mom endured a heart-stopping moment after leaving her baby in a stroller outside the back of her house.
Megan Kendrick had been out walking on what was an “especially hot” day in East Lansing, Michigan, where she lives with her husband and infant daughter Rory. “My daughter was asking for water and I realized she was out, so we headed home,” Kendrick told Newsweek. “When we got home, I remember pressing the foot brake and I ran inside to fill up her water bottle.”
What followed was a moment captured on a nearby security camera, with the resulting footage shared to TikTok by Kendrick herself under the handle @megankendrick18.
Unbeknownst to Kendrick, the brakes on the stroller had not been fully applied. ” I did click her foot brake, just not hard enough to lock it.” she said. As a result, the carrier was now on the move and slowly heading toward the road.
Parents with young children should be forgiven for these kinds of lapses, given the exhaustion and likely sleep deprivation they face in those first few years.
According to one 2019 study from the journal Sleep, new parents can face up to six years of sleep deprivation. If anything, Kendrick deserves plaudits for how she reacted once she realized what was going on.
“I happened to look up and noticed movement by our back door out of the corner of my eye,” Kendrick said. “Your mind races so quickly in those moments and all I could think about was that she was going to roll all the way down our driveway and into the road!”
The security camera captures what happened next. “I ran out the door, throwing her water bottle down, and grabbed her wagon,” Kendrick said.
Rory, of course, was “totally unfazed” by what happened and likely oblivious to the dangers she could potentially have faced. “Thankfully her wagon hit the side of the house which slowed her down a bit,” Kendrick said. “We also live on a fairly quiet road, but of course your mind doesn’t process all those thoughts in the moment.”
It was only later, while telling her husband who had been out of town, about what happened that Kendrick realized the entire thing would have been captured on camera.
Watching the footage back, Kendrick was able to see the funny side, which encouraged her to share the video. “After realizing she was safe and not in the least bit scared, I was able to laugh at it. I shared it with a couple friends and they were able to laugh with me,” she said.
The video soon found its way onto social media, with Kendrick hopeful that the footage not only showcases how moms like her are “powerful and strong” and can respond well to difficult situations.
“I wanted others to realize how quickly things can change and how a mother’s determination to help her children is so strong,” she said. “Social media is so full of picture perfect moments, and so I thought this captured a real moment for us and maybe others could relate.”
