‘He couldn’t find Stijn (2.5) anywhere’

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Every month a mother talks about the moment in motherhood when things went completely wrong.

Joyce (29), living with Jop (34), mother of Stijn (2.5) and twins Lot and Lauren (1).

“Last summer I was unsuspectingly in Amsterdam with my twin sister when my friend Jop called. I shouldn’t be shocked, everything had ended well, but something serious had happened to our son. As it turned out: Stijn, only two years old, had gone for a walk.

Shopping

For his birthday he had received a balance bike. He called it his engine. When Jop put Lauren to bed for a nap, Stijn shouted that he was going to do some shopping. Fine, Jop thought. He also liked to pretend that, then he drove an extra round in the garden.

“He couldn’t find Stijn anywhere. The front door was wide open.”

But when Jop came down again to take Lot out of the box, he couldn’t find Stijn anywhere. The front door was wide open. Jop was in total panic and ran outside. All the horror scenarios flew through his head. He was especially afraid of all the ponds around. Both in front and behind our house it is full of water.

Jop approached passers-by if they had seen a boy on a balance bike and walked over to my cousin Bas, who lives nearby. Could he help search? Bas, however, was smart enough to remind him that I was in Amsterdam and offered to look after the twins at home.

Read also – ‘I lost a child during my son’s swimming party’ >

On his motorcycle

Jop suddenly remembered that Stijn had said he was going shopping and raced to the supermarket. But no Stan there either. He was close to despair. Just then my mother called him. Grandma Sylvia lives down the block behind an elementary school and a duck pond; you have to cross a street and walk past the pond to get to her. Our toddler suddenly showed up at her door: ‘Yoohoo, are you home?’

“Tears were in his eyes, of fear and of joy

Stijn had had the adventure of his life. Nice and alone on the road, on his ‘motorcycle’. Jop had tears in his eyes, both from fear and from joy. The next day, Jop immediately placed a clip on the front door as a lock. Completely toddler-proof.”

This article appears in Kek Mama 10-2022.

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