I’m with you. When I was 9 we went out on our bikes first thing and didn’t come home until it got dark.
Idiotic comparison. The difference here is putting your child in a place where other adults FEEL they're responsible for your kid, which is what this tri-moron did. That is a no-no and a dick move. Nothing wrong with leaving a child that age at home without an adult. Or going on a bike ride by themselves. I do it all the time with my kids that age. But again, the difference is you're not putting a random adult in a position where they're babysitting your kid. Which is not their job.
Now, should the dude have been arrested? That's probably just a stupid as what the guy did in the first place.
It was not stupid at all. From the linked article:
“Subsequent investigation determined that his child had allegedly been left unattended for about 10 hours since the race had started.”
Yeah, the guy should have been arrested and not allowed to finish the race. Would any LR parent have done the same thing with their child?
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
Idiotic comparison. The difference here is putting your child in a place where other adults FEEL they're responsible for your kid, which is what this tri-moron did.
Who cares what they FEEL? That is irrelevant. He was arrested for child endangerment not for neglecting some busy-body's feelings.
Also, I was baby-sitting my younger brother and sister when I was 9. This country has turned into a bunch of wussies.
lol. I was babysitting other people’s kids by 9yo. In what world is a 9yo in mortal danger if not in the immediate presence of their parents for a couple hours. Who was the Karen that called the cops?
Seriously. I moved out of my parents' house at age 7, and by age 9 I had saved up some money, moved to Afghanistan, and was leading raids against the Soviets on a near daily basis.
Nowadays, I have kids of my own. I just air-dropped my 5 year-old twins into the remote Alaskan wilderness with nothing but a light windbreaker and their wits. And you know what? I bet they'll make it back home to Florida within a couple weeks.
It was not stupid at all. From the linked article:
“Subsequent investigation determined that his child had allegedly been left unattended for about 10 hours since the race had started.”
Yeah, the guy should have been arrested and not allowed to finish the race. Would any LR parent have done the same thing with their child?
I would.
This kid probably just wanted to come with the Dad and he got a VIP pass for him. While that is not technical a daycare, I am sure the kid was just hanging out in one corner and some helicopter parents thought, they had to do something. So they ruined the Dad triathlon and the kids day. I am sure after that the kid never wants to have kids himself later in life.
Every kid in my neighborhood roamed freely during the day by the time we were 7 years old. 9-year-olds can definitely hang out in a tent and play with their phones for a few hours without anything bad happening.
Arrested? The cop who arrested the guy needs to be arrested. What a joke.
American culture has become insane. In Scandinavia, people leave babies outside restaurants in carriages because there’s a thought that “ everybody is watching the babies.”
The father should have made an arrangement with the event organizers to have his kid be supervised. An adult monitor is necessary in this situation. People in the tent need to know that the 9-year-old is the child of a competitor. The father needed to call attention to the fact that his son would be in the tent - like an unaccompanied child traveling on a plane. It's a bad idea to leave people wondering who the kid is.
I’m with you. When I was 9 we went out on our bikes first thing and didn’t come home until it got dark.
Idiotic comparison. The difference here is putting your child in a place where other adults FEEL they're responsible for your kid, which is what this tri-moron did. That is a no-no and a dick move. Nothing wrong with leaving a child that age at home without an adult. Or going on a bike ride by themselves. I do it all the time with my kids that age. But again, the difference is you're not putting a random adult in a position where they're babysitting your kid. Which is not their job.
Now, should the dude have been arrested? That's probably just a stupid as what the guy did in the first place.
This thread begs the question as to why doesn't Ironman provide some childcare for the gazillion dollars it costs to do one of these things?
When I was a little kid in the 70s, my mom would take us to the mall and let me and my sister roam around the various toy departments while my mom shopped for clothes. We would meet up at the big fountain at a set time. And in the summer or on the weekend, I would go out on my bike in the neighborhood on my own when I was 6-7 years old.
I am not sure criminal charges are appropriate, but leaving a 9 year old alone for 10 hours at an Ironman race is some pretty horrible parenting. I went to an outdoor concert the other night that started pretty late due to the heat. Someone near us had a baby who wouldn't stop crying. I was thinking "who takes a baby to a concert like this" and remembered that when my kids were that age we didn't go to concerts because being a parent means that you have to make sacrifices for your kids. So, this guy's case is pretty simple. If you cannot find childcare for your kid for a 10+ hour race, you don't get to run the race. Whether this was criminal or not I guess would depend on whether the kid was freaking out or whether someone overreacted to the situation and called police even though the kid was content with hanging out in the VIP tent. And again, why wouldn't race organizers provide some childcare?
The father should have made an arrangement with the event organizers to have his kid be supervised. An adult monitor is necessary in this situation. People in the tent need to know that the 9-year-old is the child of a competitor. The father needed to call attention to the fact that his son would be in the tent - like an unaccompanied child traveling on a plane. It's a bad idea to leave people wondering who the kid is.
It is not the duty of the event organizers to serve as daycare. Also states have laws when it come to daycare. Your gym has a time limit (likely 2 hours) that they will watch your kid while you workout (during which you are not supposed to leave the building*). However after that time period day care has to provide (in some states) far more services like snacks or more staff as it moves from "child watch" to "child care".
I worked for the local Y and we had a parent who (we later learned) would check in, drop off the kid and then go across the street to have coffee with a friend. The first time we found out, we revoked her child watch privileges for a period of time. Then a few weeks after they were reinstated, she was caught doing it again. We revoked her membership. It created a huge liability for us.
I recall a race (10K) a few years ago that offered child watch for 90 minutes. It was great, but the event organizers prepared and you had to sign up in advance for the limited slots. I thought that was a great add on but never would expect a race organizer to do it.
The dad crashes his bike and has to go to the hospital or worse dies during the swim.
I am pretty free range parenting, but 10 hours at 9 seems a little too long to be unattended.
Theoretically all of this could happen but usually it won't.
You asked what we thought was going to happen and I gave 3 very reasonable scenarios. It is not likely you will get in a car accident, but you wear your seatbelt (oh wait I bet you are one of those people who is not going to let others tell you how to lead your life).
How soft are we becoming?! This is ridiculous on so many levels!
Details count: if he arranged with a known friend or official (not a good idea) to actually, really, watch and support the kid until he returned that would be better. But I would not—nor ever did— hand my kid over to a stranger, especially under those conditions and that timeline. Might be some details left out of this report that could mitigate the abandonment of parental responsibility, but they would have to be very convincing to get me to say it’s ok. Nope.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Reason provided:
Sp