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258 Comments
- dotbacher, on 01/15/2008, -14/+253Come on, how many times have we horsed around with our kids? Now, I do think 18 months is a little young for a sleeping bag swing, but I don't think there was any ill-intent here.
- scallon, on 01/15/2008, -7/+196This is pure speculation, but my guess would be the situation was something like this: The toddler is in his/her sleeping bag and the babysitter picks it up and swings it around a bit (kind of like when a parent takes their kid by the arms and swings them around or picks them up and lets them pretend they are flying). Naturally the kid loves it and wants the babysitter to do it again and again. Eventually the babysitter gets a bit too into it and loses her grip. It is definitely an unfortunate accident but no more than that.
We also have to remember this is a local news channel, and if Hartford has the same local news as I have seen in countless other parts of this country, it relies on sensationalism and tragedies to keep its ratings up. Notice how the baby sitter's use of anti-depressants is brought up? They act like it is a cocaine habit or something. Hell half the kids I knew in high school and college were on anti-depressants of some kind or another, and usually not by choice.
So in short, this is a terrible accident and nothing more. Buried just so that I dont have to read pages of crackpot theories about how the baby sitter did it intentionally or how she must have been drunk or some other stupid *****. Accident, plain and simple. Not digg worthy. - mbabauer, on 01/15/2008, -2/+104For all you that say "WTF" and "She's dumb", its easy to say that sort of thing after the fact, but the reality is we all do things that seem ok at the time, but end up having severe consequences. I dislocated one of my son's arms by swinging him around when he was 2yrs old. It seemed like a fun thing to do, and up to the point his elbow detached, he was laughing and having a great time. I felt like ***** afterwards, but you have to remind yourself that its called an accident because no one meant for it to happen.
Hindsight is 20/20. Its easy to look at a situation and say "Man, what was thinking?", but the truth is we have all done these sorts of things, it just usually doesn't turn out quite so bad. I have countless anecdotal stories along these lines, but I will restrain myself from sharing too much. - inactive, on 01/15/2008, -15/+87Intent doesn't matter. You don't swing babies around, espescially other people's babies. It's probably a freak accident, but that's exactly why you don't swing babies around. Because accidents happen. The worst part is she probably did it because the kid loved it.
She's getting charged because it's not her kid. Babysitting is assuming the responsability of the health and safety of another person's child while they are gone. She's liable even if she only had the best intentions. It's just sad for all parties. - DeskFlyer, on 01/15/2008, -13/+73Well, I guess this would qualify for today's WTF story.
- Aidenf77, on 01/15/2008, -0/+52I remember playing around with sleeping bags plenty when I was a kid. I'd tell one of my sisters to get into a sleeping bag, zip it up, and, with some help from my other sisters, drag her rampant around the house; laughing hysterically all the while. We'd all take turns "riding" the submarine, or spaceship, or whatever it was at the time. It even got painful when just around the flat got to be too boring and the steps got involved, but it was always in the spirit of good fun. It's a tragedy that this happened while in that same spirit. Sure there might have been a lack of judgment there, but it really sounds like a freak accident. I'm positive the baby-sitter's intent was not on traumatizing that little baby.
- Tessela, on 01/15/2008, -8/+57That is not something uncommon. Coming from someone who babysits quite often, you do not expect these kinds of things to happen. I have carried children on my back, bounced them on my knee and jumped on trampolines. All of these things are potentially dangerous. It is very sad and unfortunate this baby sitter accidentally killed a child, but I wouldn't blame it on her lack of judgment.
- conley, on 01/15/2008, -2/+46This is tragic but at least the babysitter was engaged in playing with the kid she was suppose to be watching instead of watching tv or talking on the phone. I am sure it was an accident, my parents used to do the same thing to me. really too bad the way the media approaches this to make it seem villainous.
- Ndiggnation, on 01/15/2008, -3/+38Besides, everyone knows what babysitters actually do is oven-bake babies while tripping on acid..
