The scariest parent moment of my life

We went to Universal Resort this past weekend!  It was a super quick trip, but we had a great time.  Before I tell you about that though – I have to tell you a story of something that happened on that trip.  When you have kids, you worry about them.  Especially during a vacation.  Are they going to be OK at the pool?  Will I lose them in a crowd at the park?  Do we have a plan to meet back up if we do get separated??

During our vacation I had the hands down, scariest Mom moment I have ever had.  We stayed at a Universal Resort hotel, the Cabana Bay.  It was a really comfortable hotel.  I liked it a lot!  It was decorated in a funky retro theme.

One thing I noticed was that the rooms were very quiet.  You know how sometimes you are at a hotel and you can hear everything going on around you?  Well this was quite the opposite, even though I know there were a lot of kids and families around us.  Given that, we all slept very well at night.  One night, a loud noise woke me up.  I had no idea what the noise was, but I do know it was around 1 am, and I soon noticed my husband had been woken up too.

I was ready to go back to sleep because it was just one noise, and then no other noises.  But my husband said – “are the kids here?”  I got up, and looked at the queen bed that my kids were sleeping in next to us.  I saw my daughter, and what I thought was my son laying there. Then I stumbled towards the bathroom door, which I could see was half way open, with no one in it.  I wondered, “why would someone come in our room and take our kids?”.   So I went back close to the bed because it was pretty dark in the room.

That’s when I noticed my son was not there.  I screamed “Zachary’s not here!!!!”.  Right about then I put two and two together and remembered that my son sleep walks.  I ran over to the hotel room door and sure enough, there was my son wandering in a stupor half way down the hall!

I called to him and he came back to the room, very confused from being asleep and the bright lights of the hall in the middle of the night.  I led him to bed and within just a minute he was sound asleep.  The sound that had woke me up was the door slamming when he left our room.  The doors are extremely solid, and shut very loud.  That’s a good thing because just think of what could have happened if I went back to sleep or never even heard the sound of the door!!

OMG.  My heart jumped out of my chest at that moment that I realized he was missing.  I also remembered that we were so tired that night that I didn’t bother to set the inside locks on the door.  It was such a nice hotel, I never really thought twice about it because I think those locks are to keep the bad guys from getting into my room, not to block my kids from getting out!  Never, ever had I considered that option.  But trust me, from now on, I will never forget to do it.

After that event I felt like I didn’t sleep at all.  Every time I heard him move, I looked over to him to make sure he wasn’t getting up.  He doesn’t even sleep walk all the time at home – just on a random occasion.  And where was he going?  The elevator?? (we were on the 7th floor)  Not surprisingly, he had no memory of the event.

So there you have it.  My scariest moment.  I just had to get that out of my brain!

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Q:  Have you ever had any scary moments with your kids (or spouse/pets)?

Q:  Do you, or anyone you know, sleep walk?