Parenting and personal responsibility

[evwhore]

The company that owns Great America now requires life vests in all pools at all its parks for children less than 4 feet tall, in response to the tragic drowning earlier this weekThe mother and park officials dispute how many lifeguards were on duty at the time. And, with the caveat that all I know about this is what I've read, still, irony alert

Comments

[bittercrackbaby]

It's annoying when parental responsibility is muffled because there will be an ambulance chaser ready to take up the cause.

[evwhore]

i don't think someone who occasionally entrusts their kids to others (daycare workers, nannies, family and friends, school teachers, etc) is a bad parent.

I don't think doing so automatically makes you a bad parent. I understand, it's just not possible or practical to keep an eye on your kids 100% of the time. (In fact, there are suggestions that lack of freedom, and tangentially, unstructured time, is one of the modern problems of child development.)

In this specific case, however, "around a pool" seems like a place where I would want to maintain an increased level of vigilance, sort of like "around a heavily-trafficked street" or "near heavy farm equipment with blades."

An in any case, I don't see that "I can't keep my eye on them 100% of the time" entitles her to blame other people when something unfortunate like this happens.

[sabyl]

I'm with evwhore here. There is a difference between leaving your child with some sort of caregiver and not supervising them in a water park. It is very unfortunate that the lifeguards were not able to see him or save him, but with so many kids in a pool they may not notice one child slipping under. But a mother will certainly see her child slipping under, and even a person taking 4 or 5 kids to the park might notice one missing, but to the lifeguard there is no reason to notice one child who was there and is now not there.

[sabyl]

I read the articles before I read the rest of your comments and I read the same quote to Steve basically saying the same thing, where was she and how come she wasn't doing her job? It's tragic. But I also know there's no way I am leaving my 4 year old child alone in a water park.