It Happened to Me

I'm totally taking that title from Parents Magazine. In each issue, there is a special section titled "It Happened to Me" and it's where parents share their - "oh that will never happen to me but then it did" stories. Here's mine.

Today, I was in James' room with James and thought, I'll change his sheet. So, I bent over the railing to pick up the mattress and noticed a shard of wood. I removed the piece of wood and then bent over to take out the mattress to (a) get a better look at the side of the crib and (b) to finish taking the sheet off to change it. Then the side fell off. Yes, the entire railing side of the crib fell off and down to the ground. I'll give you a moment to process this.

So, I called the manufacturer and explained the situation, the manager asked for photos, I sent him these:

At first, the manager took a nasty tone with me; telling me that he "doesn't know what happens to his merchandise in my home." But then even shocking myself, I told him, "Look, you don't want to go down this path with me. A shard of wood was jetting out of the side of the crib toward where my son sleeps. We purchased this crib from your company based on your safety and manufacturing records. Now, what are you going to do for me buddy?" You know what he's doing? He's sending us a new side to the crib and also 4 screws to screw the rail into the crib because convertibles are no longer allowed to be sold. He even apologized when I told him the Chicago store never notified us about the screws that were offered to bring the crib up to code.

Can you believe this? All I keep saying to myself is, "Thank God James was not in the crib to hurt himself on the wood and/or when the side fell. Thank God."

Right now, James is alseep on his mattress on the floor of his room surrounded by pillows. I have to brag about him here now. When I put him on the mattress after rocking him, he laughed and smiled and thought it was time to play. I rubbed his back and asked him to lay still on the bed and try to go to sleep while Mommy called the store to tell them what happened. You know what he did? He listened to me, played while I was on the phone (I know because I was listening on the monitor), and then when I got off the phone, I checked on him and he had fallen asleep. What a good, good, good little boy.