Parents Are Sharing Their Most Memorable “I Looked Away For ONE Second…” Story

Parenting is an incredibly challenging journey that tests the limits of patience and resilience, especially when it comes to watching your child because anything can happen!

Every parent knows that if you let your guard down, even for just a second, it can lead to unexpected and sometimes dangerous situations.

Whether it’s a toddler climbing onto a countertop or darting into a busy street, the potential for mishap is always just around the corner.

So, I asked parents of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us their most frightening tales where they looked away for "just one second." Here's their responses:

1."My dad made the mistake of attempting to use the toilet while having three young children. I (oldest and wisest) managed to put my hand through a window by the time he was halfway done. Later that evening in the ER, my 2-year-old brother took advantage of dad's briefly paying attention to the kid getting stitches to crawl out from under a curtain divider and go wandering around the hospital."

2."My daughter had just started walking, about 16 months. I was right behind her as she was toddling along in my parents-in-law's backyard, where there was a ground-level pool. She got closer to the pool, and I watched her just walk straight into the pool. I was right behind her, so I caught her by the arm before she even touched the water, but I just wanted to say how fast it could go. Don't let young children walk around a pool unsupervised, EVER. Don't leave them in their bath alone, even if there is only two inches of water. Don't read your phone at the beach while your young children are playing in the water. It only takes a few seconds for them to fall in and drown. Just don't."

3."The worst one I can think of was when we were at Legoland. Me, my mum, and my two girls, aged probably about four and seven. We were at a little playground (still in a busy area of the park, not separate from the main walkways), and I turned to say something to my mum. It was literally about 10 seconds, and when I looked back, the youngest had vanished. Oldest had no idea where she was. Mum hadn’t seen her go. There were so many people all milling about. I was searching around the play area, calling for her for at least a minute, which seemed like hours in that situation. On the verge of total panic, she then appears down the slide that was attached to a wooden tower (so you couldn’t see inside). Oh, the relief!"

4."I was sitting at home smoking a joint when I realized that I didn’t hear my kids. In a panic, I almost called the wife at work, and as I was dialing, I remembered that I put them on the school bus about an hour before. It was a fun five minutes and some really good weed."

5."It's interesting when I look back that it's always been my oldest (he's almost 20 now) who did these heart-stopping moments for me and absolutely none from my youngest!"

6."Not so much a 'looked away' but more of a parental scare. One night my hubby and I were snoozing away when I heard a loud bang and thumping in the house. It woke me up and sounded like someone was in the house, so I immediately woke my hubby up, freaking out that someone was in the house. He got out of bed to assess the scene downstairs, and I went in to check on our 3-year-old. My heart dropped into my stomach when I saw that he wasn't in his bed, and I immediately started freaking out that someone had come into the house and taken him (yes, I listen to way too much true crime). We searched everywhere in the house and even outside and still couldn't find him anywhere."

7."I’m not a parent, but my sister has twins. Once, I was babysitting, and I looked away to take their chicken nuggets out of the oven. Within 45 seconds, one of them had opened the cabinet under the sink and was shaking a bottle of bleach spray, and the other one had unplugged the television and was sucking on the metal prongs on the plug. I don’t know how my sister does anything ever."

8."I looked away for one second and turned around to find my toddler holding my menstrual cup, which he had filled with hand sanitizer and was about to drink out of."

9."Christmas shopping, my girls were around seven and nine. The seven-year-old was being a brat and very slow and would not come to me when I asked her to, so I did the 'Fine. I will leave you here then thing.' I walked around the corner for just a second, poked my head back around to see if she was coming, and no sign of her. I ran all over the store, down the mall hallway, frantically looking everywhere. I got security to start looking and message over loudspeaker. I ran back to the first store to look outside, and a police officer was walking in with her. He said she was at our car because I told her I was going to leave without her! OMG, never so scared before!"

10."My son told me on vacation that he didn’t feel good when he woke up. I had him sit on the couch with me, put a cartoon on, and turned to talk with my two-year-old and looked back, and he was having a full-blown seizure with no prior history. I was in the military and went to war, and this legit was the freaking scariest thing I ever went through. I’ve almost died twice, and I never felt this type of fear. I took him outside and waited for the ambulance and had to give mouth to mouth. Luckily, we were near an amazing hospital, and they saved him. It blows my mind every day that he is still here. I begged him not to leave me, though. Kids scare the crap out of you!!!"

—Anonymous, Age: 37

11."My daughter is three. My husband and I drove SUVs and were cleaning the cars in the garage. At one point, my daughter and I went into the house while my husband was still cleaning his car. Well, my daughter decided she wanted to go back outside, opened the door, and walked to the side of my car. My husband never saw her, and she kept walking across the street and down the block. Sometime later, the neighbor caught her about 4-5 houses down and asked her, 'Where’s mommy?' And my daughter says, 'She's back there.' The neighbor walks up with my daughter and asks my husband, 'Is she your daughter?' We never knew she was gone. They both came inside, and we rewound the camera feed and watched her journey out the back, through the garage, across the street, and down the block. Scared the crap out of us! Now we have door handle blocks so she cannot get out so easily."

