A mother is warning other parents about the dangers of front-loading laundry equipment, after her three-year-old daughter became trapped in a new washing machine.
Lindsey McIver’s story has garnered more than 250,000 shares on Facebook since July 11.
The Colorado mom says she and her husband Allan had warned their three children not to touch the new machine, and believed they understood.
The first morning after it was installed, she says, they were awakened by their four-year-old son.
“He was crying so hard I couldn’t understand the words he was saying,” McIver told ABC News. “He had said ‘Kloe inside washer.’”
The McIvers ran down to the laundry room. They found their three-year-old inside the machine, which was filling up fast – and had been locked. They could see Kloe screaming, although the noise was drowned out by the machine.
Allan McIver says he pulled the machine hard enough to move it out from the wall, and was eventually able to get the door unlocked and free his daughter.
“Pretty quickly after I pulled her out she said, ‘We better not do that again,’” Lindsey McIver said.
The experience left Kloe with wet clothes and bumps on her head, but no serious injuries. It left her parents asking themselves a lot of “what if” questions.
“I can honestly say we did not realize the danger of this machine,” McIver wrote. “We are continually surprised at the new, inventive ways our kids come up with to try and die.”
The McIvers have since found ways to secure their washing machine with child locks. They say all parents and grandparents with front-loading washing machines should do the same. Lindsey McIver also directed part of her post at mom-shamers.
“We need to be open and honest about our mistakes to help one another keeps our kids safe,” she wrote. “And trust me, that mom is already beating herself up enough.”
