I Saved a Young Child's Life Today and the Parents Didn't Seem to Care

The BBQ Pit
61

Well, Nature’s given you a head start on not contributing to the next generation’s problems. May I recommend that you not fight it?

The only thing that surprised me about the OP was that it didn’t end up with the parents acting like it was all Shags’s fault. :frowning:

62

I think maybe you’re being churlish. Yes, it is a civic duty…but one that wouldn’t even need doing if the parents hadn’t been neglectful. **Shagnasty **saved a kid from…something (we can only speculate what)…and it is good that he did. Someone else might not have, or perhaps there would not have been another person around to do the saving.

FWIW, my husband once slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car to save a toddler who had stepped off the curb onto a busy street. When he walked her back to the daycare from which she had come, he didn’t get a thank-you either. (I’m nearly positive some naysayers will come through and criticize him for almost causing a traffic accident or not minding his own business, but so be it. I know he did a good thing.)

63

I just figured Shag knew who the parents were but was asking loudly if anyone knew the kid hoping, vainly, to attract the parents’ attention.

At any rate, he’s a better man than I. I’d have hung onto the kid, called 911 on my cell phone and turned the toddler over to the authorities. You can bet your butt they’d have paid attention when Ms. Police Officer came over to ask for an explanation.

64

See, this option worries me, too. There you are, hanging onto a strange kid, parents spot you w/kid, come running, also calling the cops…

65

You know, before you go shooting your mouth off and insulting someone’s intelligence, you might want to go and actually look up what critical thinking is. I’ll give you a hint: what you seem to be expecting me to have done–assume the existence of facts which serve to make the anecdote true–is the exact opposite of it.

66

You know, I’d think twice, too, about picking a kid up unless I was pretty sure he was in mortal danger. I once saw a guy coming up the subway steps snatch a toddler off the steps just a fraction of a second before a huge crowd of people rushed down the stairs. It was indisputable that he saved the kid from at least a scary injury.

His mom, who wasn’t holding the child’s hand, went ballistic on the guy for picking up her kid. Because, for all she knew, he was going to abduct the little tot.

All I know is that it would really bum me out for a while if I did the right thing like that guy did, and I got reamed for it by an ungrateful parent. Or worse, I got charged with something for messing with a child that wasn’t mine.

It’s really sad, but with the way many parents are these days about accepting help from strangers, I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking twice. It’s a shame, really. Without the help of a stranger, I can think of at least one instance from when I was a toddler where I undoubtedly would have Darwinized myself. At least my mom back then knew not to lash out at Good Samaritans trying to give help.

67

You know, I don’t really want to lock horns with you here, but I’ve only been a member since February and I have to say that while many of your posts are informative, you often really come off as condescending, many times when posters don’t deserve it. Like in this thread.

68

Exactly. Consider that I, having been here over five years, may have experience with certain posters which you do not. Not saying that necessarily means I’m right, but it’s just something to bear in mind, yes?

69

IIRC, there were several much longer term posters suggesting that you try and scale it back a notch or two, not too terribly long ago, and you, again, IIRC, said that you would.

eh?

70

Waitaminute, I did pretty much the same thing…except it wasn’t a child, it was the remote to my TV and I had to rescue it from the sofa cushions.

Where’s my thaks!?

71

As impressive a boast now as when you delivered it to your high school graduating class alumni for the sixth consecutive year.

72

Dang. I saved a dog once* and at least the dog wash people gave me a free flea comb for my trouble.

  • I went with a friend to drop off her car at the shop. The pet store across the street was holding a dog wash. Rather than sit in the skanky auto repair shop, we walked across the street to watch the dogs get washed. (Yes, entertainment was at a premium, so we took what we could find.) So some lady hands off her dog – like a lab or a golden or something big and yellow – and went next door to the donut shop for some morning treats. The dog wash people tied the dog to the drainage grate in the parking lot to let the flea soap do its thing. Pretty soon another customer came along and they needed the dog-soaping area and this dog was in the spot. So one lady unhooked the big yellow dog and held him by his collar while the next dog passed through. The collar came unclipped and this dog took off running, straight toward 4 lanes of Ft. Lauderdale mid-day Saturday traffic. My friend and I were sitting on the curb, waiting to hear the screech of brakes and the yelp of dog hit by car. Instead, the dog veered back out of traffic, and popped out through the bushes right next to me. I dove for him, tackled this wet, soapy big yellow dog (he thought it was a delightful game) and gave him back to the dog wash people. They took him over to the rinsing station, thanked me, and gave me a flea comb for saving some stranger’s random dog. The owner came out of the donut shop, collected her little Houdini dog and never was the wiser. Nobody told her about her dog’s brush with death.

