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Birthday Boy left overnight at Chuck E. Cheese

emw said:
That sounds pretty oblivious to me. She drops some kids off, assumes one of them is her son, and drives off? She had several opportunities - at the restaurant, at her mother's house, at the rink, at her house - to validate where her son was. She didn't.
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I read the article and it sounded like there were several adults/cars involved. She'd checked him into the car from the restaurant and on a short drive, would you notice immediately in a people mover that your kid's not there? Even if you call out, would you think he'd fallen asleep with the over excitement and not worry. Then if it's a big car and a large group get out (who may also be staying with grandmother by arrangement), it's not such a leap to assume your kid's there when you're pretty sure he was in the car because you put him there.

I'm sure the mother is equally mortified to have this come out and feels horribly guilty. I'm sure now she (and other local parents) will make sure their car doors in the rear can't open from the inside, that they always double-check on all occupants coming and going. That kid won't be allowed on a sleepover without multiple calls being made.

I'm not saying that she's a perfect mother; just that it seems more like a genuine accident rather than negligence.
 
Applespider said:
I'm not saying that she's a perfect mother; just that it seems more like a genuine accident rather than negligence.
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I'll agree with that - I've said before I don't think it was intentional on her part. I'm just trying to fathom how it happened. I'm sure you're right that she's mortified.

And she must have one hell of a big car to lose a kid. Or they were packed in like clowns in a Beetle. :p
 
iGary said:
It's where I will go if there is a hell.

Tousands of kids.

Pizza.

Video games.
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Imagine working there. (Not now...my first job when I was 15, but knowing what I know about the place, if my kids ever want to go, I'm going to meet the manager first. We hated him. Customers and their food suffered as a result...)If someone asks nicely, maybe I'll tell you what my job was
 
I have a 5 year old boy. There is no way on earth I would ever assume he went home with a relative, or that he must've been dropped off with other kids. If I didn't make specific plans for him to be somewhere else, and he's not with me, I'm in panic mode until I find him.

I have nothing for these people. How can you just assume where your child is?:mad:
 
steelphantom said:
Did they look something like this? :eek:

picture15wf.png


I'm 18 and I would still be scared if I encountered that in public!
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WTF?

Only in America.:rolleyes:
 
fawlty said:
There's something not quite right about using the word "chuck" in the name of a restaurant.
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LOL. There's a restaurant chain in Utah called "Chuck-A-Rama" appropriately nicknamed "Upchuck-A-Rama." I went there once with my family and proceeded to actually upchuck for the rest of the night and all the next day. NOT good times....
 
It's a constant problem in FloriDUH. Parents should have to be licensed before they're allowed to care for children. Of course, we have licensing for unrelated caretakers but that does no good, either.

We just have a bunch of selfish idiots in the state. I was in the VW dealership today and a family was entering the service area and the woman driving just stopped in the middle of the driveway, making it impossible to go round her. Her husband apparently mentioned that she might want to park out of the way, as she actually parked after that. As soon as they got into the building, the kids started climbing all over the new car that was there.

I feel bad for the boy who was left in the restaurant, though. He's growing up thinking that stupidity is normal procedure.
 
zelmo said:
I have nothing for these people. How can you just assume where your child is?:mad:
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I can understand. Sort of. I don't have children, and I'm willing to bet my answer will change with time, but I can see how this might happen. From what I understand, there were other close family members there. I would imagine that the child may be attached to other members of the family and enjoy spending time with them. I know that back in the day, my youngest cousin used to ride with us, when we visited. Usually, it was just a given that he would do so while we were in town. Nobody asked him which car he was in...we just knew.

Now, a family of 4 and one of 5 isn't a lot of people. If this were 20-30 people, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody missed him if he decided to ride with his family and told one ride but not the other. So, in this case, he mentions earlier in the afternoon "I'm riding with grandma," but never tells grandma. Bam! Mom already said yes, so she knows he's being taken care of. Grandma wasn't told, so she knows he went with mom. Bam. Not saying that's how this went down. Just saying it could have (or will happen to another family in the future).

Now, not checking up on him....that's another story that I can't figure out.
 
This is definitely not behavior that is isolated to FL. I've seen plenty of negligent behavior and/or accidental stupidity practically everywhere I've been. I think it has generally been agreed on this thread that there is a proper protocol with handling young children in public places (i.e., make sure everyone is accounted for right when you leave). I also have a hard time understanding, not how the child could be left behind, but could go unmissed for so long. Not knowing the parenting habits the mother follows it's hard to say how. I think that part of the problem was that the adults sat outside and talked for so long afterwards. Even if he wasn't originally with the group like emw speculated it still increased the amount of time the adults were inattentive to the children so I would think there'd be a greater chance of forgetting about one of them (too many other distractions).

I do sincerely hope that the slip up taught not only her but the other adults involved a lesson with regards to their children. I guess at the very least she can feel extremely lucky that nothing serious happened to her child because that would certainly be grief and guilt that would be extremely difficult to bear.
 
jessica. said:
Actually, I know you're just being funny, but for the record, two sets of the best parents that I've ever seen (even better than my own) are two gay couples. There are 3 kids between them. The kids are well educated, well taken care of, and more importantly loved like no other.
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Pretty sure iGary was being sarcastic, but you're heart is in the right place. I can see how this situation could happen, but it could also be negligence. I don't know the details, so I'd rather not judge, but I'll bet Mom is feeling really bad right now.
 
I have 3 young children and cannot imagine leaving them somewhere assuming they are being taken care of by a relative.

iGary said:
And remember kids, it's the homos that are destroying families. :rolleyes:
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I'm calling Ann Coulter!;)
 
floriflee said:
LOL. There's a restaurant chain in Utah called "Chuck-A-Rama" appropriately nicknamed "Upchuck-A-Rama." I went there once with my family and proceeded to actually upchuck for the rest of the night and all the next day. NOT good times....
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Yuck- just the name of that restaurant is enough to make me feel a tad bit nauseous. :eek:
 
steelphantom said:
Did they look something like this? :eek:

picture15wf.png


I'm 18 and I would still be scared if I encountered that in public!
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Gezz! that the hell man......I'm older than you and that gave me the case of the scared....thats what kids like these days?

That mouse looks jacked up on crack...like if he missed his rounds


Bless
 
2nyRiggz said:
Gezz! that the hell man......I'm older than you and that gave me the case of the scared....thats what kids like these days?

That mouse looks jacked up on crack...like if he missed his rounds


Bless
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I agree that oversized rat is rather scary. Not something that I want to meet in a dark alley at night.... :eek: ;) :D
 
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