- Nomadelle, on 01/15/2008, -42/+72Swung him around in a sleeping bag?!?! Does this babysitter have ANY common sense?
- jellygraph, on 01/15/2008, -2/+29Accidents happens and everyone has a moment of poor judgement. Happens all the time. I know I've had many and been lucky nothing happened, but realizing what _could_ have happened.
It's no reason to demonize the girl. She needs supoprt as much as the mother, because she must feel awful. It's about forgiveness, folks. - Rahodeb, on 01/15/2008, -1/+25If only they had attached that warning label to the sleeping bag, this could have all been avoided.
- Ndiggnation, on 01/15/2008, -3/+27I hear the baby sitter community is a big contingent on Digg..
- pkonink, on 01/15/2008, -1/+24I have an 18 month-old child and while it hadn't crossed my mind to swing him in a sleeping bag, we horse around all the time. If something like this happened it would destroy me. I'm sure this girl feels the same way. I'm willing to bet she pleads guilty and spends the rest of her life with soul-crushing guilt. This is a real tragedy.
- inactive, on 01/15/2008, -9/+31LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!
/had to. - dpmcalli, on 01/15/2008, -1/+21I remember being swung around by my Dad all the time and being thrown up in the air and caught again. Not in sleeping bags mind you. I dont think its unnecessarily dangerous, we're to conditioned to do health and safety analysis of every action we take these days.Its a tragic accident but i imagine more toddles die crossing roads, climbing trees, etc
- runtheplacered, on 01/15/2008, -3/+22ya! you show her with your all caps and overuse of exclamation points!!!!!!! I'm sure this babysitter was contemplating babysitting your child, too.. so it's a good thing you said that! WOOO LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS!!!!!!!!!
- Firehed, on 01/15/2008, -8/+27That's how toddlers have fun. Being bounced around and whatever. It went wrong this one time, and now you can expect all sorts of pussifying laws to come into effect as a result. What happened is terribly unfortunate, but at the end of the day it was just a bad accident that could have happened to anyone.
- wbeavis, on 01/15/2008, -7/+24I would hesitate using the term "baby". You are using it to illicit an emotional response. Baby brings up an image of a helpless or crawling kid. A 1 and a half year old (18months) is a toddler. They can even walk and talk. They love to spin and get tossed around. My daughter loved the classical toss up in the air (still does at 5). What she did might have been reckless, but was certainly meant in fun. Kids love swing and bounce around, you should check out this nifty invention called a "swing". This was an accident and I'm sure the babysitter will be guilty for the rest of her life. Nothing will bring back the child. The real loser in this situation is the next generation, because this incident will fuel the fire for a "safer" society (coincidentally a more fascist one too).
Sometimes having fun leads to an accident, perhaps we should make fun illegal. For the safety of our kids. BTW, if you think I am being overly sarcastic, there are many communities actively seeking to ban the game of tag from playgrounds. Too much danger and liability of two kids running into each other. - Scynet, on 01/15/2008, -3/+19Says the guy with 666 in his nick, tsch.
- erikerikerik, on 01/15/2008, -4/+19you are the kind of person that bans running during play time and removed teh se-saw from the playground arnt ya!!!
I would hate to be your kind. - inactive, on 01/15/2008, -3/+18Swinging a child ABOVE your HEAD in a sleeping bag is where I would draw the line of good judgment. There are just too many things that could have gone wrong with that scenario. I feel bad for the babysitter... but I can't imagine she was very intelligent.
- biggiantmat, on 01/15/2008, -0/+15I do dangerous things like this with my 5 year old sister all the time, and she thinks it's hilarious, but to do it with an 18 month old baby was pretty stupid of her.
- rand0mm0nkey, on 01/15/2008, -2/+16No, we USED to have parks with swings. And slides. And merry-go-rounds. Now they're not safe and we'll sue you if you say otherwise.
