Here's One For The WTF????? Files: Dad Abandoning 3 Yr Old Son

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/16/baby.drop.ap/index.html

SNIP

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A Japanese drop box for unwanted babies triggered a wave of nationwide soul searching Wednesday, a day after it was discovered a preschooler -- and not an infant -- had been dumped there by his father on its first day of operation.

SNIP
The drop-off was opened last Thursday by the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in the southern city of Kumamoto to discourage abortions and the abandonment of children in unsafe public places. The same day, a boy believed to be 3 was found inside.

The boy, who was in good health, reportedly said he was dropped off by his father, who was seen holding the youngster's hand as they approached the hospital. They apparently rode Japan's bullet train to Kumamoto, but it was unclear where they lived.

"I came with Daddy," the boy was quoted as saying by the Mainichi newspaper.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/16/baby.drop.ap/index.html

Only commentary I can offer is: WTF???????

[SoCalDem]

1. As creepy as it sounds, perhaps the guy was a single dad who just

couldn;t handle it and he flipped out.

Shame is a big deal in Japan, and maybe he could not ask for help.

At least the little boy's alive and well..

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. Funny Though The Perspective. I Consider Nothing More Shameful In This Sense Than Abandoning

the child.

But yes, thankfully the boy is being taken care of appropriately.

[SoCalDem]

10. Abandonment is horrible, but some alternatives are worse.

My guess is that they will find the dad, and find out that he's suffering from some emotional / mental issues, so the boy may be a lucky kid after all.

[hippiechick]

2. I can understand it ...

... sometimes parenthood (especially single parenthood) gets to be too much. Seriously.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

6. Too Bad.

Deal with it. (generalized statement)

[hippiechick]

13. Deal with it, how ... may I ask ?

By keeping the child and neglecting, abusing or ignoring him?
By blaming him for your (the parent's) life being miserable?
By fucking him up physically and mentally, scarring him for the rest of his life?

I'm guessing the parent didn't just wake up one morning and say 'I'm sick of you' ... more like it was a long term struggle for the parent to make ends meet. A struggle that he finally decided he was not going to win.

As a single parent who surrendered custody of HippieKid to her father several years back because I finally realized that I simply could not make the life for either of us that we deserved, I think taking that boy to a place where he will be cared for is the most humane thing that could have been done, thank you.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

15. By Not Abandoning Him Anonymously Is A Start.

"By keeping the child and neglecting, abusing or ignoring him?"

Ummm, not neglecting, abusing and ignoring him would be a start. Those things are too much to ask? Not in my fuckin world.

"By blaming him for your (the parent's) life being miserable?"

That's something you condone? I don't. Not blaming an innocent child for ones misery would be a good start too. What kind of questions are these? Jesus christ.

"By fucking him up physically and mentally, scarring him for the rest of his life?"

Oh this is a winner. How bout not beating the child. How bout not mentally abusing the child, how bout not scarring the child for the rest of their life. Now that shouldn't be too much to expect I'd hope.

Kids don't need perfection. They need basic accessibility to health care, proper nutrition and sleep, and the comfort of a loving parent. Only in circumstances of SIGNIFICANT mental incapacity or extreme poverty would I condone the option of abandonment as opposed to other improvement measures. In this case though, doing it anonymously and just droppin the kid off in a drop box is pathetic any way you look at it in my opinion. But to each their own.

[hippiechick]

19. Wow, you just really don't get it, do you?

:eyes:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

20. I Got It Just Fine. Do You Get It?

Or are you just turning this into something rooted in your own guilt?

This OP ain't about you. Just wanted you to know that.

[BoneDaddy]

3. Disturbing but at least the father

had enough sense to realize that he was not a good father to this child and perhaps someone else could do a better job.

[Greeby]

4. Seconded

:wtf:

[OlderButWiser]

7. What does this drop box look like?

I'm imagining a postal box.

[gatorboy]

8. They can't stand kids in Japan.

Well they may not necessarily despise them. But the way the culture has been built, they simply don't have time for them. The government has intervened with several programs trying to encourage the population to have children but they simply won'y have any of it.

[silverweb]

9. Stories from the Great Depression.

As I recall, orphanages took in hundreds (if not thousands) of children during the Great Depression from desperate parents who were unable to support and/or care for them.

This event could just be the act of a selfish man, but it also could speak of another urgent societal need. I truly hope the hospital doesn't close the drop box.

[jojo54]

11. I'm glad the father dropped the boy off

At least they now have the boxes to drop off unwanted children. Eons ago in Japan, girl infants would be put outside the door for the wild dogs to get (girls would bring in no money as they didn't work). This, at least, is a giant step up from those old (IMHO) barbaric practices.

[Arkansas Granny]

12. As horrible as this may story may sound to some, this is much

better than the possibility of this child being abused and sustaining injuries or possibly death because he was unwanted. For whatever reason his father brought him there, this may be the best thing for the little boy.

[SteelPenguin]

14. Yeah

I can't imagine abandoning either of my kids, but if the guy did this it's probably for the best.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

16. Maybe So And You May Absolutely Be Right.

But I'd still say the odds are in favor of the father being a selfish piece of garbage. If not, I take any negative words back. But unless he had some severe mental illness or extreme poverty, I can't forsee there being other explanation.

[IA_Seth]

17. Still, isnt it better this way then?

If the father was a selfish piece of garbage, isn't is better that this child is no longer with him? It's horrible and sad that the child was left behind, especially at 3 years old, when emotional development is in turbo, but it's much better that he be raised in an impersonal, though loving home (like an orphanage) than with a guy so twisted that he left his child behind.

[JVS]

18. What? Children older than infants can't be unwanted?