smoke. This kid starts throwing shit and ruining everything, so I get in the sandbox and restore order, then go back to day dreaming or whatever. After a minute or two, I do a head count: 1.. 2.. and there's the boy, that's all 3. Except if you remember, I was watching 4 kids. I was totally satisfied with my headcount results, and go back to staring off or whatever. About a beat and a half later I start to panic (instincts I guess), the littlest one isn't around and I could not for the life of me remember if my friends took her with them. I'm in full panic mode. This little play park has all sorts of obstructions so it's not a quick glance around. I run around to the other side and there the little one is, wandering head first into the big kid swings. She was about 3 feet away from getting kicked in the head by two little feet when I snatched her up. Parents were staring. Sucked.

I took her back to the sandbox and acted like nothing happened. Haha Never told my two friends. Nothing really happened I guess, but it affected me big time. I always made sure to be extra super mindful after that. And to this day, I'll be going to sleep when this memory will pop in my head, and I have to get up and read something or get a drink. I get that uncomfortable about what could have happened.