Saturday (yes, this is a “current time” post!) Zach hooked his dad’s trailer up to my car to go get mulch for the playground and he drove my car today to return the trailer to his dad. I need to take the kids to get Father’s Day cards and to Hobby Lobby to return stuff from Robyn’s shower (post to come!) that I didn’t use. So I ended up driving Zach’s car…which never happens. It was my first time taking the kids out in his car and we couldn’t even take the double stroller as it doesn’t fit in his trunk!
Our first stop was the mall to get Hallmark cards for Father’s Day. Sidenote: Our Hallmark carries Crocs and I’ve been BUGGING them to get in my absolute favorite shoes ever. And they listened!!! If you’re looking to buy yourself some Sexi Flips they are carrying both the black and tan right now for the same price as online but you’ll save on the shipping cost 🙂 When I came in they actually remembered me from my shoes and both girls said they now own them too and love them! They really are awesome shoes 🙂
Anyways…Hallmark went great. Kye, since I didn’t have the double stroller, sat in a little area and ate his lunch while Britt and I got the cards we needed. We headed back to the car and I was excited to try out Zach’s “cool car” feature. It has a button on his keyring that starts the engine! I thought it’d be great on this hot South Georgia day to go ahead and cool the car off for us. I always have a system for putting the kids in the car: Kye goes first. I have him climb in his seat while I go around and buckle Brittlynn in then I put the stroller in the trunk, come around and put my stuff from the stroller in the passenger seat, buckle Kye then go to the driver’s side. I did all of this and when I put my stuff in the passenger seat I also put the keys there. It frees up my hands to buckle Kye in and has the keys in a spot ready to grab when I get in the car. The whole time this was happening I was literally thinking about how jealous I was that I don’t have the car starter button for my car!
I shut the passenger door and immediately saw it. The little nob that should be raised signaling the car is unlocked was lowered. The car was running. The doors were locked. My kids and the keys were inside. I instantly turned around and called to a lady who was getting into her car. I told her what happened and that I needed to use her phone. SHE was an angel to me sent truly from the Lord. I park in a pretty empty area of the mall and it’s a weekday so hardly anyone was shopping. If she hadn’t been there this day could have been so, so much worse. I don’t know what I would have done. Left my kids to go inside and get help?!?! Scary thought!
My first phone call was to Mrs. Charlotte. Zach’s in a meeting all day and Mrs Charlotte is kinda that person you just call when you need something. She’ll drop everything in a second and do what needs to be done to get things solved. She hung up with me to call a person to break the lock. I then called Zach and he was like “I’m in a meeting!” Um it’s an EMERGENCY! He wanted someone to go to our house, get his spare key, and drive out to me. I knew we didn’t have that kind of time. Thankfully both kids were fine and had no clue what was going on. Kye was happily drinking his milk and Britt was playing with her car seat toys. The car was running so I was thankful for that! If this had to happen, at least the air was blowing to keep them cool.
When I hung up with Zach the lady said I should probably call the police. I agreed but didn’t know who else to call other than 911. As soon as I called 911 and started explaining everything to the lady the car stopped running. Up until that point I was super calm…I’m pretty calm in scary situations anyway. I keep a pretty cool head with stuff and know that freaking out doesn’t help solve problems. When the car quit I told the 911 lady as well as the kind stranger who lent me her phone that I was about to go into freak-out mama mode. It’s over 90 degrees out. Zach’s car is black. With black interior. It gets hot FAST. No cracked windows. Nothing. She sent a police man to me right away and stayed on the phone with me until he got there. I hung up with her and called Zach to tell him that the police were there and that we were going to break a window. He told me not to as the lock guy Mrs. Charlotte had called should be to me any minute. Literally right when he said that the lock guy pulled in.
He got the door opened in under 1 minute. Turns out the keyless car starter thing will only let your car run for 10 minutes. It had been at least 5 since it had shut off. Kye still had no clue and Britt wasn’t even too fussy. My kids are angels 🙂 I tried pay the lock guy and he said they don’t charge when kids are in the car. So sweet! The policeman checked the kids out and since Kye was flushed called an ambulance to come check them out. I really felt like they were fine but he said it was free of charge so I’d rather be safe than sorry.