12."It was a hot summer day, so my wife and I decided to take our two daughters, two and three years old, to check out a lake a few towns over that offered day passes. It was a nice little place with calm water and a small pier that stretched out into the lake to allow for jumping into the deeper water. My wife and I were in the water with my older daughter as the younger one repeatedly jumped off the pier into the water, with me lifting her back up in a seemingly unending cycle, as toddlers are apt to do. My older daughter remarked that she found something on the bottom and reached down to grab it. My wife and I leaned down to help her since she dunked her entire head unwittingly into the water, and when I stood back up a moment later, my younger daughter was gone. I jumped up to see that she had fallen off of the other side of the pier and was floating, face down, in the restricted part of the lake."

13."My one-year-old daughter was eating lunch and had just one bite left, a piece of butternut squash. I look away for one second, and the squash is gone, but it’s not in her mouth. I look in her hand, on the floor, in her lap; it’s nowhere. She’s smiling and happy, so I know she isn’t choking on it. But where did it go? Then she turns her head, and I find it—in her ear."

14."My husband was at home, and our almost three-year-old toddler was down for a nap. It was time to pick up our oldest from school. I told him I was going to pick up our other daughter from school. After I left, he decided to go to bed and take a nap himself without putting the chain locks on the door because he 'didn't want to be bothered,' getting up to let me in. I had installed the chain locks because the little one had learned how to open the door on her own, and you couldn't turn your back on her because of it. The little one got up, went out the front door, and took off on her tricycle. I came home, and she was gone. I woke him up and then ran down our street looking — we had a sheriff's deputy living on the street, so I went straight to her house. She called it in, and our daughter was picked up, riding her tricycle down a major highway almost a mile away."

15."It didn't happen to me. I did it to my mom. When I was preschool age, my mom took us to the pool to meet my cousins for swimming. We had to wait for my cousins to finish their swim lessons first. Well, as mom turned around to set our stuff down, I took off and walked directly off the pool deck into the deep end. I, not knowing how to swim, began sinking like a rock. Thankfully, I had very long hair, which mom had put in a ponytail and which was floating straight up above my head as I sank. She dove forward, grasped the ponytail, and hauled me out. I still remember sinking into the dark blue of the deep end. I don't remember coming up sputtering or even being afraid. I was too ignorant of the danger of that. Thanks, mom, for saving my life!"

16."One day, when my youngest was three-years-old, we came home from running errands. He went to play in the living room, and I ran to the restroom for less than two minutes. When I came out, the baby gate (which had been latched) between the living room and the front room was open, and the front door was open, and my son was nowhere in sight. It was at that moment that I learned he had figured out baby gates. I ran out and called his name, looked in my next-door neighbor's open garage, and then proceeded to jog up and down the street, calling his name and looking for him. We lived on a military base, so I wasn't utterly panicked about kidnapping or anything; just more worried about him getting hit by a car. Another mother and a landscaping crew working nearby dropped what they were doing and started circling the block, looking for him."

17."Not a parent but a daycare teacher for two-year-olds. I looked away from my biggest troublemaker for one second to comfort another student, and I turned around to find that he had completely stripped and was now covered in paint and glitter. The cabinets for those are locked, but he somehow managed to get them wide open. I swear he smirked the entire bubble bath, too. He was a cutie, but boy, was he a mess."

18."I was pregnant with my third child. We were going grocery shopping. My husband knew I was getting hangry and suggested I head to the deli for a snack and a moment alone while he took the two older kids with him. Well, my toddler grabbed my hand and walked away with me. Really not a big deal. I grabbed a sandwich and got into the checkout lane. She loved going to the bagging area and watching the groceries come towards her as she pushed the button. I saw her get into the bagging area. I was looking for my debit card...like, I swear...10 seconds. I look up, and she's gone. G O N E. There was a man ahead of me; I just knew he had stolen my child. I was crazy. I had the store shut down."

19."My husband and I were in the yard one beautiful fall day. We were raking leaves and burning them in a fire pit. We had cleared the area and had a large bucket of water nearby. We even had our garden hose charged within arm's reach to make sure our leaf burning was safe. As my husband and I worked, our two young boys played outside nearby. Our older son was goofing off and pulled his hoodie up over his head and walked about like a little zombie. Meanwhile, the younger brother (maybe four years old at the time) saw his brother and gave his brother a push, sending him straight into the fire pit! My husband reacted immediately, pulling our son out and checking him over."

20."Family trip for kids travel sports…after a long day, relaxing at the hotel indoor pool. The two-year-old in floaties takes them off to take a break. Or so we thought. Took a moment to order dinner on the phone and focused on the menu for a few seconds. The oldest daughter screams her sister’s name. I drop my phone and leap up to find she is in the water, barely able to keep her face above the surface. I went from chair to water in a split second, over daughter, full twist, fully clothed. Now waist deep with my toddler at my chest. My heart was in my throat. She was upset but safe. Never Take Your Eyes Off Your Child Near Water. All three kids today are great swimmers on the swim team. My youngest can dive to 12 feet at six years old. They love the water, and we are eternally grateful."

What are your thoughts on these parents' experiences? Let me know in the comments.

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length/clarity.