By Jack BeresfordShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberA new mom got a shock after returning from the store with her baby to find she had left someone very important behind.
In a video posted to TikTok under the handle @mellax24, Melanie from Lowestoft, in Suffolk, U.K., shared footage of herself making a swift return to the supermarket to retrieve Anna.
“I took Anna for a walk and passed by a shop, which reminded me that I needed to pick up some milk,” Melanie told Newsweek. “She was walking alongside the stroller without a leash. I only tied her up because she was blocking the entrance for customers.”
To be clear, Anna is Melanie's dog. She had securely tied her up in a spot just under the security camera outside the Tesco supermarket. She then headed inside with the stroller to pick up milk and bananas.
Melanie had gotten almost all the way home when she realized what she had done. “Just as I was about to open my front door, I suddenly remembered that the dog was still at the shop,” she said.
The new mom dashed off to get Anna.
Though Melanie was no doubt left feeling guilty at making the mistake, she can be forgiven for being a little absent-minded, given that she in the throes of being a new parent.
As any new parent will tell you, one of the biggest changes that comes with the arrival of a new baby is a profound change to the quality and duration of sleep they get every night.
...A survey of 1,300 parents conducted by the nursery furniture and bedding company Snuz laid bare the stark reality. Seven out of every 10 parents polled lose an average of three hours of sleep every night during their baby’s first year.
This amounts to the loss of around 133 nights of sleep over the course of those testing first 12 months. A harmless bit of forgetfulness in the midst of this madness is therefore entirely forgivable.
Thankfully Melanie wasn’t about the beat herself up for forgetting Anna. Quite the opposite in fact, with the new mom opting to document what happened in a video posted to her TikTok.
The clip captures her walk of shame back to the supermarket to collect Anna, who is completely fine.
“I caught sight of her there before I started recording, as I was close enough to see her,” she said. “I was obviously grateful she was still there.”
Melanie’s video ended up going viral, earning over 370,000 views and counting. “I bet she watched you walk off thinking, 'Wait, what about me,'” one user commented. “My mum lived in the Hebrides in the 70s and came home with the dog, but left my baby sister outside the shop in the pram,” a second user wrote.
A third added: “When I just had my fourth baby, I left him at the school in his car seat whilst dropping my other three kids off. Luckily, only got to the car and someone came running out shouting!!!”
Melanie has been delighted by the response to the video. She hopes people understand the underlying message: it’s OK to make mistakes. “I just wanted to show people that in real life, mistakes happen and many others have probably done this too.” she said.
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