saved by the firemen… again

Exactly 6 months ago yesterday I did this post about a horrid day when I locked my keys in the car at the post office.  I had someone ask if that story was dramatized, it wasn’t.  Well, we had a repeat offense last night.  But this time I decided just having the keys in the car wasn’t good enough! 

I decided to lock:

• my keys,
• phone,
• all the contents of our fridge and freezer (we’re moving)
• AND my children

all in the car too. 

Really questioning if I am qualified for this motherhood thing.  I think it’s time for a hide-a-key, don’t you?

I had been loading the van for a couple hours with the girls up watching a movie while I was making trips back and forth.  For their safety, even though I was just going up and down the stairs I locked the front door of the apartment and the doors to the van upon leaving each location every time.  I had quite a rhythm going after 2 hours.  The last thing I loaded before getting the girls was all the bags of food from the fridge and freezer.  Then I ran up the stairs to hurry the girls out the door, hoping to preserve the food on this HOT day.  In my rush, I loaded the offspring in their car seats set my purse on the passenger seat, and as I had just done about 50 times, locked the door and closed it… “WAIT, NOOOOOO!!!”  I said outloud as I frantically pulled on the door handle.  I didn’t have my keys in my pocket as I had for the past 2 hours, they had been transferred to my purse.

I didn’t waste any time, I know kids are in grave danger in a hot car with no windows open in only a short time.  I ran over to an unsuspecting Mexican man and asked to use his phone, I tried to call Dan.  He didn’t answer but while it was ringing I realized that without a car it would take him at least 30 min to ride the bus over and bring me his spare key, and that was if a bus was leaving right away, and that was unlikely.  I hung up and immediately called 911.  Just explaining the situation to the kind dispatcher brought me to heaving sobs.  I was embarrassed the unsuspecting Mexican had to see my like that, but I didn’t really care.  I just wanted my babies safe!  The dispatcher assured me someone was en-route and would be there shortly.  I hung up and composed myself while I tried to tell Sophie through the window to take off her seat belt and go unlock the door.  She couldn’t undo her buckle.  Tessa was crying but Sophie was just reminding me she was a princess and, “Can I take off my shoes?”  I am impressed with how quickly the fire truck showed up, probably under 5 min.  They had the door open in about 30 second after their arrival.  They were kind and didn’t scold me, just said that’s what they are here for! I apologized profusely for my stupidity and wasting their time.  I was grateful that no crowd gathered and I was able to quickly drive the food to our new place and put it away.

How do you avoid doing this?  Any tricks I could try?  Should I keep a van key taped to my thigh like a gun or something, so I always have one on me?  I need to try something different.  I used to have a magnetic key box under my old car with a spare key in it I had it hidden in a really good spot that even with instructions over the phone it took a friend 30 min to locate.  Don’t want the van stolen though.  Obviously this is an ongoing problem of mine.