Toddler falls to death at Lakers game

OK, so this was a fairly new building. I think Lakers, I think Forum.

If children are allowed in this area, I'm sure there is a code for the railing (inches apart or height from the floor). If they are a 1/2 inch off of this code, they are toast.

And if it is new, then it should follow the code of the year it was designed.

Plus, this is such a cheap fix. Don't blame the parents for this. This happens in a second.

 

Dude, I f-ing hear this.

We have basement stairs at our house, and I'm constantly, constantly aware of them. They are never not on my mind, honest to God.

So we're at a BBQ at a friend's house a few weeks ago. They have stairs with a baby gate on them to prevent falls.

My kid's walking around the house, in my sight but still walking around with other kids. All I hear from the home owner is, "Oh, don't worry. There's a baby gate. Don't worry. We have a gate up."

Yeah, while I'm being a paranoid dad staring at the stairs, some 3-year-old walks right over to the stairs, with my kid two steps behind him, and starts opening up the gate. I never traveled 10 feet so fast in my life.

Just two nights ago, I caught him climbing UP the stairs leading from my friend's basement while we were watching college football. He only got about three stairs before we realized it and got behind him while he climbed. But it happens FAST. I didn't even know the little shit knew how to climb stairs. Of course, when I caught him, he looked back and had a shit-eating grin on his face.

 

I don't think it's about a money grab. The need to blame somebody else for what happened and make them pay for it must be incredibly strong. Logic and sense go out the window when emotions are this strong.

As someone with a 16-month-old sporting a humongous bump on his forehead from crashing into a coffee table yesterday, let me tell you anyone who claims to be able to "never let their kid out of their sight" is fooling themselves. It's not that easy. But it's important that we tell ourselves we'd never let that happen and the people who did let it happen must have been wrong somehow, because then it's easier not to think about how shit can go down at any time to anyone and we're not special or insulated.

 

I'll let you give the Clippers half the blame. How's that?

 

Without the facts, it's impossible to say. But it is certainly plausible.

 

I can guarantee you that at a sporting event, I have never let my toddler out of my sight or reach. Ever.

 

The one good reason for lawsuits over negligence is that they deter future negligence by others.

People are oddly offended that we settle wrongs this way in our society. I don't get it. To me, that's like saying that it's bullshit to charge money for dress shoes or cab fare. Money is what we use here.

 

It looks like the kid would have climbed the ledge then leaned over the glass. When the top became heavier than the bottom, he would have fallen over.

This is going to be a tough call, but if that glass was six or 12 inches higher, this probably does not happen.

 

Stuff like this and the Notre Dame incident makes me want to stand up and applaud the Big Ten for showing some damned common sense this weekend.

 

Here's how freaking slick they are.

My 16-month-old and I were at my parents' house all weekend. They have a large living room that's separated from the rest of the house, and that's where we spent most of our time. The door to the rest of the house was blocked by a gate, but the kid knew that there were cats on the other side and was desperate to get to them.

So later, my mom takes him outside for awhile, and wants to let him wander a bit while she sits and watches. So she takes the gate from that door and puts it in front of a gap in the hedges to block him from getting out that way, leaving no way out of the yard so he can wander freely without her having to stand over him the whole time.

The kid sees the gate out there and *immediately* goes over to the door to go inside and starts making noises and hitting it. We let him inside, and he goes straight for the now un-gated door to the rest of the house. The little shyster knew that if the gate was outside now, the magic door must be unguarded and this was his shot.

They are freaking con artists even at that age. They want to climb, they want to explore, and you can't possibly be within arm's reach of them at all times. "Out of sight" doesn't mean you let him wander around where you can't see him. It means that sometimes he rounds the corner faster than you expect and takes off, and is out of sight for a few seconds before you catch up. Or like yesterday, he's running around and you are trying to block him from getting to the door when he suddenly veers toward the coffee table instead. He's got a nasty bump but is fine, but falling head-first, full-speed into something that sharp? If luck had really gone against us that day, it could have been much more serious. Shit happens.

 

And everyone got on their shit too. The reaction was so dumb. Really, really, dumb. Antoine Dodson dumb.

 

I watched the ND-Army game the other night at a friend's place, and all the older guys - our dads - were bitching and moaning about what a bunch of "pussies" the Ben Ten were, and how in their day the players would've says they were going to play the right way or they weren't playing at all, and Pat Fitzgerald is a "pussy," and Ron Zook is a "pussy," etc., etc., etc.