STOP! Look and Listen.

What’s your worst nightmare as a parent?

Losing a child, of course.

I feel as though I came close last week and I can’t get the image out of my mind.

I was at the park with Luke and our friends, having a lovely time and everything was as it should be. We’d all been out in the sun for a few hours and decided it was a bit too hot for the kids so we would seek refuge in the shade and opted for a walk around the perimeter of the park which is nicely shaded by overhanging trees. I had a bag full of wet clothing and towels as the kids had been in the paddling pool, so popped back to the car to drop the bag off rather than having to carry it around as it was cutting into my fingers.

I was parked across the road from the park and my friend was parked on the opposite side.

Now, Luke has always been a child that has been quite ‘road aware’ and has feared the roads and insisted on being carried around to the car on occasion.

So I ask myself;

WHY on Friday did he decide to run from my side, straight across the road and into the path of an oncoming vehicle?

The answer is simple…

He saw his friends on the other side of the road and was excited and decided to run to them.

I can’t even begin to describe the horror of witnessing this. One minute he was standing beside me, after being told repeatedly to stand on the pavement by the car and wait. I went to take his hand and the next thing I knew, he was dashing out to the side of me. All I could do was SCREAM his name and watch.

Fortunately, and I can’t stress how fortunate I feel, the driver of the car was a lady with children who was obviously watching the road closely and not speeding and she saw him and stopped immediately. The car was literally a foot away from him and as I’d screamed his name, it was like something you’d see on TV where he turned to face the car and I just leaped towards him, scooped him up and almost crushed him by holding him so tightly.

The lady driver looked worried and apologised but I told her that I was the one who was sorry and made my way off of the road back to safety.

My friend had only seen what was happening once I’d screamed his name but once we’d reached the other side of the road where she was, I ended up crouched down, Luke in my arms and bawling my eyes out. He was upset because I had yelled so loudly as he ran. He just didn’t understand what could have happened to him. He just wanted to see his friends again.

When I went to bed on Friday night, I cried. I keep replying the image of what happened in my mind. I spoke to Matt about it on Saturday morning, and again, I was welling up.

I don’t think that you can appreciate it until it happens to you.

He was lucky. I was lucky. WE were lucky. Had it not been the lady driver and it had been one of the usual ‘boy racers’ that frequent those roads… well, let’s just not go there.

So now both Luke and I are nervous wrecks near roads. I cling on to him for dear life and he pretty much does the same.

Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so. We’re teaching him the Green Cross Code and I’m going to introduce him to the online site ‘Children’s Traffic Club’ so he can understand more about road safety.

I’ve gone on to tell him about a little boy that I once knew, when I was a child, who didn’t pay attention whilst crossing the road, and who unfortunately lost his life. You may think that telling a three year old about someone who has died is a bit over the top, but by telling him the basics, and not going into gory detail, it’s got him thinking and made him more aware.

Last week, for a split second, I thought I might lose my little boy, or at least see him very badly hurt. If I have my way, it’ll never happen again. Ever.