Baby Rolls Off Changing Table, Big Brother Saves Him Just In Time

When it comes to parenting, we’ve all heard the encouraging phrases reminding us that, “No parent is perfect”, but all it takes it a quick look at social media to feel completely inadequate in our parenting abilities.

We see that mom on Instagram cozied up on the couch reading books with her kids. We see the super fun and creative lunches that dad puts together over on Pinterest. We see our friend down the street sharing the fun outing she had with her kids to the children’s museum over on Facebook. And then we look around our own homes and see a dining room table that is still covered with milk and sticky bowls from this morning’s super gourmet breakfast of cold cereal, children who are plopped in front of their third episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and a mom who is still in her pajamas, hasn’t showered and has already snapped at her kids at least 18 times before 10:00 A.M.

Even though we know in our heads that these other parents don’t have it all together either, we can’t seem to shut down the comparison game and allow ourselves to be truly vulnerable out of fear of judgement and being made to feel less than as a parent.

That’s why it was so remarkable when Florida, mother of five, Tila Levi shared a recent, frightening parenting misstep that was caught on video with the world.

The incident occurred while Levi getting her five kids ready for bed; holding down the fort solo that evening. Levi placed her 11-month-old son Eitan on the changing table, but then turned her back for a moment to help another member of her brood. In that brief moment Eitan rolled off the table, but was miraculously caught before hitting the ground – thanks to her 9-year-old son Joseph’s quick reflexes. It was a very scary moment and it was all captured via surveillance video.

Tila told local news WSVN that, “…at first I said ‘I messed up. I did something wrong, but then I realized that, really, it was a miracle. I must have done something right to have been deserving of this little guy, running in at the right time and catching him at the right moment.”

Levi’s son Joseph shares the sentiment, stating that, “I would have never caught him, and I can’t run that fast, so I felt like something came and just pushed me forward. I just ran and caught him.”

Whatever the case, Tila Levi is incredibly thankful for both of her son’s amazing save, telling him, “You just saved your baby brother. You saved his life. You’re a hero.”

Tila decided to share the video after being encouraged by a friend to make the video public in an effort to help others by reminding them to be more alert when it comes to keeping eyes on young children.

“It can happen to anybody,” says Levi, “and now I know who it’s happened to ‘cause everybody’s been confessing about when they dropped their baby.” She goes on to share that the incident has made her “…more careful, but at the end of the day, it happens in a second, and I think that all of our lives can change in a second.”

In a social media saturated world where parents are mainly just sharing their “highlight reel” and editing out the less-than-pretty moments, it was so great to see this reminder from Tila Levi about the real and scary parenting moments that can and do happen. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder to all of us that while these things happen, we can still do our best to be as vigilant as possible to keep our little ones safe.