A tragedy that the child is dead. Of course it is.
However, from the article:
“A neighbor says she overheard the boy’s mother telling family members that the boy was climbing on the headstone when it fell on him.”
I personally feel the parents are largely at fault here for two reasons: First, the kid should never have been allowed to use people’s graves as a playground. That’s some serious disrespect there. And secondly, is it really that hard to anticipate that if your kid is climbing on and pulling at a huge slab of rock that was installed over a 100 years ago, it might fall over on him?
So anyway, just curious, would you have let your kid do this? Was it truly a freak accident that the parents could not have foreseen/prevented, or was it negligence on the parent’s part?
Never. I would never have considered the risks although in retrospect it seems obvious but graveyards and other people’s memorials are not playgrounds. Disrespectful.
Safety concerns aside, even if I don’t really agree with the obsession of etiquette around graves, so many other people do that it’s a pretty good idea to follow them unless you want to piss off everybody around you. “Don’t care what others think” only goes so far. So no, I’d never let a child play on graves, though safety wouldn’t really occur to me.
Another vote for completely disrespectful and would absolutely never let my kids play around on graves. Plus, some gravestones have been in the ground for well over a century, sometimes more. I’d expect that they’d loosen over time and are easily damaged/toppled. Any idea how old the gravestone was that killed the kid? Just curious.
I’d probably not allow it for the disrespect reason.
However I’d be an utter hypocrite, because I spent plenty of time playing in a little church graveyard next to my grandmother’s house when I was a youngster. Got into a wee bit of trouble once with two of my little cousins when we made off with some little American flags from some grave-sites after the 4th ( hey, I was 1rst grade, I didn’t know any better ).
Never. My first and foremost reason is that it is extremely disrespectful. Actually that would be like my first 100 reasons that I wouldn’t let my child goof around on gravestones or in a cemetery. After that, I would think of safety. Of course since I wouldn’t let my child do it in the first place, safety wouldn’t really come into play.
Perish the thought. I can’t stomach the idea of even standing on a grave, I find it incredibly disrespectful. I certainly wouldn’t let my kids run around a graveyard for any reason. The few times we’ve visited a cemetery both kids have been quiet and respectful, thankfully.
I find this spin disturbing. Also other news reports say that the family released to the media a photo taken “just a few minutes” before the accident - why would you do that???
My siblings and cousins used to play in the graveyard across from my grandmother’s house all the time. Our uncle’s brother was one of the caretakers. Of course, we kept our distance from funeral services because we weren’t raised in a barn. But, otherwise, we ran around and played. At night, we’d go frog gigging at the pond or play (duh) ghost in the graveyard. Great hiding places.
On the weekends, we’d have picnics. They obviously welcomed such things because they had picnic areas set up. FYI, The same cemetery now hosts walks, runs, tours, and segway tours through the cemetery.
Never for a minute thought it would be disrespectful. Now I’ve never been dead, but I actually like the idea of children playing on my gravestone. Beats having a bunch of crying people.
With official comments from Captain Kirk, no less. Fantastic. Now I’ve got an audio of James T Yelling, “Sulu! Get off of that…!” and then the stinger music that tells you something meaningful and bad has just happened offstage. Moments later: “He’s dead, Jim!”
Also: sad for the family. It would truly suck to lose your kid when he’s just being a kid. But if they go trying to sue the graveyard I’ll raise some corpses myself and set them loose on the family.
i read that the dad has a photo hobby and cemetery and headstones were a favorite subject. the headstones were props and the kid trying to get some animated reaction from the other kids.
I’d try not to let my child horse around in a graveyard simply because it’s not disrespectful. That said, I don’t think the family is really at fault here. Nobody goes to a graveyard expecting it to be dangerous. Okay, I’ve been to a few older cemeteries that were so overgrown that I worried about snakes but that’s about it. It’s just a tragedy and I don’t think it’d be constructive to point fingers at anyone.
If I’ve been laying in the ground for a couple of decades watching funerals, the most awesome thing I can think of is to have a bunch of laughing kids running around!
If the headstones are falling over, they probably don’t have many funerals there, so they aren’t bothering anyone alive.
“Horsing around” is for play areas. It’s not appropriate behavior in a restaurant, or in a retail store, or in a graveyard. Play areas are designed to be safer than non-play areas. Too many parents seem to think that the whole world should be child safe. It’s not.
As an atheist, I don’t think that horsing around shows disrespect to the dead, but it DOES show disrespect to the living relatives and friends of the buried dead.
