How in the hell did this happen? Thank God for miracles, this kid’s goose should have been cooked.  I know, I know, most people are watching the video in shock and horror, thinking to themselves “that poor woman” or “oh, how horryfying for her”. I, on the other hand, could only shake my head sadly and imagine all of the negligent things that this mother will do to her kid in the future.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking: Seriously Ruby, everyone makes mistakes, don’t you have a heart? I do, and my heart is bleeding for that poor infant, who is too fragile to take care of itself and relies on its mother to keep it safe from harm. I am seeing a woman whom I can inherently tell wouldn’t have been standing on a skateboard while a train was approaching without making sure she was securely stuck in one spot. And her feeble reach out towards the stroller once it was on the tracks, still making sure she was entirely out of harms way? Not to mention the, what? 6 seconds the stroller rolled toward the tracks to begin with?

And for those of you who have some defense for her that says something like she couldn’t have known what would happen, watch the video carefully. She has the stroller sideways all the way until the train begins to approach, because she clearly knows the platform slants down toward the track. Nope, this was clearly a case of negligence. Not in a cruel way, but rather in a moronic way. Parents need to start realizing that their kids are HELPLESS!!! They don’t know when danger is approaching, and they don’t know how to defend themselves. As a parent, one must be 100% vigilant on their child’s behalf.

See, to me, it’s parents like her that created the baby leash. Have you ever actually seen one of these contraptions. It’s a harness you put on your kid, much in the same way you would put it on a beloved puppy, and it’s attached to a leash, so you can entirely ignore your child while you walk them, and reign them in whenever you happen to notice they are somewhere  they shouldn’t be, or if they pause too long to sniff another child.

I personally watched one man and his leashed child. He stood at booth after booth in the mall as the child ran around, sampled something he got from a potted plant, licked the floor, and did other silly toddler things, all while he was oblivious. I even saw the child get caught in the leash and the father kept going, gave the leash a yank, and with barely a glance back yelled out “Come on Cal, lets go. Now”. Cal ran over to his father and hugged his leg, as his father sort of shook him off after patting him on the head, and continued to walk.

Now, this story would be disgusting , and just sad but it also brings up, once again, the concept that toddlers cannot take care of themselves. Poor Cal, after an encouraging tug on his leash, went running into a pole, which he actually bounced off of (OK, if was pretty hilarious at the moment…I know, I’m a terrible person) before landing hard on his little diapered butt. Of course, in shock, it took him nearly a minute before he started crying. And of course, oblivious Dad had no idea anything had even happened until the bawling begain. All I could think was, that poor kid (OK, after I stopped giggling).

But the point is, babies are NOT puppies. We have to remember that baby humans and baby animals are entirely different, and that other baby animals are born with the ability to move, to run from harm, to protect themselves. Baby humans are not born with those innate skills, those innate abilities. So we can’t treat them like puppies. Sure you can put a puppy on a leash and let it run wild, or let your dog go on a train platform. Most likely nothing will come of it because they are born with the ability to move and navigate the world, to run away from harm, and to not eat noxious poisons. Human babies don’t.  Let’s try to keep that in mind.

Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t…but that’s just my two cents.

Cheers