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@Freckles: I agree with you. I guess I'm not saying that some extreme should happen like immediately take the children away and she's probably a bad mom. But if a kid falls out of a window because they crawled out, I'm pretty sure that CPS does an investigation because where was the parent during this? I think it's kind of the same. Not every one of those parents is a neglectful bad parent. But it's a big enough event that someone should look into it, because maybe they are. I don't think that this woman is being scrutinized beyond what a lesser-publicized event like it would prompt. We just don't hear about it as much.
And the death threats are just ridiculous. -
@SweetiePie: So the one thing I saw that you wrote was you might look at your phone for a second. In all seriousness, we all know that a second is not really a second. Reading a text takes 5 seconds. Unlocking my phone takes 2-3 seconds because I have to put in a code. Responding to a text takes even longer. (Granted, I don't usually respond to texts if I can't or don't have the time.)
So this mother taking a picture for 10-15 seconds is not all the bad. (Bad as in she thought was probably harmless to take a picture at the moment... yes, looking back that pictures was bad in the scheme of things.) We all probably have taken pictures while watching our kids. I would say it takes me 5-10 seconds to take 1 picture. Unless you can sit there and say parents should not be distracted whatsoever be it phones, talking to a stranger, eating, drinking, paying for food, etc. Yes, it sucks that her child managed to scale a fence and fall into the moat within the time that she was distracted.
If anyone has strength and will power to not touch your phone while watching kids... shout it out here because I truely admire your strength. I know I'm not perfect and I need to cut down on how much I look at my phone while the kids are awake.
I can agree with you and having 4 kids with her is a bit more than I would be willing to handle. I don't think that if you have more than one kid that you have to be stuck in your house all day. She probably is kicking herself for not asking for help. Maybe she did ask for help. Maybe her friend or husband couldn't make it or cancelled last minute. Maybe her kids really wanted to go to the zoo. Maybe she was already at the zoo when her friend cancelled. Maybe she thought she could handle it. Look at all these maybes and here we are judging her for not watching her kids while this unfortunate event happened.
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@bluestriped bee: You're right, when I say I'm at the park and look at my phone for a second, I mean 1-5 seconds. I'm saying to look at the time or see if my husband said "on my way home". I keep my phone in my bag. I'm not texting or reading an email or typing on hellobee because the risks are too high. Part of this might be that I am not a risk taker. I'm a very cautious person so maybe I am overly so.
At home? Sure that may be different. But I have more control in my home than at the park or zoo. And if something happens to him on my watch at the park or in my home or the zoo, even if all I did was glance down for 5 seconds, it's still my fault. It was on my watch. But I still think (my opinion) that falling at the park is different than scaling fences, walls and bushes and making their way into a gorilla habitat.I guess everyone assesses risk differently and makes their decisions accordingly.
And I haven't seen anything that said 10-15 seconds. I've seen 30 to a minute (plus, I still think he couldn't have gotten as far as he did in 10-15 seconds). And yeah of course she didn't think "well I'm going to take this picture and my kid is probably going to fall into a gorilla pit and I don't care." My main point has been that to say she isn't at fault is wrong. Even accidents usually have someone who is at fault. That doesn't mean she should be criminally charged if this is a one-time thing. But come on. It was her fault!
I probably won't post anything else on this topic, not because I'm mad or anything (opinions and all that). I just think that the people who feel one way will feel one way and there's not a lot of point to keep debating it. I don't think I could say much else that is earth shattering to change someone's mind. Plus, I like everyone and don't want to argue
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@irene:
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@irene: my feelings exactly.
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@irene: Thanks for sharing that article! It's perfect!
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The mom won't be charged. Thank goodness!!
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/06/us/harambe-gorilla-death-investigation/index.html
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@Adira: I was relieved to see that, but pissed all over again when I read the prosecutor's statement. He Said "its not like she was in the bathroom smoking crack while her kids were running all over the zoo." WTF kind of ridiculous code word loaded racist statement is that? Why does crack come into this conversation at all? Words matter people!
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@plantains: Oh wow, I didn't read his statement! Totally agree - that's a F'd up thing to say.
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@plantains: Is crack racist? I always associate white trash people with crack. crack is cocaine, right? Hi, I don't do drugs.
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@agold: Yes, their is a lot of history and propaganda around the 'war on drugs' and crack versus cocaine i.e. even though they are essentially the same thing but with different melting points crack carries much stiffer sentencing than cocaine. The history is long and tortuous and would derail this thread but even though I don't do drugs I know that inserting crack into the conversation is showing racial bias.
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@plantains: Gees, I learn something new every day! Thanks for letting me know that. I have always pictured a white meth-faced chick when I think of "crack whore". But, maybe its just meth, and not crack, that I'm thinking of.
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@plantains: so the family is black? I didn't follow too closely, but that would be a context clue for me. Or what's the new term- dog whistle words? @agold: i associate meth with white people.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: "I associate meth with white people" - hahaha. I was literally posting the same thing.
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I'm late to this post. after seeing the photos of the barrier that the zoo had, my take is that the responsibility is shared between the mom and the zoo. The mom should have kept been holding her 3 year old's hand. even if he hadnt climbed into the enclosure he could have been snatched. At the same time, i saw close ups of the pictures and the enclosure was way too easy for a child to QUICKLY and EASILY slip in. I know the zoo said that kids can climb over anything but thats a very pathetic excuse, they should still make a better effort at not making it easy to climb over.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: yup, they are a black family.
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@Madison43: @Mrs. Lemon-Lime: So funny, because I do, too!!
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@plantains: that's a totatlly F'd up thing to say then!
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