Reading This Post Assumes a Promise Not to Call Child Services

This is my defense: with one car, you notice if someone from the family is not in it.  Especially the birthday girl.

If you ever thought you deserved Worst Mother of the Year, think again.  Jeff will concur.

We were taking Anna out to breakfast for her birthday.  Jeff called up the stairs and said to meet him at the restaurant: it was getting late and Moll needed to get to school.  When I came down, I called Anna's name.  No answer.  I ran back upstairs and called again, sticking my head quickly in each room.  No answer.  I looked in all the rooms on the first floor.  No Anna.  I looked in the basement.  No Anna.  I noted the eerie silence in the house and thought, "Jeff must have taken her." I called one last time, then left.

I pulled next to the Matrix in the parking lot, saw Jeff and.... No Anna.  Jeff and I mouthed at the same time, "Where's Anna?!"  The look on Jeff's face was the one that few other people ever get to see: a few really bad students, the guy responsible for the dishwasher getting dropped out of his third story window repeatedly that damaged our siding, and now me. I peeled out of the parking lot and made it home as quickly as possible without detection by bored and traffic-rule-happy Camillus police.  I think my mind was just frozen with fear of the numerous possibilities of what I'd find when I got home.  I was praying she hadn't noticed I was gone and wasn't beside herself with worry. When I pulled up, a little girl face and a little dog face were peering out the front window at me.  Anna pulled open the front door and yelled, "Mom, where were you?" I think her bad cold made it hard for her to hear when I called, and I think she was hunkered down behind the bed reading when I stuck my head in her room...

I gave her huge hugs, apologized profusely and assured her I loved her and it was a mistake, and noted that she wasn't crying?!

"I knew I had to be brave." Stab a knife through my heart.  She also said other exceedingly sad things like, "I wondered what could have happened to my Mama." And "I saw your tire tracks on the driveway." The whole escapade lasted less than 10 minutes and Biscuit was with her.  Not helping? And she got her breakfast at IHOP.  And a High School Musical Balloon.  So there really was a happy ending. It still doesn't matter, does it?!  

I am telling this story because it's always better to fess up first, get your side of the story out before others tell it for you, etc. Am I right?  Anna already delivered a dramatic retelling to my parents tonight when they Skyped for her birthday.  I believe it was one of the first things she related to Molly when she came home.  And who knows what's in the file at preschool now.  

Besides, you can secretly assure yourself when you are having a bad day and say, "At least I have never driven off without my kid on their birthday." Just remember you promised not to call Children's Services.