Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. While having a late lunch with his family at a table beside the windows, 5-year-old Charlie Holt wandered across the aisle to another table and a rounded bench backed up against an inner wall shortly after 3 p.m. Somehow, the boy got his head stuck between the furniture and the wall.
“We heard a bunch of screams and people yelling and we didn’t know what was going on,”
Well, it's pretty clear the parents neglected this poor child. It's a tragic accident, but he shouldn't have been allowed to play behind those tables. I'm sure the parents have tremendous regret.
I maintain that the restaurant needs to put in safety features at the pinch-points to protect children and other vulnerable adults. We don't need any more tragedies like this.
The parents were negligent, but the restaurant needs better safety precautions.
Actually, the typical response to this incident, where the parents are vilified and made out to be irresponsible monsters, is exactly like the responses people have to news stories where little kids and infants were accidentally left in hot vehicles and die.
And that is, demonize the parents and make them out to be subhuman and uncaring beasts.
And there is a distinct psychological phenomenon to explain this reaction by so many. And that is, many people have a need to separate themselves from these situations. The thought that such a thing might happen to them or any random person with a child, so scares their very core, that they need to portray these parents as subhuman, in a separate category from the 'normal' human beings like themselves. These people want to feel safe, that only bad things happen to bad people, and only good things happen to good people. There is no in between.
Now whose being over-emotive? Vilifying them as monsters.....nope! Irresponsible.... yeppers.
No one is "demonizing" them by saying they weren't being careful and properly attentive to a wandering five year old in a public restaurant.
No one is characterizing them as "subhuman" or "uncaring beasts". They can quite legitimately be faulted for being inconsiderate, inattentive and irresponsible, but none of those things add up to the descriptors you're accusing any of us of applying to them.
Actually, the typical response to this incident, where the parents are vilified and made out to be irresponsible monsters, is exactly like the responses people have to news stories where little kids and infants were accidentally left in hot vehicles and die.
And that is, demonize the parents and make them out to be subhuman and uncaring beasts.
And there is a distinct psychological phenomenon to explain this reaction by so many. And that is, many people have a need to separate themselves from these situations. The thought that such a thing might happen to them or any random person with a child, so scares their very core, that they need to portray these parents as subhuman, in a separate category from the 'normal' human beings like themselves. These people want to feel safe, that only bad things happen to bad people, and only good things happen to good people. There is no in between.
I propose a different scenario: We want to prevent tragic accidents, that can be prevented with appropriate adult supervision, from happening again by educating.
We can continue to accept children dying because they were left in hot cars or we can educate the parents about this. However, if you conflate education with blame, you are in fact giving a message that parents play no role in the safety of their children.
Well, it's pretty clear the parents neglected this poor child. It's a tragic accident, but he shouldn't have been allowed to play behind those tables. I'm sure the parents have tremendous regret.
I maintain that the restaurant needs to put in safety features at the pinch-points to protect children and other vulnerable adults. We don't need any more tragedies like this.
The parents were negligent, but the restaurant needs better safety precautions.
I propose a different scenario: We want to prevent tragic accidents, that can be prevented with appropriate adult supervision, from happening again by educating.
We can continue to accept children dying because they were left in hot cars or we can educate the parents about this. However, if you conflate education with blame, you are in fact giving a message that parents play no role in the safety of their children.
Hindsight 20/20 isn't educating people; it's blaming and ridiculing them.
I think what has happened is that many kids spend the majority of their waking hours in daycare these days and many parents get so used to others watching their kids just don't key into that.
When Mothers only spend limited time with their kids, they don't develop that "I brought you into this world and I can take you out," "sit down and I mean this instant," influence.
Parents don't want to cause a ruckus in the few hours a week they spend with them, so they just put up with things and expect the rest of the world to do the same.
Why this seems harsh, I do believe that kids being in daycare has desensitized parents to proper manners and respecting others when in public. They don't spend the majority of the day with their kids so when they take them places they are much more forgiving with their behavior. They don't see what the rest of us see.
I've served tables in fine-dining restaurants for years. Seeing what they are paying, I bet the parents have their heads in the clouds.. Most people don't have children in these restaurants. Pretty dumb for them letting him walk away, but it's not surprising to me.
It's sad for the child, but it's not the restaurant's fault.
For those that did not read, there is a sensor that is supposed to sense when there is a jam.
I've served tables in fine-dining restaurants for years. Seeing what they are paying, I bet the parents have their heads in the clouds.. Most people don't have children in these restaurants. Pretty dumb for them letting him walk away, but it's not surprising to me.
It's sad for the child, but it's not the restaurant's fault.
For those that did not read, there is a sensor that is supposed to sense when there is a jam.
"The boy's parents were sitting at the table and the child apparently wandered 4 to 5 feet away, when he got caught between the rotating portion of the floor and a wall, a space of only about 4 to 5 inches."
Only? ONLY???? Four or five inches is an outrageously large space. The restaurant was clearly negligent a to expose its invitees to such an extremely dangerous hazard. Of course, at the same time, the parents had to be negligent to allow the kid anywhere near such an obvious danger.
I'm not sure what the law is in Georgia these days, but on balance I think the restaurant (which stared at the danger for years) deserves to be punished severely for failing to take any of a number of simple precautions that would have prevented what happened.
Just another version of parent blaming and shaming.
Do YOU have kids?
I can tell you in my job ~ I've seen every grotesque accident known to man. And no one, I mean NO ONE, can be side by side with their child every moment.
5 feet away is pretty damn close.
No one goes to a restaurant thinking their kid is going to get crushed like a watermelon. Come on.
I can remember when I was little and we had a big table at a restaurant, the grown-ups would keep us busy with things like . . 'can you take this bread to Grandpa at the other end of the table'? "Can you make sure Aunt Sue has something to drink"?
Thus keeping us within eyesight, keeping us busy and away from other tables.
BUT - we might have been more than 5 feet away!!!!
Call child services.
Didn't someone mention that the police reported that the child was out of eyesight. And yes, children find their own mischief when left unattended.
Sheer supposition but I am wondering if he crawled into the tight space, and didn't realize that it would just keep getting tighter until too late poor kid.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
