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This family has been highly criticized as has been the father of the boy who just climbed Everest.
You see kids today who lack motivation to even work at McDonalds yet this family is wrong for allowing too much motivation. No win.
Yes..actually there CAN be a win. It's something called.."middle ground". Wanting your kid to do more than sit up in his room all day playing video games and eating pop tarts is fine.
Letting your 16 year old child go sailing by herself around the world out in waters that are extremely dangerous even for older, seasoned people is just bordering on stupid.
Let's find some middle ground there. Surely it can't be THAT hard??
Yes..actually there CAN be a win. It's something called.."middle ground". Wanting your kid to do more than sit up in his room all day playing video games and eating pop tarts is fine.
Letting your 16 year old child go sailing by herself around the world out in waters that are extremely dangerous even for older, seasoned people is just bordering on stupid.
Let's find some middle ground there. Surely it can't be THAT hard??
The average 16yr old is not a lazy bum
The average 16yr old does not sail around the world by themselves.
This is a very extreme situation from a very extremely nontraditional family.
Of course there is middle ground. That is what I am shooting for w/ my children. I don't want them to feel the need to be perfectionists who are always "scheduled" but I also don't want them to sit on their butts all day texting and being on the internet. Middle ground is the way my dh & I are parenting.
18 year olds backpack by themselves in Europe & stay in hostels. I spent 2 nights in a hostel in Sydney, Australia....for some parents, they may prefer their child to be on a boat in the middle of the sea compared to what is allowed & happens in hostels. NOT comparing, just saying that at whatever time they are let go, no matter how well planned, it isn't going to be perfect...again, though, I know we all realize the difference in THIS situation!
But I still find the story intriguing and those who take on adventures such as this quite fascinating. Not the life most of us what to live or do live.
Well I don't know if it was 20/20 or Dateline that just aired a show about all these kids who "came up with these ideas on their own"...in order to break world records....but her father came across as a nut job. Like there was something in it for him if she didn't roll the boat and end up washing up on some shore somewhere.
Following a trail of typical 18 year old back-packers, who have been doing the back-packing thing for decades and staying as hostels...not new. Not that big of a deal.
This? A 16 year old alone for months on the open seas is admirable? It's risky. And if you are willing to take that kind of a chance with your child, I'd rather not know you or let you around any of my children.
It's a good thing she was found...but what if she wasn't? Would it have been worth it?
I think comparing a kid going to the military to what Abby did is apples and oranges. What Abby did is useless. The military is an important function of any country. You will always need a group to defend your country. I don't agree with the Iraq War or Afghanistan, but in general we need the military to protect the rest of us so we can continue a nice standard of living.
The best safety equipment in the world is no match for the Roaring Forties during serious weather conditions. She had no business being there and her parents were idiots to allow it.
Which is more dangerous, crossing cape horn as she did, or being out in the indian ocean where she was?
Have other solo circumnavigators crossed the indian ocean successfully this time of year?
I think comparing a kid going to the military to what Abby did is apples and oranges. What Abby did is useless. The military is an important function of any country. You will always need a group to defend your country. I don't agree with the Iraq War or Afghanistan, but in general we need the military to protect the rest of us so we can continue a nice standard of living.
Join the army,
see the world,
meet interesting people
and kill them.
I agree compaing Abby to the Army is useless.
Abby is an inspiration.
The army unfortunately is a necessity.
In many other cultures, and for millenia in our own, young adults have gone through rites of passage, sometimes extreme, as a way of testing and proving themselves. It's a shame we've lost that spirit so much we'll criticize anyone else for doing what they feel they need to do.
For some reason I cannot see a 16 or 13 year old coming up with the idea of doing the extreme for fame. I just can't. Kids that age usually try to keep the attention off themselves, not call it to them. I understand them doing something for self satisfaction, but for fame to be the 'youngest to ever...'? No. I honestly believe that comes from the parent.
This girl obviously enjoys sailing. I can see her father reading about the girl from Australia and thinking... Abby is months YOUNGER than this girl. SHE could be the youngest to ever... .
I've had 16 year olds. Their wheels don't turn the same way as adults do. When they do things, it's for the thrill, not fame.
WASHINGTON, March 4— A 7-year-old girl's effort to become the youngest person to pilot a plane across the United States ended in a fatal crash last April because the flight instructor aboard tried too hard to keep an overly ambitious schedule driven by ''media commitments,'' the National Transportation Safety Board concluded today.
The 52-year-old instructor, Joe Reid, took off in Cheyenne, Wyo., in conditions ''that were too challenging for the pilot trainee and, apparently, even for him to handle safely,'' the board said.
Mr. Reid died in the crash, along with the two other people aboard: the young trainee, Jessica Dubroff, and her father, Lloyd. Jessica had been trying to best a cross-country flight record set by a 9-year-old.
2. With the amount of manpower and planes, and boats/ships used in this search and rescue effort in the past few days, the bottom line is going to be astronomical. WHO IS GOING TO PAY????
The Australian plane that located her, found her 2000 miles off their coast. That won't be a cheap flight. Not to mention everybody else who has been looking, now rescuing.
Okay...not sure why anyone would feel she is less entitled to emergency resources than anyone else on a watercraft in that area...or are you saying no one should be allowed to sail across the sea due to the potential cost of a possible rescue? People boat/sail for recreation all the time and sometimes require emergency responders...unsure what the difference would be in this case.
While I wouldn't allow my 16 y.o to do this I think its encouraging that there are still some parents out there who support, embrace, and encourage their kids dreams. Some kids DO have interests and high expectations for themselves.
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