@/TW: Parents under fire for their 6yo running a marathon

[foundmylazybum]

May 8, 2022 12:58:05 GMT -5 acuore said:

May 8, 2022 12:25:17 GMT -5 foundmylazybum said:

He may not have enjoyed it, the parents certainly shouldn’t have encouraged it, but the idea of calling CPS on them for this is insane. It is no more “abusive” - less, actually - than parents who allow their young kids to go gymnastics or skating for hours every day in hopes of an Olympic career or an eventual college scholarship. I wouldn’t call them good parents, but I wouldn’t call them abusive either. 

Also, again at 6 years old in the US, most gymnastic gyms and ice skating programs practice age appropriate time limits with kids and limit sessions like 30 min 1.5 hours. And, a more appropriate example is pushing a novice 6 year old to do the same trick off the vault as Simone Biles. Which is
ridiculous, dangerous and...no one should be arguing for that kind of thing, but.


I guess there is always one person willing to try such an awkward response!

[af1212]

Ugh their whole IG account is a hot mess.

[mcsangel2]

May 8, 2022 15:21:40 GMT -5 foundmylazybum said:

May 8, 2022 12:58:05 GMT -5 acuore said:

He may not have enjoyed it, the parents certainly shouldn’t have encouraged it, but the idea of calling CPS on them for this is insane. It is no more “abusive” - less, actually - than parents who allow their young kids to go gymnastics or skating for hours every day in hopes of an Olympic career or an eventual college scholarship. I wouldn’t call them good parents, but I wouldn’t call them abusive either.

Okay, the quote function is all messed up here, assumedly because acuore deleted what I copied above after foundmylazybum called her out on it.

You clearly have no idea how gymnastics or figure skating training goes in this country, especially for six year olds.

[katfco]

May 8, 2022 12:58:05 GMT -5 acuore said:

May 8, 2022 12:25:17 GMT -5 foundmylazybum said:

Also, I'd love to see cross culturally where parents are routinely having children of 6 walk 8 hours to fetch water. I think cross culturally there is a lot of evidence that families have children do age appropriate chores and it's actually not such a long amount of time at that age, but a stereotype.

Beyond that, even if it were true, sometimes you just have to put things in the context of which they are:


This is the West. It's socially and developmentally inappropriate for a kid this age to do that distance, as evidenced by his stopping every two min and crying and asking to be done.

Read the room you are in.

My point was not that this is a good idea, but that it’s not beyond the limits of normal human physiology. Children in some parts of the world do, in fact, do 20 miles+ a day while hauling weight (I am thinking of Ethiopia specifically, but I expect it is true in many countries where water sources are far away). Social context is irrelevant. Doing this one time is extremely unlikely to cause permanent damage to a normal 6-year-old human - or do you think that kids in the developed West are somehow physiologically different, and more fragile, than those elsewhere?

He may not have enjoyed it, the parents certainly shouldn’t have encouraged it, but the idea of calling CPS on them for this is insane. It is no more “abusive” - less, actually - than parents who allow their young kids to go gymnastics or skating for hours every day in hopes of an Olympic career or an eventual college scholarship. I wouldn’t call them good parents, but I wouldn’t call them abusive either. 

I’d be interested to see your facts on this because you seem to be highly exaggerating based on the facts I’ve found.

Forcing a child to do something physically detrimental to their health is abusive. A child being forced by circumstances is tragic.

[jeaniebueller]

May 8, 2022 12:14:59 GMT -5 acuore said:

These people suck, and are clearly in it for the attention, but really, this 6 year old didn’t “run” a marathon. It took 8 1/2 hours, which is a (pretty slow) walking pace. Do I think it is a good idea to make your 6 year old walk 26 miles? No, but I also don’t think it’s going to do him lasting damage. I did a 20-mile walk with my dad one day when I was 4 (not a race, we were sightseeing), and didn’t have any long-term ill effects. Kids in some parts of the world routinely walk 6-8 hours a day fetching water. 

Now, if they had actually made the kid run/jog the whole marathon, that would be a different matter. 

you should do some research on this family because they routinely cause their kids physical and emotional anguish in their quest to get youtube views

[waverly]

I don't have an issue with a kid walking in a race. My issue is the length of the race, the AW of the parents, and the fact he was crying.

For those saying gymnastics is 1.5 hours, there is a post on ML saying that competitive gymnastics for a 6 year old is 3 hour practices 3 days a week (or 10 hours a week) are standard, which I think is too much also.

[Captain Catnip]

This is the first article I clicked, but apparently CPS is investigating.

tinyurl.com/2p8mde9j