While we waited on the ambulance they had us sit in the back of the cop car to cool off (by then like 2 other cop cars had arrived…we live in a small town so I’m sure they were eager to do something!) and gave us cold bottles of water. Kye wouldn’t drink his but I grabbed his lunch and gave him his water from there and the policeman used the water bottle to rub it on Kye’s face and neck to help cool him off. He was talking fine and acting totally like himself. Britt was also acting fine and before I could stop her she grabbed my bottle of water and drank some of it. Guess she’s had her first taste of something other than breast milk! She also spilt it all over me so I was nice and cool!
I tried to keep the mood super light and fun for Kye. I pumped him up about how the car didn’t have handles where we were sitting because it’s where they keep the bad guys and take them to jail. He continually told me about that on our drive home but reminded me that “we’re not bad guys.” 🙂 We heard the ambulance before we saw it and that was exciting for Kye. They checked out both kids and said they were fine but then Kye stopped acting normal. He got a little quiet and his eyes got a little bit smaller so I told them they may want to check him further. We went and sat in the back of the ambulance and they did some tests on him, which he checked out fine. I had to give them a bunch of my information and I asked if they were filling out my defax report 😉 They said the only thing I should have done differently was to call them FIRST. I hate to think I’m abusing the system though ya know? I told them this and they said that this situation was a legit emergency and to NEVER worry that I’m overusing their help. That there are a ton of idiots (their words haha) that do overuse it but that I’m not one of those people. So that was good to know!
They started the car for me (and made sure to keep it unlocked!) and helped me get the kids in. We still made it home in time for naps! When we got settled in the car and started to leave I asked Kye if he was okay and everything and his only concern was Hobby Lobby. I told him that the policeman told me we couldn’t go to Hobby Lobby today and that we’ll go again a different day. That news was more upsetting to him than this entire ordeal (guess I did handle it pretty well huh?!)!!! When I was tucking him in for nap I asked him what his favorite part of the day has been so far and he said “nothing because we didn’t get to go to hobby wobby.” He even said in his prayers that he’s sad that we didn’t go to hobby wobby. Poor kid…thank God he has NO CLUE that we could have had MUCH bigger things to be praying about today!!!
I am so, so thankful for the kind people who were so quick to respond to our needs and who helped us out. I truly believe the Lord put that lady in my path to allow me to use her phone. I told her like 50 times that she was my angel and I mean that! It seemed like everyone kept trying to reassure me and make sure I didn’t feel guilty about what happened, they kept telling me it happens to everyone and has even happened to them. Honestly though? I never felt guilty. It was a TRUE accident and happened because I honestly didn’t KNOW how that key situation worked. Zach told me that you have to hit lock then hit the start ignition button within 3 seconds to start it. So when I was mashing the ignition start button trying to crank it, I must have accidentally hit the lock button too. Of course had things not turned out the way they did, I never would have been able to forgive myself. But even when the car did stop I never once thought something terrible was going to happen to my kids. I’d break a window before that would be able to happen!!! I literally kept trying to think of what I could use to bust the window out 🙂 You know the combo of adrenaline and a worried mama is a strong mix and I bet I could have busted it with my fist if I had to 😉
Lessons learned: Don’t use fancy gadgets and Make 911 your first call in an emergency situation!
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Glad everything turned out ok. Sounds like good mommy skills were used if the kids stayed calm they do feed from you.
Awe, I can share your pain on this one! Same thing happened to me when Abby was 3 and Aaliyah 1. I borrowed my moms van, and had stopped by Zaxbys drive thru to pick up lunch. Once we got the food I pulled up to park to get out to set up their food to eat in car. Well I didn't know if you close the driver door while car is running, it sutomatically locks. I was in pure panic mode. It was August, and SO hot outside. But the air was on, and the tv's were on. Kids were totally fine, cool, watching tv. lol I was in tears. My mom had her spare at work, so I had to call 911. They sent the squad. 2 police cars, fire truck, and ambulance. I kept apologizing to them, I said Im sorry they sent you ALL out, I told them kids were fine, car was running with air. But they were super sweet and let kids check out the fire truck before we left. Of course my girls weren't the least bit interested. LOL. It was definitely a scary moment! Glad yours went smoothly too. Its scary to think of how much worse it could have been!
This is Megan Robertson, BTW, I don't know why it says mega2300! Thats my email name!
I feel you did wonderfully! Those kids are lucky to have you! That lady really was an angel, I'm so happy we still have decent people around who really care<3
Good job staying calm. I would have totally freaked out once the car went off. Glad to hear everything turned out okay.