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cw: child loss
There was a street carnival in town this weekend and we weren't going to go, because we stopped going to those. a few years back a little girl, granddaughter of a colleague of mine, was electrocuted and died. it was the most tragic accident. someone at the carnival hadn't connected something right, hadn't grounded something right, this little girl was just playing around in line for a ride and grabbed wrong metal handrail. the whole city of wichita was speechless. we had no carnivals for a while. the newspaper ran articles about how carnival safety regulations are lax, the staff is poorly trained, the staff is poorly paid, it's bad news.
we used to love carnivals. it's probably been 4-5 years since the accident. when I drive by them now I look at the fun rides and I feel conflicted. life is kind of about risk, right? thousands and thousands of people still line up for these rides and how on earth could something so bad happen to that one little girl? my kids know the story. we re-tell it, because for the first year or two we'd go to other festivals but there was no WAY we were going to a parking lot traveling carnival, no matter how much I remember olive loving the little caterpillar roller coaster.
but this weekend josie's friend invited her, so I started to change my mind a little... shouldn't we all go? why am I so hung up? accidents happen all the time. I let me kids swim in pools, and I know kids who've drowned. I drive in a car, and I know a lot of people who've died in car accidents. how long will I drive by carnivals, full of kids being safe and having fun, letting this one news story eat at me?
then get this... olive didn't want to go. I had just written a blog post about how her videogame addiction seemed better and she wanted to go to parks, but when I offered to take her to the carnival with josie's friend, she passed. I asked her if it was about the accident, she said no. she just didn't want to go.
so she didn't. josie came home later, with little stuffed animals she'd won at a game, saying the food was good, the rides were fun, olive didn't care.
I guess it's safer, but I still wonder if I've scared my kid needlessly? or if I've scared my kid for a GOOD reason because safety really is a concern? I can't tell.
There was a street carnival in town this weekend and we weren't going to go, because we stopped going to those. a few years back a little girl, granddaughter of a colleague of mine, was electrocuted and died. it was the most tragic accident. someone at the carnival hadn't connected something right, hadn't grounded something right, this little girl was just playing around in line for a ride and grabbed wrong metal handrail. the whole city of wichita was speechless. we had no carnivals for a while. the newspaper ran articles about how carnival safety regulations are lax, the staff is poorly trained, the staff is poorly paid, it's bad news.
we used to love carnivals. it's probably been 4-5 years since the accident. when I drive by them now I look at the fun rides and I feel conflicted. life is kind of about risk, right? thousands and thousands of people still line up for these rides and how on earth could something so bad happen to that one little girl? my kids know the story. we re-tell it, because for the first year or two we'd go to other festivals but there was no WAY we were going to a parking lot traveling carnival, no matter how much I remember olive loving the little caterpillar roller coaster.
but this weekend josie's friend invited her, so I started to change my mind a little... shouldn't we all go? why am I so hung up? accidents happen all the time. I let me kids swim in pools, and I know kids who've drowned. I drive in a car, and I know a lot of people who've died in car accidents. how long will I drive by carnivals, full of kids being safe and having fun, letting this one news story eat at me?
then get this... olive didn't want to go. I had just written a blog post about how her videogame addiction seemed better and she wanted to go to parks, but when I offered to take her to the carnival with josie's friend, she passed. I asked her if it was about the accident, she said no. she just didn't want to go.
so she didn't. josie came home later, with little stuffed animals she'd won at a game, saying the food was good, the rides were fun, olive didn't care.
I guess it's safer, but I still wonder if I've scared my kid needlessly? or if I've scared my kid for a GOOD reason because safety really is a concern? I can't tell.