Reply #23: I was at a water park exactly once. My cousin

[LibDemAlways]

took me, along with our two young children, to one near Philadelphia. It was gross. Huge pools full of kids in diapers and God knows what else. I waded in with my five year old for only about two minutes, and I was by her side the entire time. The next day my daughter came down with a fever, and I could have kicked myself for letting her go in that nasty water at all.

In the case being discussed here, the mother should have stayed with her young child. Assuming anyone else is looking after your small child is just ridiculous.

Some people lack the common sense required to be a good parent. A few years ago the ballet school my daughter attended opened a small classroom that could only be reached through a narrow alley around the back. I would routinely watch parents drop off four and five year olds in that alley and tell them to wait for the teacher. Then the parent would take off. A couple of times the teacher didn't show and those kids were in that alley for an hour, sometimes after dark, with cars zooming past. Jeez, anyone not able to supervise the activities of their small children, keeping them out of harm's way, has no business having them in the first place.