How can one not be compassionate when someone’s child dies, no matter the circumstances? I can’t imagine living with that every day of my life.
This case is just horrific. The more I see - the white sand beach, the videos of WDW visitors feeding alligators across the lake, the more I think this could have been prevented with a different set up by the Disney people.
I don’t think compassion and questioning are mutually exclusive of one another.
There’s been plenty of both though, no?
I didn’t criticize either. I felt bad for both. I see some similarities but there are some key differences even aside from the death of one vs non critical injury of the other.
I’m sure there are more but those differences are big for many.
Questioning of Disney , but not if the parents could’ve done something different @doschicos . That’s the exact opposite of gorilla boy.
The parents in the Disney case did issue a statement: http://kdvr.com/2016/06/16/parents-of-boy-attacked-by-alligator-make-statement-disney-makes-changes/
Not that any of our opinions matter one way or another…but mine is no one really has their toddler within arms length every second of every day. It’s hard to wrap your mind around the reality that something horrible happened and it’s easier to blame a parent and believe it couldn’t happen to you. Show compassion. Neither of these parents wanted something like this to happen. This poor family will grieve the rest of their lives. That sibling will too as well as their other family and friends. No amount of money from Disney will help that, but if it could mean the parents could decide if they want to work or not right now then the money would help them.
I can’t imagine - Disney promotes itself as a magical place, and you assume a certain amount of safety there.
@carolinamom2boys I think there has been both questioning of the parents and Disney. I’ve personally done both although I have a lot of compassion for the family. I will say that the more I’ve read and seen, the more I blame Disney in this scenario. Of course there will always be “what ifs”. And that is another reason I feel compassion because I can’t imagine living with the “what ifs”.
My ex-neighbor, who is still a close friend, almost backed her car over my son when he was a toddler. We’d been standing in her yard, talking, and when she got in the car didn’t see my son. I was just a few feet away and didn’t realize he was right behind her car. I saw him just in time. It still makes me sick to my stomach when I think of it.
I agree that the "what ifs " would be anguishing to live with, especially if you couldn’t say without a doubt that you had done everything within your power to prevent the terrible outcome.
I agree @eyemamom that no one has their children at arm’s length every second of the day. That said, it’s been suggested upthread that people may let their guard down while on vacation . IMO, that’s when one should be most vigilant , especially with a small child. Too many hazards, distractions, strangers in an unfamiliar environment for both parent and child.
I personally treat those two cases differently because as much as overprotective mother I am, I can see that I could let my guard down with my child playing on the beach near the water, but not at the crowded place like the zoo. Now when I learned about dangerous wild life in Central Florida, I would never vacation there. I bet a lot of people will think the same. Of course I knew they have alligators in Florida. I didn’t know that it impossible to be protected from them since they are everywhere and can travel up to 30 miles and climb over fences.
The world is a dangerous place @Ballerina016 . The Midwest has tornados and floods, the East Coast has hurricanes( more often than the West Coast) and the West Coast has floods, wildfires and earthquakes. You just need to be vigilant . What about bears? Everyone has them and they are just as dangerous as alligators.
Grizzly bears are dangerous. Black bears, except in one instance, are not. I’ve hiked past black bears on numerous occassions and they just kept on doing what they were doing. Except for one hiker in New Jersey last year, it is rare for black bears to attack people. No one has been killed in Yosemite or Sequoia National Parks by a black bear and there are hundreds in both those parks and they are frequently seen. I don’t think anyone has been killed by a black bear in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia either and bears are numerous there also.
There have been black bear attacks in the Smokies just last year.
Wiki and I have to disagree with you on black bears being dangerous, @TatinG.
I’d give them a wide birth. One charged at me in my own backyard. Good thing I was 15 feet off the ground. It did have a youngster with it, but heck, it was MY backyard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
The world is a dangerous place… and people who think nothing bad will EVER happen to their kids are fooling themselves. My parents are hyper vigilant – my dad especially has safety advice for every situation you could ever imaging (some of you may remember my posts about him wanting me to wear safety glasses when mowing the lawn). He has been like this our whole lives. But guess what? Something bad happened to one of his kids, and my brother died. There are going to be risks that a parent cannot foresee or a moment when you can’t reach your kid in time – and I think it is disingenuous to insist that anyone would never be that parent. I bet if every aspect of care of one’s kids over their whole lives was inspected, there would be something that has happened or that was done/not done that puts the kids at risk. Most are fortunate and nothing serious happens, but clearly some significant amount of the time something does. As I am sure most of us on this thread has been fortunate, even if we don’t realize it.
Just read about the new signs coming up. They warn of alligators and snakes. I hope this will deter guests from breaking any rules.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/disney-installs-gator-warnings-barriers-after-boys-death/ar-AAhgqdp
“DANGER alligator and snakes in the area. Stay away from the water. Do not feed the wildlife.”
Only thing missing is a sign about the penalties.
Also read in another article about Disneyland in California. They evacuated a rollercoaster ride because one of the guests was carrying with them a selfie stick.
I keep looking at the pictures of the area too. It is often referred to as the beach area which is misleading because it looks that way for cosmetic reasons but it really is an entrance to the lagoon.(swampy area with alligators and snakes) For the guests they see beach and forget that is a lagoon and what that actually means. The signs will be a good reminder for the guests.
We had a scary pool incident with our son, Class of 2016, when he was 3-4 years old and I’ve never forgotten how quickly it happened. We were standing right beside him, and my husband had to jump in the water with all his clothes, cell phone, etc. We were lucky. He was fine. But phew I never looked at stuff like that the same.
It can happen so fast. We have to be thankful for every single moment with our kids.
I don’t know how you pack up and leave WDW without your whole family. Get back home to your child’s room and things? How do you go on? The absolute horror of this situation is unimaginable.
I had a similar thing happen with D3. We were in a foreign country, without quite the same safety standards as the US and my young niece fell in the water into a wading pool that was right near the food area. She was wailing and causing a fuss and all the adults had their attention on her and didn’t notice that D3 had also fallen into the water - into a much deeper pool. H jumped in with all his stuff (but this was pre cell phone) and we just thanked our lucky stars that we turned around in time.
“I’ve seen many people allow their children to climb over the fences at the falls…”
Darn Midwesterners…