Sooo Adorable

kat: 27th Mar 2006 - 03:50 GMT

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES! At my niece's first birthday my nephew took his loot bag, stumbled into a corner, and proceeded to rip the bag open piece by piece, scowling at everyone who dared to come near. This kid reminds me a lot of him... I love it!

mongambo: 28th Mar 2006 - 04:38 GMT

Elicar, your description is super fucking creepy, man.

elaine: 28th Mar 2006 - 09:00 GMT

taking pictures of under 16s that are not your own is illegal in the uk. this is because we are all untrustworthy paedophiles, apparently.

Elicar: 28th Mar 2006 - 11:37 GMT

Mongambo, you are seeing it for yourself. Is there an adult around in the picture? Except the two behind the fence....Those are not the parents...

Elaine, you are joking?

elaine: 28th Mar 2006 - 13:07 GMT

i wish i was. the uk can be quite liberal sometimes, but is as susceptible to moral panic as a certified hysteric sometimes. but we are allowed to jaywalk.

EvilGentleman: 28th Mar 2006 - 15:14 GMT

I assume that the photographing of other people's children is permitted in the UK, so long as the parents consent to the photographs being taken, and the photographs are of a decent nature. Otherwise, how would class photos be taken?

EvilGentleman: 28th Mar 2006 - 16:54 GMT

Elicar, I remember one Toronto experience that absolutely terrified me. I think it was back in 1977 or 1978, My mother took me up to the top of the CN tower (Dad stayed below to watch the paddleboats) and we went to the lower observation deck, which at that time was encased by a metal cage, but was open-air, with the metal bars being vertical till about 3 or 4 feet above the ground, at which point the bars curve inwards toward the tower until the bottom, where the fencing ended about 8 or 10 inches above the floor. The result of this configuration was that you could lean on the fencing and hold onto the bars, and look straight down at the bottom of the tower, all the time feeling the wind in your face.

All of this was quite a treat for me, at the time a child of 8 or 9 years of age. But what I saw next still shocks me to this day, and it is a perfect example of poor parenting in action. There was another child there at the same time who was also with his mother, but this child was a few years younger, perhaps 4 or 5. The mother was busy chatting with some other adults, the details of which I forget. Meanwhile, her little boy was wandering around the CN Tower unsupervised. I saw him lie down on the floor, crawl over to the gap at the bottom of the fencing, and poke his head out of the side of the tower to have a good look down at the bottom. He then crawled bach in so his head was on the floor, turned over, and stared upwards at the fencing above his face. The next thing I knew, the little boy was sliding under the fencing again, this time reaching upwards to grab ahold of the outside of the bars. He then climbed up the bars, and was standing on the crosspiece at the bottom of the fencing at an outward-leaning angle ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE CN TOWER! At this point, the little boy is quite proud of his achievement, and starts yelling, "Mommy, look! Look what I'm doing!" The mother just kept chatting and absentmindedly said "Uh-huh, that's nice. Mommy's busy talking, run along and play" The mother was facing him, too. She could actually see this, if only she was paying attention to what her child was doing in front of her eyes. Once again, the child called out, saying "Mommy, I'm OUTside!" Once again, the mother just absentmindedly waved her hand at the him and said "Yeah, that's nice" But this time, some other people finally noticed what was going on and quickly rushed to grab the little boy. In a matter of seconds, two security guards had rushed over from the other side of the observation deck and had assumed control of the situation, as they both held on to him and slowly fed him back under the fencing, returning him safely to the inside of the observation deck.

Of course, it was at this vey moment, as soon as the security guards let go of the little boy, that his now-hysterical mother starts pounding on their chests, screaming "How the hell could you not notice my child was on the outside of the tower? He could Have died! What the hell is wrong with you people? You should be fired!" At this point, my mother said it was time for us to go down, Dad was waiting. My mother saw the scene as well, from the second time the boy called his mother, but she had frozen in complete shock, and was still shaking. I remember thinking to myself what a terrible mother that kid had, and then my mother started voicing her opinion to me, explaining what a terrible mother that kid had.

That little boy would be in his early 30's today, assuming he survived his childhood. Having been raised by such a total idiot of a mother, I wonder what kind of man he is now? HEY! Maybe he is the motorist from Motorist Vs Courier It might explain a few things.

Peter: 28th Mar 2006 - 19:06 GMT

eg: hah re: the bike/courier guy. that made me chuckle. also: that cn story is quite a story... wow, just wow.

just to put that kid's feat into perspective:

(...image ganked from www.the-rocketman.com/Dar-R-gallery.html, which is a fascinating- if not entirely off-topic- site, heh!)

BZZZP: 12th Sep 2006 - 10:41 GMT

that first image is begging for a claustrophobic crop just at the knoll behind the adults. begging.