The sad ending to this tragedy was clear when the story first broke, but I’m sure the parents held out hope until they received confirmation of their little boy’s death. I can’t imagine their heartbreak.
@CaliCash I also recognized some similarities to the gorilla story , but I was hesitant to address them on this thread . That mother also lost contact with her son , but it was in a crowded environment in the daytime, and the public was quick to condemn her and call for investigation of the family for neglect. It’s terrible to lose a child. I would never want be going through what that family is going through right now, but it is our job to protect our children , especially ones that can’t protect themselves.
The moneymaking industry of Disney is fully responsible for this tragedy and hopefully will pay. They neglected to create a safe environment for those families who paid thousands of dollars for a dream vacation. As far as those parents: their life is ruined forever.
One of our kids would occasionally wrench free and take off running at that age. Headed toward a street, lake, woodchipper… Those were stressful years. Some kids are like that.
Those parents have enough to deal with without me criticizing. Could have happened to us.
Except this child didn’t run away. You’re right they have enough to deal with.
An investigation is taking place so there is no point in making judgements in regards to fault.
I would wait for it to be completed before drawing any conclusion.
I think from a PR perspective, Disney won’t fight a lawsuit with this family. I think they will settle, and they will pay dearly. No matter the amount, no matter who is at fault, the money isn’t going to make this family feel better. It may, however provide incentive for Disney to make sure this could never happen again.
So sad.
Where is the outrage over their parenting? Will they be investigated by CPS? Im not saying they should be, but one could argue that they were much more negligent than the mother in the zoo incident. Both were tragic accidents and in both cases the property owners were negligent.
^^^In what way were these parents “more” negligent than the zoo mom?
Native Floridian here. I can guarantee you that I assume there are gators in every body of water. And WDW would not be an exception. Gators don’t know they are supposed to stay away from resorts and they are not like cats or dogs that are easily visible to those around. Never ever would I be at the edge of the water at night with small children or dogs. This was an accident and I can understand not everyone would have the same experience I have had. No swimming signs mean stay out of the water. But I don’t feel any need to apply blame. It is just tragic.
The difference in parents IMO is the child at the zoo broke away from mom , but at Disney the toddler’s family allowed him to get into a foot of water, in the dark despite signs posted . That’s why I think it’s worse. Plus the zoo mom was alone, the Disney family had two parents present.
I’m sure these parents are beating themselves up. What greater punishment could they receive than what has happened to them? I think that at some point, dwelling on what they did wrong is magical thinking of a sort: “bad things only happen to people who do things wrong, and if I don’t do anything wrong, nothing bad will happen.” Not so.
@rosered55 I realize that bad things can happen even under the best circumstances, that’s why it’s important to do the best that we can to protect our children.
A) BOTH PARENTS were watching their kids, and
B) Can we PLEASE not put this on the mother, for doG’s sake? The child had two parents, both of whom tried to save him.
BTW, I have read that the child was WADING ankle deep in the water about 1 foot from the sand, NOT in water a foot deep, which would be up to his waist or thereabouts, which is not WADING.
@DonnaL , please recall that in the case you cite the dingo did indeed take her baby, and that doG she was finally vindicated!
My question would be if the sand goes gradually into the water or if there is a big drop off. At my backyard pond, it looked like the grass was a gradual slope into the water, but several times a year the water would go down and you could see it was more like a swimming pool, a sharp drop off. There really wasn’t a way to wade.
My bet is the Disney I’ll build a retaining wall very soon, and then dig out and it will be a sharp drop off so no temptation to put toes in the water. It won’t look like a beach anymore, rather like a sandpit for games and volleyball.
@consolation There are all kinds of conflicting reports regarding how deep that child was in the water so until it’s further investigated I’m not convinced that he was only in inches of water . Seems to me if he was in inches of water, and the parents would’ve seen an alligator .
Sorry, wrong thread.
IMO blaming the parents in this case is awful.
@Nrdsb4 They were negligent because they took their eyes off their kid, had toddler near water unsupervised, and it was night. It doesnt negate the negligence of Disney, but you asked why I thought they were more negligent. It was a horrible accident, but my point was the other mom got reamed, so much so that she was investigated, and potentially couldve lost her other children, and there is none of that with this mom.
Who says they took their eyes off their kid? You’re making that up.