It has taken me 8 years to talk about this! *Takes a big gulp* Here goes...
When I became pregnant with our first child, my husband Mark and I had a big chat about what would happen when I had to return to work after maternity leave.
Without hesitation, Mark said he would be a stay at home dad so that I could continue my career as a newspaper designer.
He worked in various positions since we left college, and at the time I was Art Editor of The Sunday People newspaper, so he said it made sense for him to be the stay at home dad. We always said if we had children, one of us would try and stay at home if possible. He was very nervous, but looked forward to it.
2 weeks before I gave birth, Mark left his job. Honestly, I couldn't have done it without him. He was and still is amazing. I can't praise him enough.
I went back to work when our daughter, Amber was 10 months old. I did feel sometimes I was missing out on the life of our growing daughter. But with the rise of smart phones that could take pictures it helped me stay in touch. Mark would regularly send me photos of what they got up to so I didn't feel left out. But I work 70 miles away from my home, so I couldn't just pop home for lunch.
As I work full time, my days off were spent with Amber. Mark always looks after everything to do with the house, cooking, cleaning, washing, and I mean everything! So I was lucky I could spend all my hours off work with her.
One day Mark had popped out to do some shopping, so I stayed at home with Amber. I had tried (like you do), to trim Amber's fringe whenever it got a bit long. To do this, I invested in some proper hairdressing scissors, you know the super sharp ones.
The scissors were kept out of Amber's reach at all times. Until this one day that I'll never forget.
Amber was now 5 years old, and we were happily planning our wedding. We had been together 14 years (we didn't want to rush these things) so in about 6 months we would be celebrating our big day, with Amber as our much loved bridesmaid.
Amber was playing nicely, so I sat on the sofa, then I put my feet up. Big mistake! I only went and fell asleep.
I'm not sure how long I fell asleep for, but the sight that greeted me when I woke up is something I'll never forget or forgive myself for.
Amber had a big chunk of hair in one hand, and the hairdressing scissors in the other. She stood in front of me looking like Dave Hill from Slade.
Everything went in slow motion. I thought I was dreaming, sadly not. She had managed to cut all of her fringe off, and there was just a little tuft left like when you plant grass seeds and they first begin to sprout.
Mark returned to find Amber with her new hairstyle and me looking like a dog that had done something it shouldn't on the carpet!
I was so upset that I had fallen asleep, how could I? I was supposed to be watching Amber. Bad mother!
For the next 6 months she went to school wearing a rather large headband on the front of her head to try and hide what a bad mum I was.
The headband was also clipped on with some cute hair clips, just to make sure I could hide my shame as much as possible. Bless Amber she kept it on the whole time.
I'm sure all her teachers had a sneaky look to see the horror the headband was hiding.
Needless to say my husband has never let me forget it, and photographed the evidence! Every so often it gets brought up and we have a laugh about it. Mine is a nervous laugh obviously and it still makes me shudder to this day.
He says to me, imagine if it was the other way around and Amber had cut her hair while he was looking after her! Well yes, I wouldn't have been too pleased either!
Yes, we do have pictures, of which I have never shown anyone before.
And luckily, Amber's fringe had just about grown back in time for the wedding...phew!
Amber, now she is 13, finds the pictures hilarious, but I told her how I felt like a bad mum for letting it happen. If only I hadn't fallen asleep!
Our son, Jacob is 6 years old, and I still have those scissors, and yes I do cut his fringe from time to time, but they are kept well and truly hidden, I'm not going through that again!
I haven't talked about it for so long for fear of being judged by other parents!
As parents, we are only human after all and we all make mistakes, that's what I keep telling myself anyway. And after 8 years, I can finally talk about it!
Has your child ever cut their own hair? Come on, I can't be the only one! Leave a comment below.