Official recipients of the bad parent award

We were awoken by a strange thing this morning....Banging at our front door at 8am. The first thought through our heads was "if that bastard wakes Alex up they're dead!" Turns out it was the RCMP.

Apparently, Alex had been crying for over 45 minutes, and a neighbor had knocked on our door several times to make sure everything was ok. When they got no answer, they phoned the police thinking that the baby was alone in the house.

We only heard Alex start crying after the police starting knocking on the door, and at no time before. In fact, I had been awake off and on for the past hour, and I kept going back to sleep because he wasn't awake. We explained to the cop that we hadn't heard him, had been asleep the whole time, and definitely did not hear anybody knocking at our door. In fact, we had no problem hearing the cop knock, but for some reason we didn't hear the neighbor (maybe because they never knocked?).

Either way, it was incredibly embarrassing, and made me feel like the worst parent in the world. While I question the validity of the claim, Alex did show signs of crying for a long time (not wanting to be put down, and other signs that are hard to explain unless you've dealt with a baby who has been crying for a long time). Dan even mentioned to the cop that 45 minutes is not a long time for a baby to be crying, and that we definitely did not hear any knocking, or the doorbell ringing (which DEFINITELY would have woke us up right away).

At this point, we think it may have been our neighbor who I see out on his porch drinking every morning at 7am (he is a major drunk and hides it from his family by drinking outside). We figure he was hung over and was getting a headache from the crying. If it was him, then that would be the reason we didn't hear him knock---the only thing he moves his fat lazy ass for is booze. I take it very personally that this happened--I am not a bad parent, and Alex rarely cries for more than 5 minutes. He is the happiest baby I know, and everyone around us should understand since most of our neighbors have kids. Actually, I find the whole thing insulting, especially since our neighbors have a tendency to gossip, and I'm sure this will get around in no time.

After looking on the internet, it seems this is a common practice--phone the cops because you are tired of listening to a baby cry. I wish I could call the cops because I'm tired of my neighbor openly boozen' it up on his front step!

Jeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzz......