Our frosty winter has certainly instilled in me the drive to ensure that my errands are efficient and infrequent (who wants to be out at thirty below more than they have to?!) While wishing for the snow to melt, I’m thinking ahead to our first spring in our new household and planning for the continued work in our yard this summer. We moved into our house in July last year and just last week I said to my husband, “Which box do you think that hand-held blender is in?” 7 months later.
We’re mostly settled in but we’re still in the midst of our firsts in this house. Demonstrating how ill-prepared we were those first few months, I can remember what happened one of the first times we went out in our new city and left the kids with a babysitter.
The reason this night stands out is because it was a classic mom fail. We had left the kids in capable hands, not realizing that a thunderstorm was rolling in. About an hour into our dinner date, my babysitter sent a text. The storm raging, the power hand gone out, and oh by the way, “Do you know where the extra the batteries are?”
While we had, in fact, been prepared enough to leave a flashlight in the kitchen drawer for power-outages, it wasn’t very helpful for a babysitter and my three kids when the batteries were dead and I didn’t have replacements on hand (even if I did, how would they have found them in the dark?) As children love to do, to this day seven months later my three-year old still likes to talk about that time mom and dad went out and the power went out and they had no lights.
Now, you can be certain that if you visit my house I’ve got extra batteries on hand (in the laundry room on the second shelf, if you’re a current babysitter reading this!) and won’t be making that mistake again. Flashlights always have working batteries in them now, lesson learned.
If you’re out running errands this week as efficiently as you can in this weather (I like grabbing my groceries and household items in the same spot for this reason!) remember to grab batteries to have on hand for emergency power-outages and near-total-meltdowns when a toy stops working mid-way through a blustery spring break at home with the kids!
Did you know? Energizer® EcoAdvancedt
There’s also 10 secondary prizes of $100 President’s Choice Gift Cards are also available to be won (Participating stores include Loblaws, Maxi, Maxi & Cie, Atlantic Superstore, Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs and Dominion. But hurry, the contest period is February 1, 2015 – March 16th, 2015.
We have our own giveaway to share with readers today too! One of our readers is going to win a special prize package containing the new Energizer® EcoAdvancedtm batteries, an Energizer flashlight and a Loblaw’s gift card valued at $25.
I think we’ve all had the low battery…..going….going….gone moment while trying to capture a kid blowing out their birthday candles.
We had a family game night and had no batteries for the wii when it came to play… LOL We had a family movie night and played cards 😉
when the batteries run out on our remote controls – sound the alarm!! Our remote is our lifeline and if it doesn’t work, the world shatters!!
I always keep a variety of batteries on hand. When I use some I replace them right away so we never run out
I very often buy the kids new toys for Christmas without checking the batteries they need so Christmas morning we set up a toy and realize we don’t have the batteries we need!
Nope no stories like that. Typically when we run out, hubby has a secret stash in the garage 😉
I remember last year we picked up this perfect monster truck RC for our son. We couldn’t wait to give it to him for his birthday. When the day arrived, he opened it and we realized that we didn’t get the batteries. I tried hunting for batteries in our remotes and other toys, but they were not the right ones. Never again will I forget the batteries next time. There was a whole lot of tears!
This past summer we went camping with another couple and our flashlights/lanterns all ran out of battery, and we had to bumble around for a good half hour in the dark trying to find spare batteries.
I don’t have a story but we often run out of batteries at inconvenient times like when the hydro goes out and the batteries are dead in the flashlights.
my kids mobile ran out of batteries at night . i had toi run to the store, good thing they were still open.
Last year during a big storm we had no batteries for our radio or flashlight! What a pain!
my nephew played with his noise-making toy train so much the batteries died! he was so sad 😉
We just ran out of batteries last night for the remote control to the tv and it was like the world was ending! And don’t worry, you are NOT alone when it comes to flashlights with dead batteries, that’s what candles are for, but then there are no matches or the lighter has run out of butane. Oh Energizer help us please!! 🙂
My friend’s wedding photographer ran out of battery at the same time the wedding party was supposed to start walking down the aisle, thank goodness there was a backup battery
crucial to us would be my daughters toy ran on batteries and they died and we didnt have anymore laying around and we wouldnt hear the end of it. My hubby just decided to take them out of the remote lol
No crazy stories – but we do often hear the sound of dying batteries in our girl’s toys in the middle of the night! It’s always a little scary until we realize what it is!
Ive run out of battery power on my camera at a wedding 🙁
We’ve never had a crucial moment like that but we did run out of batteries for our remote one time when an important hockey game was going to come on, but thankfully the cable box and tv had manual buttons.
I don’t run out anymore…I got tired of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” with swapping batteries from one device into the other…now I have a drawer where all the batteries live.
The worst is being a kid on Christmas with a new toy and no batteries for it, and no stores are open on Christmas! That was awful!
The xbox controller ran out of batteries the one day. You would think it was the end of the world. Now we keep extra batteries around the house.
Oh my gosh, just this week…my sister had a preemie at 29 weeks gestation. I went to the hospital to meet my nephew, and also take pictures- since I’m the one with the nice camera. I get to the NICU and guess what? I forgot to charge the battery. I only had maybe 10 minutes of power left. I could have kicked myself.
My mother-in-law ran out of batteries during a three day power outage last year, luckily she has a stockpile of candles.
My camera always used to run out. Now I make sure I always have back up batteries.
We were on a nice trip and saw one of those “wow” scenes as we came around the corner. No spare batteries…………..
No, I don’t have a story like that – in fact we do have a stash of batteries of all sizes in our junk drawer; I always make sure of it.
Cheers.
The batteries ran out when we were in the operating room when I had the c-section with my son. Thankfully, the nurse saved the day because they always kept some for emergencies like that!
My little guys loved to play with the stash of flashlights running down the batteries so my hubby hid them. We long forgot away them until we experienced a power outage. My hubby had to scrounge around and find them and when he did realized that we had left them so long all the batteries were dead. And do you think we had a pile of C and D batteries at the ready either? Nope. Needless to say, we had to use candles that night! And, of course, ran to stock up batteries when the power came back on!
I wouldn’t say crucial but they stopped working on the remote and with the new tv’s the manual buttons are hard to find!
We ran out of batteries Christmas morning. Almost everything Sophie got required batteries. It was not a pretty situation. She wanted to see and hear all thing things her new toys could do and we didn’t have batteries.
We always seem to have a crucial battery moment everytime we go to the trailer at night in the summertime. A flashlight or camp lite is always the culprits with bad batteries.
we were camping and the flashlight in the tent had dead batteries, needed to go take the kids to the bathroom in the dark…we had no light source to guide us there, the spare batteries were not packed ,forgotten at home … we had spare flashlights but were not in the tent with us!
My niece’s graduation and the battery light starts to flash on my camera!
My husband likes to take the kids on dark late night walks through our woods out back. I stay home. i can’t tell you the amount of times they’ve come back with flickering flashlights and low batteries. With coyotes howling and darkness all around I would not want to be out there with them.
Not a black out, but the power did go out and we had to reset the breaker. Kind of difficult to pick out the right switch in pitch darkness.
I’ve never run into a situation like this – I’m always stocked up!
I’ve had the same thing happen – no batteries for flashlights when the power went out. not fun – and i’m not a big fan of candles so it was not a good night
i always buy some different sizes of batteries , so anytime i need replacement, i just open my drawer and do not need to visit supermarket to get them , this issue wont happen in my home.
I am a bit of a gamer…I have run out of batteries in my wireless controllers mid game. SO frustrating!
My mouse always seemed to run out of battery strength at the worst time. I keep a few in my desk drawer and can “only” be used for my mouse…. no games or toys. This way they’re always there waiting when needed. Seems to work.
Mine is similar to yours — no extra batteries in the house when the power went out unexpectedly left us scrambling for candles and something to light them with!
A couple of weeks ago we lost power for a few hours. When I buy batteries I now hide them because my kids and husband are famous for taking them and not saying anything also for not tossing out the old ones so I never know which are good and which are bad. Thank goodness for candles and the flashlight on my cell phone that helped me find the matches to light those candles.
We had a blackout and I realized that the batteries in the lantern were dead. I don’t like to use candles because they are a fire hazard, so we had to sit in the dark until the power came back on.
Last year here in NL, we had a lot of power outages due to NL Hydro not being able to generate enough power to keep up with the low temps. We frequently ran out of batteries. The biggest problem was the first time it happened and the only flashlight I could find had dead batteries so I had to rummage in the dark for candles and matches.
Every Christmas Morning you will find us sitting there looking at each other with the “YOU were supposed to grab the batteries” look…. Seem to always have the A and AA batteries on hand but never the bigger ones, you’d think we’d get it together! lol
oh yes!!! i try to have extra batteries on hand but always..always in that moment when you need new batteries im out!!! never fails
always run out of batteries in the flash light when the hydro goes out
Yes, similar to yours, flashlight batteries dead and no replacements.
we were at an important firemen dinner and 1/2 way thru the night the camera had died. I had lots of batteries but they were all old died ones. I should have checked to see if they were any good. I had ran to the corner store to get more batteries
YES my camera on my kids birthday. 🙁
Yes, of course. who hasn’t ran out of batteries when needed. lol Sucks when you are out when you are at an event or celebration!
I’ve experienced several Christmases where I forgot to buy the proper batteries for toys and we had to wait until the next day then battle the Boxing Day crowds just to get batteries. Now I’ve learned my lessen and make sure I have plenty of every battery size on hand leading up to the holidays.
We always run out of batteries when we need or we can’t find where we put new ones when we are in the dark !
The power went out here one evening for 4 hours and it was very cold outside. We only had candles and 2 flashlights due to having no batteries in this house!
I forgot to buy batteries for the Christmas gifts. I had to wait until boxing day to pick them up.
On vacation and my batteries died in my camera and I wanted to take a in the moment picture.
Out with my family at a event and went to take pictures and realized camera was dead and no extra batteries..
I have been caught several times in storms with no batteries and if it wasn’t for my girlfriends fondness for candles we would have been in trouble!
I have been caught several times in storms with no batteries and if it wasn’t for my girlfriends fondness for candles we would have been in trouble!!!
my camera batteries died at my nieces wedding, so mad at myself but my sister took plenty of photos and gave me copies
The worst mom fail for me was Christmas morning, girls are so excited that Santa had arrived! only later to be disappointed because none of the toys had any batteries, well this was back about 20 years ago when absolutely nothing was open, so the girls had to go all day Christmas and all night with new gifts that they could not play with..and boy did I feel bad. Ever since that Christmas I always made sure everything had batteries and bought extra’s!!
the first year we received Christmas gift from relatives when the kids were young. wouldn’t you know it? three gifts required batteries and they didn’t send any and we didn’t have enough!
We don’t tend to run out of batteries – always keep a stash.
Biggest fears on christmas morning have come true a few times when we forgot to include batteries with a gift that needed them. We have scrambled to steal them from other items so the toy would be good to go
Oh yes, I can’t tell how may times this has happened. I always forget to check my batteries.
I can’t think of a time, we always stock up on batteries!
I have a battery box on a shelf with all kinds of batteries in it. When we use some we note if we are running low & put it on the next grocery list, so no -we don’t usually run out.
Batteries are actually the one thing I don’t think we have ever run out of…we use them for many things, so we are always buying them. =)
We were camping last year and a tornado went through not far from us and knocked the power out. Went to grab the flashlights only to discover that the batteries were dead and we had no back up ones.
We ran out of batteries for the baby’s mobile!! Oye! That one was a rough night! Now we ALWAYS have spare ones!
I was in the middle of a crucial level when the batteries on my 3DS died out and i didn’t have an external power packs to keep playing. it was most distressing.
Ran out of batteries for the barbie car not good haha
I don’t have a similar story like yours nor know anyone off the top of my head who has been in that situation. We always have extra batteries in our drawers, as well as extra usb cables and power banks
We ran out of batteries for my son’s monitor/musical which helps him sleep!!
For me when the kids were little it was mostly the camera batteries going dead and missing that pictured you just needed to have but couldn’t.
We just ran out of batteries for the remote control during the last blizzard,and you would think it was the end of the world hubby had to get up to change the channel,ever with no batteries he held it tight lol…..just too funny
Haha, kids always remember the stuff you don’t want them to.
My Dh has a headlamp that he needs and it eats batteries and is always running out. It’s not an emergency, but still not good to be out.
We were at a wedding and were in the middle of photographing the wedding when we ran out of batteries (someone forgot to charge the camera the night before!), scrambled around to find batteries, which we eventually did, but lots of moments were missed
Running out of batteries in the middle of a game on our wii has caused a few melt downs.
camping flashlights … someone needs a potty trip in the middle of the night , dead batteries , Im sure this can all be put together lol
Our wii seems to use up the batteries really fast and disturbs our games
not having proper batteries at christmas
Happens all the time. My kids have friends over and want to play games on the Wii console, but the batteries have run out on the controls.
We lost batteries during a blackout and had to use candles.
I’m always paranoid about running out so we always have a good supply on hand.
Ran out one Christmas, but never again. It is horrible to see kids get a gift and can’t use it on Christmas Day because there are no batteries.
yes,,when the batteries goes in the remote control,and you find out you have no AAA batteries in your household,that is not very good..;)
Yes we ran out of batteries on my daughter’s birthday. It was after the stores were closed and she wanted to play with the electronic puppy she just got from a relative. She was in tears.
The worst was one Christmas when Santa forgot to include batteries, and we didn’t have the right size in the cupboard. That did NOT make for a good morning that year as everything needed batteries.
My son is forever running out of batteries on his many remote control cars 🙁
Ran out of batteries a long time ago when playing the Gameboy, so mad!
I have to smile if anyone has run out of batteries at a crucial moment. On a serious note it seems right when we are on vacation and about to snap the perfect picture our camera battery dies!
I always forget to buy batteries on christmas for the new toys! Needless to say we have had crying kids that unable to use their awesome new toys on the big morning!
it was always the camera, back before our phones were cameras
the worst time we ran out of batteries was during a snowstorm about 2yrs ago we didn’t have any hydro for almost two days and the batteries in our flashlights were all drained! we went through alot of candles and also ended up using the flashlight app on our iPhones lol , since then we always make sure there are extra batteries in the house incase of anything!
Ran out, or couldn’t find, any batteries open our first night in our new house when the power went out.
running out of batteries during a power outage!
Yes, at a ceremony and the batteries ran out on the camera.
Yes, my granddaughter 2nd birthday, the batteries in my camera died.
My batteries ran out when i was in my attic 45 feet from access entrance tough times.
I don’t have a story but we often run out of batteries at inconvenient times like when the hydro goes out and the batteries are dead in the flashlights.
i can’t think of a good story. I always try to have extra batteries on hand as well
I was at a wedding and the batteries in my camera were dead.
i am always running out of batteries…i wa since at a trade show and had a portable speaker playing some christmas music. the music was only played for about 10 minutes and then my batteries died…ggrrrrr
Worst is when battery in camera or phone dies, that’s never good.
ran out of battery’s for the xbox controller also gave my son a new toy and it died within a hour and had none to replace it.Boy was he a sad boy
Last winter during the long back-out in the Toronto area, I had no batteries for the four flashlights. Thankfully, I had candles.
Hubby and his remote! The whiny little boy sure comes out. We now are well stocked, but I tell you, it wasn’t pretty…
Yes, I once ran out of batteries one night in the summer when we had a power outage and my flashlight needed new batteries.
I forgot to buy batteries for the toys at Christmas
There’s been many Christmas’ where my husband has had to go out to find a open store to find batteries 🙂
Disaster struck when my daughter’s nightlight turtle ran out of batteries!
I always have extra batteries around and I bought those flashlights that are always plugged into the wall so when the power goes out they light up right away and are fully charged.
Yes i do
personally, we always carry spares especially when we are photographing an event. Many times over we have witnessed someone in trouble and gladly give them spare batteries for their camera.
We ran out of batteries at my daughters First Communion
nope I dont’ remember a time that was critical
my kids hate it when their toys run down & there are no batteries to be found
I can’t think of a time when I’ve run out of batteries at a crucial moment. We are lucky that the dollar store near us sells great quality batteries for cheap, so we usually have tons on hand.
Running out of C batteries for my son’s Fisher Price Aquarium that he sleeps with was a special treat! He cried and cried for 2 hours because we didn’t have replacement batteries for his nighttime fishy. NEVER AGAIN!
I have hearing aids, so I have had the batteries die on me.
My daughter’s Christmas school performance & the batteries died on my camera. I only taped 20 sec of video of her before it shut off. I am still sad about it!
There’s definitely nothing more frustrating than running out of batteries on the mouse, and having no spares.
Giving a gift toy to your nephew that requires batteries without giving batteries, I felt bad!
Hmmm. No major stories really. But definitely have had the odd Christmas or Birthday experience of needing batteries for a toy and not having them 🙂
No stories as we always have a large supply of extra batteries on hand.
nothing too tragic but I have run out just as I arrived at a concert – more than once :S
now I keep a spare set in my purse!!
My sons first birthday!! Ahhh!!!!!
It was the middle of the night outdoor camping and the flashlight battery died.
I had to make my way to the outhouse in the dark (and I got my monthly) eeks!
It would be great to win this Energizer Prize Pack.
In response to your question of Do you have a story like mine, where you ran out of batteries at a crucial moment,
or know someone that did?
I remember going to a concert and the batteries in my camera died so i wasn’t able to get any good pictures.
Thank you for having this giveaway.
Oh yeah!! Our smoke detector started beeping at 4am to alert us the back up batteries needed replacing. We didn’t have any in the house.
Thankfully, I don’t have a story like yours so far but since having little mister man I’ve went through a ton of batteries determined to snap a pic of every single moment of every single day. Thanks for a great giveaway!
The flashlight batteries died in the middle of my camping trip.