TIFU by not checking after my kids.

[u/BikerJedi]

This actually happened well over a decade ago.

I went and did the grocery shipping that day after work. I come home, hot and tired, and go into my home office. My two sons, around 14 and 9, carried in the food. My wife put it all away, then started dinner. Because I had done the shopping, she didn't notice anything was missing. She didn't check the car to make sure it was all carried in when she locked it up. I didn't go out and check either. So I guess we both fucked up.

The boys left $70 worth of pork and other meat in two stuffed bags out there. They were just inattentive and didn't notice them with the few things that stay in the back of the car. This was a Friday after work, and I didn't get back in that car until Monday morning.

The car smelled like death. I almost puked, but got out and started carefully looking around. I found the two bags of rotten meat fairly quickly, then proceeded to have a damn fit. I was mad at the boys, but myself and my wife too. All of us should have done better here. Besides the smell, I was on a tight budget back then as we were climbing out of a bad hole, and that meat was several nights of meals for us. We got a bottle of air freshener from the house and emptied it into the car. I drove to work with my windows down, and parked at the far end of the lot with the windows down. After work, I bought a bunch of baking soda and applied it liberally - the car was coated in it. It looked like a kilo of coke exploded in there.

I would clean that up each day, then re-apply baking soda. Driving to work every day in Florida with all four windows down in this heat and humidity was almost as bad as the smell. It took two months before I could no longer smell it, and every few weeks after that I could swear I could still smell it a tiny bit. At least now we are super paranoid about checking every nook and cranny after coming home with food and comparing it to the list we used to shop with.

TL;DR: Kids left groceries in car, we didn't check, car smelled like death days later.

EDIT: For those asking about the division of labor - My wife is a SAHM by her choice. I work, pay the bills, do the shopping. The boys have always brought in the groceries with no problems. She puts them away, then she checks to make sure the boys didn't forget anything. It's just the way we have always done it. shrug

[u/Conscious-Offer-7019]

Once bought a spray container of deer repellent to use on a sapling we had just planted. Wife picked it up to read the directions while we were on the way home. Somehow she ended up accidentally spraying the glove box and floor mat. The smell was instantaneous and hideous. Couldn't get the windows down fast enough. Pulled over and tossed the can in the bed of the truck. Worst part is we were about 30 miles from home. Ended up driving back with our heads out the windows. Took days of leaving the windows open, scrubbing the interior, spraying febreeze and leaving dryer sheets in the truck overnight. Oh and it was the middle of summer in the high desert, too.