Wait, you’ve seen a child drown in the bathtub while his parents smoked marijuana in the living room? Why the hell didn’t you save him?
I got what you said. I’m saying you’re wrong in what you think.
The data on drowning deaths of children in bathtubs appears to back up Vinyl Turnip’s point, as per this 2002 report:
A couple dozen kids a year on average drown in the bathtub, but we don’t see a news story like this with similar frequency. What made this tragic event in particular a hot news item was the “pernicious influence of new technological/social phenomenon” aspect, in this case Facebook.
What makes my skin crawl about the bath drowning danger is how FAST it can happen: twenty seconds’ distraction, baby face in water, bye-bye baby. Compounding that is the FREQUENCY of the danger; babies need to be cleaned fairly often, alas. You can’t just say “Okay kid, in another couple of years when you’re old enough to keep from drowning, you can have a bath.” (Although now I kind of wonder if there are any kids who are exclusively sponge-bathed in infancy and early childhood, and how well that would work for hygiene.)
That makes this all the more egregious. If it’s a laptop computer, then sit and watch videos in the bathroom (there’s a conveniently-located seat in every bathroom!) where the child is right there in front of you. There’s no excuse for sitting in another room–and “I don’t want to turn my 13-month-old child into a mama’s boy by staying in the room while he bathes” is a ridiculous sentiment to start with.
Had to love this user comment on the newspaper article:
“I wonder if Farmville has a prison.”
Right: Babies drowning in bathtubs occur with sad regularity, but it does not usually make the news.
I honestly didn’t think I said anything particularly controversial, but I’d like to hear why you think I’m wrong.
At the public fountain in the park so we can all enjoy the fun.
No kidding. Why didn’t you go to jail and get a news article written about you?
Calm down I knows its just a yoke.
Just to toss out another data point in the “is it a facebook thing” debate…I work for a news aggragator – my job is to track down stories from ten of thousands of news and media outlets. I did a little research on the topic:
Tera Bouvier’s baby accidentally drowned in a hotel bathtub when she stepped out of the room – total media generated: Six articles in three years.
Shannon Johnson’s facebook story – total media generated: 140 articles in a week.
Shannon clearly has way more friends than Tera.
Technically, it only takes an inch of water for anyone to drown.
Soooo…what? Valley girls can’t drown?
That’s why they call it news – because it’s new. Stepping out of the room has been around for centuries; Facebook is something new and different. As guizot said, once Facebook is no longer new, this type of story will no longer be news.
[Quote=Jackmannii]
I’m reminded of an episode of “Dragnet”, where Officers Friday and Gannon are called to the home of a couple whose child drowned in the bathtub while they were getting high on marijuana in the living room.
[/quote]
I probably shouldn’t admit it here, but that Dragnet episode had a profound effect on me, and is one of the reasons why I won’t hang out with people who smoke pot while caring for young children.
What’s on your mind?
-------------Shannon Johnson
-------------Giving the kid a bath. Had to get out of there, the kid wouldn’t stop making noise. He’s quieted down now. I’ll check on him in a few…
-------------Help me with my barn raising!!!
Duh. She needed all those friends to tend her crops.
I was drinking and playing World of Warcraft, personally.
I can’t imagine what could possibly go wrong with a moron, a bathtub, and a laptop.
I hate to be the one to break this news to you, but *Dragnet *wasn’t actually a documentary. Babylon 5, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and *Glee *are also all fictional.
Scooby Doo was totally real, though.
I know this is utterly tragic, but I can’t help laughing because what the hell was she thinking? You’ve got a year old baby, he needs a bath, but you know, you’ve got important shit to do! Little brat can bathe himself! Just stick him in the tub and he’ll come get you when he’s all clean and dry. That’s how babies work, right?
I can understand how something like this would happen. I got on Facebook the other morning, and I got so sucked in that I totally let my bowl of cereal go soggy.
Good question, though I did get rounded upon thoroughly once here for admitting that I had used the kitchen sink to hose off one of my goddaughters who just had had an amazing attack of the runs … [though I honestly do not understand what the big whoop was. If the water temp is proper, you support the critter while hosing her off, dry her off and rediaper then you clean the damned sink. I don’t know what other people clean with, but dish soap is a perfectly good surficant, and fer jebus sake you will grab a sponge and wipe up something on the floor that the dog yacked up, so what is the big deal about some baby-processed used milk products.] I have regularly used the kitchen sink to bathe my goddaughters when small enough [back damage makes kneeling on the floor to bend over and do anything pretty much impossible] and it works out fine. As long as the sink is cleaned before bathing and then cleaned after bathing, big whoop.
When I was that little, my mom gave me baths in the sink. Much quicker and seems safer to me, since it provides a smaller surface area in which to splash and potentially flounder. If a 1 year old tips forward in a sink, their face might just hit the counter, instead of water.
Regardless, she always supervised me in the sink too 