Dad Feared He May Have Killed Toddler Son After Smacking Football In His Face
You know that trend of 'images taken moments before disaster'? Well, those are exactly the kind of images caught by dad Nick Ballinger's CCTV cameras as he played with a football on his drive, where his poor, unsuspecting, young son was toddling about.
The disastrous footage was actually caught in June 2020, but it wasn't made public until this year when Nick's partner Lauren decided to share it on TikTok. It's unclear why the couple waited so long to share it, but I'd wager it's because they were being extra sure the poor victim of the football incident was definitely okay.
Thankfully, he was.
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Their son Quade, who was just two years old at the time, could be seen walking around his parents' driveway as Nick held the ball with a bare foot. The dad decided to get Quade a bit more involved with his game as he started to walk towards him, but, instead of kicking the ball over Quade's head as intended, Nick ended up hitting him square in the face.
The youngster was sent flying off his feet and landed on his back as Nick ran over to make sure he was okay, later admitting he knew the ball was going to hit Quade 'as soon as' he kicked it.
"I thought 'oh s**t' and panicked," Nick said. "When his feet left the floor, I feared the worst. I thought he was going to hit his head. It could have killed him if the worst happened. You try not to think about that. I wasn't wearing any shoes, so I was careful of kicking the floor and didn't connect very well with [the ball]."
Nick said his unsuspecting son 'didn't even see it coming', though the youngster managed to lift his head up as he fell so he landed on his back and shoulders. Quade was quickly scooped up by his dad, and was said to be 'back to normal' just 30 seconds later.
The dad continued: "I felt really guilty at the time, but when I knew everything was okay, we laughed about it and I downloaded it off the CCTV and proceeded to send it to everyone I know."
Following the unfortunate incident, Nick said Quade prefers rugby and suggested being hit in the face by a football might have put him off the sport 'for life'.
Though Quade is okay, Nick noted that the situation is a 'good warning for dads to be careful', adding: "Things like this can all go wrong very quickly. Maybe people need to get some American football hats!"
Nick has now assured he's 'learned [his] lesson', adding: "I'm not the best at football anyway so I stay away from it now."
Emily Brown