But hey, at least I got a flea comb. And a wet, soapy, dog-smelling t-shirt.

ETA: And I’ve been here for 8 years, so neener neener neener. What, are you guys 10? :cool:

73

The parents definitely deserve the pitting, and regardless of how long or how far to follow the wayward child, you delivered a good outcome, well done.

74

Ideally speaking, you’re correct. But in the real world everyone needs a pat on the back. Also note how no one else Shagnasty encountered considered it their civic duty to help him.

I once got on the elevator of my high-rise apartment building and found a toddler in t-shirt and underpants holding his teddy bear. There was no way I was going to wander around the building with him. I took him down to the lobby where a passerby with a cell phone (I didn’t have one at the time) called the police. I left before the parent(s) came. A few weeks later I saw the toddler with his mother on the elevator. He looked at me with a start, obviously recognizing me. I told his mother I had originally found him, and she just smiled. It is possible, though, they were immigrants from Eastern Europe and didn’t speak English.

OTOH, I once helped an older woman who was having a very difficult time getting her shopping cart through a door in my apt. complex, and she said “God bless you!” It was just a small courtesy on my part, and if God did give me a blessing, it was certainly just as small. But it did make my day.

“Thank you” is so easy to say, you’d think more people would say it. But they don’t.

As Isaac Asimov observed, that’s almost always the only reward you get for it.

75

And then that kid grew up to be Hitler 2: Electric Boogaloo!

76

It’s not just you. Many posters think **QED ** is an asshole.

77

When I logged onto the Dope this morning, I was immediately drawn to the OP.

As a father of two (a 2 year old & a 3 month old), stories like this always scare the hell out of me. If I were to lose focus in watching my kids even for a small instant (especially a toddler), anything can happen. It’s a 24/7 job. I’m shocked at the parent’s reaction being less than grateful (if it was me, I would have been thanking you profusely). Really, how could they let a toddler wander away FOR THAT LONG without an overwhelming concern for their own child’s safety? Unbelievable.

Then I read your later post about where this happened. I actually work about 1/4-mile from the BK in question (on Fortune Boulevard). I drove down there at lunch today to see the area in question. The intersection where this BK is located is very heavy with traffic, and because of a unique traffic pattern, the road where the toddler was headed has various business entrances and exits in the specific area where he was going to cross (a gas station, the Wal-Mart plaza, the BK, a hotel). It is a large cluster-fuck of cars and trucks.

I have a difficult enough time navigating around the traffic in this intersection IN MY CAR, especially with cars/trucks/buses coming from all directions. I assume that I’m not the only one. With all of the commotion, it is very, VERY easy to believe a toddler would not be noticed in all of the confusion.

Shag , even though the parents blew you off, I’d like to thank you. You did a good thing.

78

I wander in and out of here and have perceived a decline in the quality of QED’s posts. It happens. Heck the same might be said about myself.

QED made an unsubstantiated cutting remark against Shagnasty earlier in this thread. That QED neither backpedals nor elaborates convincingly on page 2 reduces my perceptions of him further, FWIW. At any rate, I don’t see a lot of added value in many of QED’s remarks.

In my view the skepticism directed towards Shagnasty was acceptable, though it should have been more polite as his story (in my view) was plausible from the start. It is possible to appear like a jackass, even in the pit.

79

Your rightness is irrelevant given that you can be right and be an asshole at the same time. Like right now, for example. Condescension? Check.

And I’ve been here more than eight years so if that matters, I win.

80

Woah, I never noticed Shag being anything but a solid poster here. Not sure where in the heck accusations of embellishment would originate from. If he’s guilty of hyper anything (and I’m not sure he is) it ain’t bole.

Good man, Shagnasty. You done right and don’t hesitate to enact a repeat performance.