Posted on 09/12/2017 9:20:16 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Sad, but they were an entire family of Darwin Award candidates. I hope they had each accepted Jesus as their savior at some point in their life.
Horrible lesson.
By failing to instill discipline and by allowing 11 year old to cross safetry barrier and not demanding he return at once and then dyibg in a futile bid to rescue him thus leaving their 7 year old an orphan the parents demonstrated that poor decision making can have terrible consequences.
Twist it any way you like. This was not a toddler who wandered off. It was an 11 year old who defied the barricades and warnings and willfully went into a restricted area. They’d all 3 be well and happy, but for an unruly kid. The desperate parents died trying to salvage his final willful act. IMHO!
An 11 year old is still a kid. There are so many man-made amusement parks and thrill parks that have rides, etc that pretend to be dangerous - like Universal Studios - but it’s fake and everybody gets off the ride and go for ice-cream.
This place is not all jazzed up, because it’s just showing one natural thing - some holes in the ground and lot of sulfur. It was out of his realm of experience and it doesn’t bubble up at all times, it doesn’t show itself for what it is - only someone a lot older could possibly extrapolate what the big deal is with Sulfatara.
I do remember the strong sulfurous gases there when I visited there many decades ago. It was unlike anything in my life’s repertoire. For the kid? Not every kid - or adult - will fully understand how hot hot can be? How could he realize that the earth is soft and could suck him down?
Maybe the fact that the hole didn’t look like much was way he decided to go closer and see what the big deal was.
There should be better barriers, because some people don’t see well, others are mentally challenged, developmentally challenged, etc.
In this case the 11-year old was discipline-challenged.
We weren’t present to have an opinion of the kid’s level of understanding, aside from whatever disobedience there might have been. It’s likely the parents themselves didn’t realize ahead of time how poorly separated the soft sandy earth and caldrons are from the public. They probably have to keep moving the make-shift barriers as the terrain and hot spots evolve and continually emerge.
We have a hot spring on our property and we tap into it to heat the driveway, house, barns, and our pool. The kids stay away from the pump house because it’s hot and because we tell them to stay away from it.
I know that the idea of keeping a child in order is considered child abuse these days but I don’t worry about our kids going into the pump house and getting boiled alive.
Egads, don’t you see the difference between what’s on your property - things that you have ample opportunity to warn your kids about and a sightseeing family showing up as tourists to a site they likely have never visited - a site that looks like nothing much at all and doesn’t look dangerous to someone without life and world experience, unless one has far more world experience than a wide range of kids. We don’t know that the parents weren’t as attentive to the danger as they might have been. Maybe it happened pronto when they drew near with what was likely a larger group of tourists. Those in charge of this site are badly remiss to have only a few widely spaced horizontal boards marking a boundary. Have you ever visited that site? I did. Stop blaming the parents, please. The site set-up as they have it should not allow anyone but adults to visit. I do not remember whether there are signs warning of the danger of death. Do we see any in the photos?
Egads, don’t you see the difference between what’s on your property - things that you have ample opportunity to warn your kids about and a sightseeing family showing up as tourists to a site they likely have never visited - a site that looks like nothing much at all and doesn’t look dangerous to someone without life and world experience, unless one has far more world experience than a wide range of kids. We don’t know that the parents weren’t as attentive to the danger as they might have been. Maybe it happened pronto when they drew near with what was likely a larger group of tourists. Those in charge of this site are badly remiss to have only a few widely spaced horizontal boards marking a boundary. Have you ever visited that site? I did. Stop blaming the parents, please. The site set-up as they have it should not allow anyone but adults to visit. I do not remember whether there are signs warning of the danger of death. Do we see any in the photos?
Thanks...we’ll get to Hawaii...one of these days. It’s on the bucket list..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.