Stupidest Parents Yet!

This is for real, right?

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/worst-parent-week-dad-puts-toddler-washing-machine-183500809.html

In the silent footage from the laundromat's security camera, the dad scoops up the diaper-clad toddler, shoves him head first into the front-loading washer, and shuts the door. He and the mom seem amused at first, but panic quickly sets in when they realize that they can't get the washer door open. It's locked automatically, and the tot is trapped inside as the washer starts to run. (Warning: The video is disturbing).

 

I'm not going to watch the video because that's awful, so I don't know the exact details.

But instead of getting all high and mighty, I think it's pretty understandable to have a brief lapse in judgment when you try to do something silly and funny with your kid only to realize in horror that the door locks automatically.

 

Not going to watch the video, but I agree it's very easy for something that you think is funny to go wrong in a really bad way.

 

I saw that Rick posted, thought "Let's see him be a contrarian on this one .. Nah, not even Rick would try it with this subject."

Jesus, Rick. Please explain how putting a small child in a washer is "silly and funny."

 

It's the 1 out of 1,000 poster that's annoying me. I should know better, though.

 

Didn't say it was. I said "lapse in judgment." It was a dumb thing to do.

But there's not a parent alive that can get through the first three years of a child's life without doing something that, if the some very long odds went against them, would result in people feeling superior on the news about how stupid *those* parents were. It's a defense mechanism we use to feel better about how there's always a very slim, out-of-our-control chance that something awful might happen to our children.

Last weekend, we stayed at my parents' house with my two-year-old. We all went out to lunch, and when we got back we let him out of the car and he sprinted up into the garage and hit the garage door button. We were all laughing and smiling about it too much to sprint to get there before the door closed, so he was alone in the garage for about 20 seconds while I went through the house to get in the garage and grab him.

It's insanely unlikely but theoretically possible that in that 20 seconds, he could have gone to the other side of the garage, climbed on a chair and gotten a hold of a dangerous tool. Then we could have all been treated to a news story about how some stupidest parent ever let his kid get locked in a garage.

I may, in fact, *be* the stupidest parent ever. But not because of that.

 

Okay, now that my contrarian reflexes have calmed down, never mind.

I can totally see thinking it's funny to set the kid in the washing machine. But it's terminally stupid to close the fucking door.

 

What's next, letting a 2-year-old ride on the front of a mower deck?

Some things you just have to know are completely out of bounds for kids.

 

what a stupid fuck. there is no defending that shit.

 

I don't blame the parents for putting him in the washer. Putting him in the dryer afterward was over the line.

The kid is all static clingy now.

 

Oh, Bounce!

 

Dumbshits......the voices in his head said "Downy.....not drown him"