And this 100%

je,

You have a 3/4yo and hold their hand 100% of the time when in public and not in a stroller? That seems crazy.

+1

What if you have 5 kids?

If you put a four year old in a stroller, you are part of the problem.

She's not 3 yet, but I would in a crowded place like a zoo, yes, even if she doesn't have a record of climbing walls.

Feel free to PM me in 2 years and see if I've changed my mind, but honestly can't imagine having a child who runs off who I don't have complete control over in a crowded area.

Seems like we shouldn't interfere with natural selection. Look at the kid in Japan who was abandoned by his parents for misbehaving. He survived for a week on his own in the middle of a forest. Those are the kind of genes that will lead us into the future, not this family's, whose kid can't even survive being in a zoo for a few hours with his mother right there.

I don't and won't, but I wouldn't compromise their safety by taking them somewhere I can't look after them if I did. That would mean trips to the zoo involve both parents + grandparents if we can't look after them ourselves.

I have two brothers and we're all fairly close in age. My little brother was on a leash in some old pictures and we've teased him about that his whole life.

If that was the best way to keep a 4 year old safe then I would. I don't have a 4 yr old yet though.

People can say whatever they want about killing the gorilla but if anyone truly thinks that gorilla wasn't protecting the child you're really really stupid. It's not like gorillas have peanut brains. He stood the kid up from sitting in the damn water. Probably the best parenting he'll ever receive in his life. Sad situation but like someone said gorilla is actually free from being a sideshow attraction.

Do you guys realize how easy it would be for a gorilla to strangle a kid with one of those leashes?

I thought the Cosby caption couldn't be topped. I'm happy to have been wrong

OK, I'll bite (at the risk of being "really, really stupid"). What exactly was the Silverback protecting the child from? Bad parenting?

As to him standing "the kid up from sitting in the damn water," was that before or after he took him body-surfing in the moat?

From my POV, it looked like the school bully giving a wee lad a wedgie.

And +1 to this.

There is no one on 2p2 that I don't like, and many people that I actively do like. Don't mistake my calling you out for your lolfake story about your daughter for disliking you. I don't dislike you.

Pretty sick burn you made, definitely re-evaluating my life now. Will look into getting more real life friends and will try to go to more different places. In Hong Kong right now after spending the last few months in Thailand and Vietnam diving with real life friends. Flying to the Solomon Islands on Monday. Will sail on a sailboat from there to Singapore with real life friends via Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia over the next couple months. Thought that was pretty solid, but I now understand I have to do better. Will need to hold off on the car until I get back to USA#1. Last time I owned a car was when I bought one in Miami a few years ago and drove it from Key West, Florida to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, visiting lots of real life friends all over USA#1 and Canada along the way. Sold it in Anchorage and flew to my 50th visited state of Hawaii where I lived for a while before helping a real life friend sail his boat across part of the Caribbean.

Sick burn, tho.

+2

Do you call your son Sweetrobin?

Kids need some freedom and need to acquire judgment. Mine didn't get keys to the motorcycle and liquor cabinet at four, but a four-year old should definitely be able to go to a grocery store or a zoo without a stroller, a leash, or a held hand.

in fairness, I spent summers on a farm and at four, the rule was we needed to remain in sight of the house or within earshot of the dinner bell. There was a fair amount of trouble to be found, but I sure as hell knew at that age to stay away from the well and from poison ivy. We did not have pet gorillas, however.

Je: That sounds crazy to me, but to each his own. Pretty much what Howard said IMO.

Chop: you had him, but Johnny crushed you in the burn war by virtue of you actually writing that response!

HT,

You really should have just ended that story:

"...to stay away from the gorilla."

Damn.

ED - that was a mic drop, not a burn. A burn would have been something like if he thought potstickers were sushi and I said "shouldn't you be out eating potstickers at a sushi place while the friends you came with are crushing nigiri?"

If the kid had been armed, no one would have needed to call the authorities.