Daily Caller:
A 5-year-old child died Friday when a bounce house was swept into the air by a sudden gust of wind during a baseball game in Maryland, ABC News reported.
An incident at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Maryland resulted in the death of a 5-year-old boy and left another child injured, according to ABC News. The children were reportedly playing in a bounce house located in the right field stands during a baseball game between the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs and the York Revolution. A sudden gust of wind subsequently lifted the bounce house 15 to 20 feet into the air, according to the outlet. more
So sad.
This seems to happen a lot. Don’t they stake these things in the ground?
I absolutely hate stories like this.
There’s really not a thing worse than the tragically preventable death of a child. I’ve met many parents in loss and grief meetings whose child(ren) have died. It’s heart-rending. And the losses continue to mount sometimes when the parents can’t stop blaming each other and themselves.
This story sucks. Now hopefully the government can ban bounce houses.
Or, at the very least, ban them from sporting events.
Doesn’t this happen once a year or so? Dear parents, in windy conditions do not rent a huge balloon for your kids to play on. Just sayen.
So sad
AbigailAdams
SUNDAY, 4 AUGUST 2024, 20:32 AT 8:32 PM
‘There’s really not a thing worse than the tragically preventable death of a child.’
…you should see it when a child dies of abuse.
Or is deliberately murdered by someone they loved and trusted.
https://www.fox19.com/2023/06/23/sons-gunned-down-ripped-mothers-arms-by-clermont-county-dad-prosecutor/
…not saying this makes the mom that squeezes her infant’s intestines out in a car wreck because she couldn’t be bothered to get a car seat or the dad who sets the car seat down for a minute to get the car out of the garage then backs over it any BETTER, mind, but at least these ARE accidents that kill quickly and dont involve a betrayal of trust or have the kids die in terror. Not saying it doesnt have deleterious effects on the parents either, but there are different degrees of horror when discussing the death of a child, and one could argue that the MOST tragically preventable death of a child is where the mother destroys it in the womb as an imconvenience, but that is far too common and acceptable to ever make the sensationalist news media, so its hard to have a balanced competition for most tragically preventable just on sheer numbers alone.
As far as the parents, yes, I’ll go out on a limb and say they probably had some level of trust in the operator that they were putting their child in a fun diversion and not an abittoir. That said, when I had a young one, I took it upon myself to evaluate kiddie rides, removing him from some if I felt the belts were too loose and denying him others because I felt the operator was too sketchy. This was my duty as a parent, to evaluate and mitigate risks that my child was too innocent and too inexperienced to judge for himself. I wont say I was perfect at it, but I did learn from my mistakes and those of others, as we all should, and got him to adulthood without any major physical damage. It was the duty of those parents to look at what they were placing their trust in, and perhaps that tragedy will serve as a lesson to themselves and others about how much trust to place in what is essentially a carnival ride being operated by an inexperienced operator.
We humans mostly learn by tragedy, unfortunately; and with the younger generation, I sometimes doubt their ability to do even that.
Tragedy is good for YouTube clicks and GoFundMe donations, after all.
…that said, we do need to keep those families in prayer, those that lost a child and those whose child’s future is yet in doubt. There was no malice in what happened, their only sin is trusting too much in other men who proved to be untrustworthy, a sin we all have from time to time.
And mostly pray for that child to recover, and to forget or never learn of the child that died beside him. No child should be burdened so young in life through no fault of their own.
And spare a prayer for those who responded. Having participated in pediatric trauma calls I can promise you the response was rapid, intense, and total, and that everyone did their best to the limits of their skills and abilities. I will not speculate on the mechanism of death but on what little information is here it was likely quick and complete; but somewhere, I can assure you that someone is turning it over and over in their mind, wondering if they could have done better and asking God why they couldnt.
Dear Lord, we come before You today in praise and thanksgiving for the life You spared, and ask that this young one experiences full and complete healing by Your hand, and that he grows up straight and unafraid and takes nothing but wisdom from this tragedy. Touch too his parents with knowlege that You are in charge, and that You attend his bedside and guide His doctors that your child may live and that you all turn to Him.
And Lord, please touch this other family in their hour of need. Let them know that innocent child is with You, and that they all may be reunited in Heaven one day at the feet of the Lord, and that glorious day will be a joy beyond measure. Strengthen them to the sad earthly tasks they must tend to now, and let them come through this with the faith to carry on, and the wisdom to place their trust in You instead of in men.
And Lord, touch too those that saw, and those that responded. Let them take only experience from this, and grant them the gift of forgetting in all other things. Please let it not darken hearts to turn them away from continuing to help others, and most importantly to not turn away from You in tragedy.
It is much to ask and there are many more touched by this tragedy, but great as it is You are greater, and we ask it all on to Your glory and in Your mercy, in the name of Jesus we pray,
Amen
God Bless,
SNS
SNS — My comment was about a child who dies accidentally – not at the hands of an abusive parent or someone who either intends for them to die or who is indifferent. Though, even in these cases, parents feel terribly responsible for not having done “something” to protect their child, even if it is quite obvious they should have had no reason to think their child was in danger.
The tragedy is multiplied when parents and surviving siblings are torn apart by the uncommon number of divorces that follow such events. And then there are the armchair judgements of acquaintances and strangers.
AbibailAdams
MONDAY, 5 AUGUST 2024, 11:06 AT 11:06 AM
“SNS — My comment was about a child who dies accidentally – not at the hands of an abusive parent or someone who either intends for them to die or who is indifferent.”
…fair enough, but I was responding to you saying ‘There’s really not a thing worse than the tragically preventable death of a child.’, because to ME abuse deaths and certainly abortions are indeed preventable deaths as well, we simply lack a functional mental health system and criminal justice system for the former and a fair amount of personal responsibility for the latter.
There are times when people just lose it, but the ones Ive personally seen tended to be multiples because, as with wife beaters, folks are just released back to the same situation over and over again, and the second beating is generally worse than the first.
Preventable, no?
…but as for true “accidents” – I dont believe that young mother INTENTIONALLY used her baby as an air bag, nor caused the accident leading up to it – intentions dont matter when the baby’s diaper is forcibly loaded with its own intestines as a result. Yes, Mom was quite upset, but even then child seats were known and the dangers of lap carrying in a car publicized, so tragic though it was, its scarcely judgemental to say it was 100% preventable and everyone in the car should have known better.
Trusting a stranger to amuse your child is of a similar order. It behooves the parent to have some basis for this trust, and to look for flaws and faults that excited children have no capacity to worry about. Doesnt mean you yell at a mother whos just lost her child, of course not, but it isnt wrong to bring some understanding of what could have been done differently to the fore at the appropriate time, to perhaps reduce the risk of a similar tragedy later.
One thing that differentiates humans from animals is the ability to learn from mistakes, our own and those of others.
But we are abdicating any ability to do this if we cant even discuss the mistakes for fear of emotional pain.
Its going to hurt regardless.
Lets learn how to avoid doing it again in future.
Isn’t this a known risk for these structures? Who set one up without staking it to the ground? Who lets their kid go into one without checking them out first?
My mother had one 30 years ago, so it’s been around a while…..