One of my colleagues told me of a funny incident that happened to him the other day while he was out getting the mail with his toddler properly secured in the car seat in the back.

He stopped at the mail boxes, which are concentrated near, but not directly in front of, his house.

It was a chilly day so he had the heat on in the car. He simply stopped in front of the mail boxes and left the car running so as not to interrupt the flow of warmth to his young child.

Somehow, either he or his toddler hit the door lock button and, you guessed it … he was suddenly standing on the outside looking in at his toddler locked in his running car.

Luckily, he was close enough to his house to run back home and get the spare key. But you can imagine the stress and tension he experienced for those few moments while he had to leave his child alone in a running car on the street.

This happens to be a brilliant man so I’m sure that this was not an absentminded thing that many of us Dads have done.

Can you imagine if the child was not strapped into the car seat? Unfortunately, this has happened many times with not-so-funny or fortunate results.

Although I’ve never left the keys locked in a running car, I have driven off with my wallet on top of the car a few times. It’s a very sick feeling when that intuition gnawing at you kicks in and you finally realize what you’ve done.

A few years back there was a pretty well publicized story of a father who put his child in the car seat on top of his car and drove off with the baby on the roof. Cars were honking desperately at him trying to let him know what he had done. I can’t even bear to think of how terrified he must have become once he realized his absent-minded mistake. That would shake most of us to our core and give credence to the ever-present argument between husbands and wives as to who does the stupidest things.

And, of course, there’s the classic scene from the Chevy Chase Vacation movie where he ties the dog to the back bumper and forgets about him until he is pulled over by the irate policeman walking up to the car with just the empty leash in hand.

What stupid things have you done? I know I’m not the only one.