Aurora Starchild
At some point in most parents’ lifetimes, they’re going to disappoint themselves. Whether it’s a rookie mistake (hey, we’re all human) or their kid takes them by surprise, you just never know what can happen. One mom, who goes by the handle @mustangashley9 on TikTok, just had the scare of a lifetime. The mom woke up to police in her bedroom after her 2-year-old toddler snuck outside in the middle of the night.
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Mom Woke Up to Police in Her Bedroom After Toddler Snuck Outside While She Was Sleeping
@MustangAshley9 decided to vent on TikTok after a few days, saying she needed “to calm down and process and feel less sh*tty as a parent.”
The mom explained that she tucked her kids in bed around 8 pm, checking again on her 2-year-old around 10:30 pm. She went to bed and then an hour later, her husband came to bed. Then at 1:45 am, she woke up to 3 police officers walking into her bedroom.
“Thank god this was the night that I chose to sleep in pajamas,” she said. “They shine their flashlights in, ‘Hi, so-and-so police department here. We found a toddler outside in your front yard, crying and screaming and cold. We have him outside in an ambulance.’ I, having just been woken up from a dead sleep, rush into my son’s room to find him not there. And then proceed to run down the stairs, out the front door, completely barefoot, still in my pajamas, no coat, and down the block to find my son.”
She added that she thought they parked a distance away from the house just in case they thought there were “drug addicts or horrible people.”
@MustangAshley9 was completely distraught and confused that she didn’t wake up to her baby monitor, police knocking on the door, or her dog barking. She said she didn’t even think that her dog barked. Her husband and other two children, who are ages 5 and 8, also slept through the whole thing. The mom said she didn’t know when her toddler snuck out and how long he was outside for.
@MustangAshley9 Has a DVR and Security Camera, Can’t Bring Herself to Watch When Her Toddler Snuck Out
Over the next few days, comments from other sympathizing parents came flooding in. @MustangAshley9 was responding to some of them, including one that asked if she had any cameras on her house. As it turns out, she does have one and it goes to a DVR. But she couldn’t bring herself to look at it yet.
“I have not as of yet been able to bring myself to look at the DVR recording,” said the mom. “Because I think if I did, I might die of heartbreak watching my 2-year-old stand outside crying and cold.”
Some people made recommendations like putting locks at the top of the doors. But the mom was concerned that, because she has 2 older children, that could pose a safety issue if, say, there was a house fire.
A Lot of Parents Sympathize with Momma MustangAshley9
But @Mustangashley9 isn’t alone in her scare. Other stories in the comments included having to bring children to the ER for poison overdoses, a 3-yr-old dashing into a 3-lane highway while the mom was buckling their sibling in the car, and a parent reminiscing on a time when they were a kid and went missing.
“I had the entire county looking for me when I was 3,” the TikToker commented. “I followed the dog outside and went down to the creek…I was missing 8 hours…”
As a mom, I can also sympathize with @MustangAshley9’s story as my toddler also snuck out once. My own kid also woke up from a nap one time when they were 2, but I was taking a shower. I was alerted to the dogs barking and rushed out into my living room in a towel. There, I saw that my kid was gone. My kid had gone outside and was screaming and crying and there were 2 police officers at the door. It was shocking and I was disappointed in myself, to say the least!
The guilt never really goes away, but eventually, you realize that you’re not alone. We all make mistakes and parenting is a learning curve. And importantly, we also learn to not just use our deadbolts—but to always carry our keys as well! But that’s a different story.
