I Locked My Toddler (and my keys) in the Car

A couple of weeks ago, while my oldest daughter was at school, I took my 2.5 year-old daughter and my 5-day old son to the doctor for an appointment. It was the first time I had left the house with both kids since delivering my son. I was tired, wasn’t in my right mind, and I was in a rush to get in and out so I could get my son home to feed him.

My mother had met me at the doctor’s office to offer some help with my toddler while my son had his appointment. Upon leaving the appointment, I stuck my keys in the ignition to get the car warmed up while I strapped my toddler into her car seat. I then shut her door to put my son in on the other side. With my baby in the stroller next to me, and my mom by my side, I quickly noticed that all my doors were suddenly locked, with the keys in the ignition, the car running, my toddler locked inside, and it was 9 degrees outside.

I immediately went into panic mode and started screaming. I couldn’t believe that I had locked my keys AND my kid in the car. I had never in my life locked my keys in the car before.

My first thought was, “What do I do? Who do I call? How am I going to fix this?” I began hysterically yelling at my toddler to get herself out of her car seat, something that she was totally incapable of doing on her own. However, I was praying for a miracle that maybe I could walk her through it. She looked at me, a little confused, and then went back to watching the movie that was playing on the dvd player.

Thankfully my mother had driven separately so I sent her off with my son to get him in her car so he could stay warm. I called my husband, who was at work, and was hoping he had a solution, but as I was frantically telling him what had happened my anger came over me as I remembered that he didn’t have the spare key because he had misplaced it months before and never found it. I then dug for my AAA card, which conveniently was missing from my wallet. I couldn’t believe it. Every emergency solution I had thought of wasn’t working.

I tried calling my mom, who was on the other side of the large parking lot, and of course she wasn’t answering her phone. I had no way of getting to her since my toddler was in my running car and there was no way I was leaving her side. I then proceeded to call my father. He had AAA so surely HE could help me. Thankfully he was close and said he was on his way. Meanwhile, a gentleman leaving his appointment overheard me trying to get my daughter to unbuckle herself and offered to go get the security guard for me that was inside of the building. I accepted his help, although didn’t know what help he would be able to offer me.

As I suspected, the security guard came out and wasn’t able to offer me much help, except for his company, which I graciously accepted since I was completely alone at this point. My father finally showed up, but hadn’t gotten very far on soliciting help. AAA was too long of a wait and he was working on other solutions, all of which fell through. I had my oldest being dropped off by the bus in less than 1 hour and I wasn’t anywhere near home to get her. My husband had to leave work to go home so someone would be there when she got off the bus. Once he got home he started looking for the spare key.

Several minutes went by and I was still praying for a miracle that my daughter could magically get herself out of the car seat since no other solutions had come about yet.

Finally, with all of our options exhausted, the security guard called his roadside assistance and had someone on their way. Thank goodness. We were finally on the upswing. Then I got a call that the tow truck driver was lost and couldn’t find our location. I couldn’t believe it. In this day and age, with GPS, how the heck does a tow truck driver get lost? I was in disbelief because at this point my toddler had been in the car for nearly an hour, with no end in sight.

Then the miracle happened. My husband found his set of keys and my dad got in his car and drove to go get them. It was typically a 40-minute round trip from where I was to my house. On his way back to the clinic to hand me the keys, we still hadn’t seen the tow truck driver so we ended up canceling the order for it since we knew my dad would be back within minutes to open the door with the actual key.

After all was said and done, my daughter was in there for 1.5 hours. Her movie had ended by this point, but she stayed completely calm throughout the entire ordeal. And my newborn, who was over an hour past his feeding time, slept through the entire thing, warm in my mother’s car. A miracle, to say the least.

It was one of the most traumatic experiences I had ever experienced as a mother, and it happened in a split second.

After the adrenaline began to wear off from the nightmare, I was able to see the miracles that happened that morning. The security guard stayed with me the entire time and was able to calm me down as time went on. His presence was comforting and I was thankful he was there, even if it was just his company. My toddler was warm, comfortable, and content in the running car, even though I was freezing in the 9-degree weather. My newborn slept through the entire ordeal, in a warm car with my mom.

The lesson?

• Keep an extra key on you so you can at least get into your car.

• Dress warmly, even if you think you will be outside for less than a minute. You never know if you’ll get stuck unexpectedly. (I was freezing!)

• Think positively. While I was hysterical and worrying, I was still able to focus on the outcome I wanted, and I kept saying it over and over in my head that everything would be ok.

• Frequently double check that you have all emergency plans in place, such as your AAA card, so when you go to use it, you actually have it.

The point is, we all make mistakes, and that’s ok. We must allow ourselves the grace to forgive ourselves and let me tell you this… when you think something could never happen to you, think again, because it can. And when it does happen, remember my story and know you’re not alone.