- thesonofdarwin, on 01/15/2008, -1/+14Exactly. This was terrible, but I can 100% guarantee everyone that says "WTF was she thinking" has endangered someone's life other than their own many times throughout their lives by doing something reckless or "fun."
- Linkin4, on 01/15/2008, -0/+13You're dead accurate on that sensationalism part, if you watched wfsbs news you would think that Connecticut had some sort of west coast gang violence problem in all areas of Hartford and New Haven. I just zone that out and wait for the local weather. That doppler 3000.
- Waskonator, on 01/15/2008, -6/+18Sleeping bags are for sliding down stairs, or camping in the living room.
Note: Sleeping bags are not to be used for human trebuchets.
Sad story. :-( - Grumps, on 01/15/2008, -6/+17Britney probably would
- inactive, on 01/15/2008, -0/+11No point seeking "revenge". Her life is destroyed, if only for the psychological shock.
- Klowner, on 01/15/2008, -2/+13In fact, I'm baby sitting right now! brb, I just heard screaming.
- Ranvier, on 01/15/2008, -0/+11The depression/break-up mention was such irrelevant *****.
- scabbers, on 01/15/2008, -1/+12Accidents happen. One thing I don't understand is why the people in the building felt the need to tell the press the mother had treatment for depression.
- crapmatic, on 01/15/2008, -0/+10I'm having a bit of a moral problem with the idea of "digging" tragic stories.
- chorne, on 01/15/2008, -3/+13I agree that there was likely no ill intent but the babysitter should have had the common sense to think about the risk involved (which in this case would be rather significant). Babysitting or child care of any kind involves keeping an eye out for these kinds of risks and ensuring that we steer clear of them.
- majehire, on 01/15/2008, -1/+11It wasn't the swinging that did him in, it was slamming into the wall. Curse you, walls!
- SzaszMan, on 01/15/2008, -0/+10I'm Digging you and burying the article. Thanks for the wakeup call, seriously.
- Edrick, on 01/15/2008, -0/+9We should ban all matter and energy. They can be extremely dangerous.
- Joeyshinobi88, on 01/15/2008, -3/+12no... i don't think you did.
- FredSpeaking, on 01/15/2008, -0/+9Mentioning anti-depressant use in a "story" like this is disgusting.
contact for our tasteful msm friends:
http://www.wfsb.com/contact/index.html - Smaulz, on 01/15/2008, -3/+12Sleeping bags outlawed... film at 11.
- aspirax, on 01/15/2008, -1/+10It's a terribly sad story, and she will have this on her shoulders for the rest of her life.
I feel as sorry for her as I do the parents. - jetblackz4, on 01/15/2008, -2/+11Is jail really what she needs? I would think this is as traumatic to her as it is to the mother. What she did was stupid but I would be willing to bet her intentions were in no way to cause harm to this child. I feel for the mother and hope the babysitter gets the proper mental help she needs and not a lengthy prison sentence. I am really getting sick of this lock em up mentality America has.
- inactive, on 01/15/2008, -4/+12I suspect similar things have happened to many diggers.
- Aidenf77, on 01/15/2008, -0/+8Yes, it does.
- Dragular, on 01/15/2008, -4/+12becase it maeks mah haed hert wiht hpapy!
- dannyboy3020, on 01/15/2008, -0/+8You are absolutely right. But unfortunately, this is not the prevailing sentiment on digg.
- spyrochaete, on 01/15/2008, -1/+9FTA:
"Video: Organs Of Baby Swung To Death Donated"
Not sure I need to see a video of that procedure. - inactive, on 01/15/2008, -0/+7You don't need intent - duty of care is sufficient to get the job done.
- kh99, on 01/15/2008, -5/+12Tessela, you gotta understand that the morons here live for stories like this. They can read it and post inane comments about how stupid the person was, then they can feel smarter. It's like saying to themselves "at least I'm not *that* stupid". Don't bother trying to be reasonable.
- chuckDontSurf, on 01/15/2008, -2/+9See, kids like to do this thing called 'playing.'
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