PARENTS….you need to pay close attention to this common household appliance that you probably have in your house right now! One family learned the hard way and are now speaking out to ensure no other family experiences what they did.
Lindsey McIver, mother of 3, explains how her daughter, Kloe, was involved in a near-fatal accident involving her family’s brand new front loading washing machine.
I’ve been hesitant to write this post. First, because of the inevitable online mom-shaming that is bound to ensue; and second, because it’s just really hard to re-live.
On Sunday our washing machine broke down. On Monday my husband went to Lowe’s and purchased this new front load washing machine. We thought it was the “new and cool” type of washing machine and didn’t think anything of it. All of us spent that evening installing it with the kids underfoot. We told them several times that they were not to touch it. They all replied “OK.”
All three kids were given the rules for the new machine. But curiosity sometimes gets he best of the little ones and in this case it did!
Early Tuesday morning we were woken up by our four-year-old son who was crying so hard he could barely talk. As I was trying to understand what he was saying, my husband flew out of bed and down the stairs. It was then that the realization hit. He had said: Kloe. Inside. Washer.
By the time we reached the laundry room in the basement, my three-year-old daughter Kloe was LOCKED inside the airtight washing machine. It was tumbling and filling with water. She was screaming but you couldn’t hear her.
I don’t know what I would have done. Luckily, Kloe’s dad knew exactly what to do and got the LOCKED washing machine open.
We were able to quickly stop it and unlock the door and get her out. Aside from a couple of small bumps on her head and wet clothes, she was fine.
After going through all the “what if‘s” and “could have’s” we know we are very blessed and God had mercy on our sweet daughter.
I post this because I can honestly say we did not realize the danger of this machine. We are continually surprised at the new, inventive ways our kids come up with to try and die. And this was definitely a new one.
Now that the post has gone viral, racking up thousands of shares and over 60,000 comments.
The Mom took extra steps to make sure nothing like this would ever happen again:
I took this picture after we secured the door shut with a child safety lock. We also found a child lock feature on the settings that, as long as it is engaged, will not allow the washing machine to start. But it does not lock the door. We hadn’t even used the machine yet so we hadn’t looked at any of the settings. Also, it obviously took two curious kids to pull this off. I want to encourage anybody who has this type of front loading washing machine and small children, or even grandkids who visit, to lock the door with a child safety lock and always keep the child lock setting on!
She knows that she made a huge mistake thinking that the kids understood. She also realizes she could have prevented it.
I realize that there are ways we could’ve prevented this from happening. This is the season for swimming pool accidents and kids being left in hot cars and all sorts of other horrible accidents. And that’s what most of them are. Accidents. Shaming the mom doesn’t do anyone any good. We need to be open and honest about our mistakes to help one another keep our kids safe. And trust me, that mom is already beating herself up enough.
Thanks for being honest and open about your mistake, we are all far from perfect. Have any of you done something looking back that wasn’t the best idea, put someone in danger or was just a simple mistake? Be honest!
