Child diving while sharing regulator

[bfw]

The intent of my post was just to point out that many (most?) divers have actually seen such a rule, in writing.

and my intent was to point out that there it's not a rule - it's a recommended practice; one organization's definition of what's reasonable. When you brought it up, I believe it was in response to questions about whether it violated any enforcable rule.

 

[bfw]

Extracting snipetts from a paragraph & making zero sense as you ramble along. .... Read a little slower, things will start to make sense.

I understood just fine. Parental freedom gets kids killed sometimes, and it's your painful duty to inform them when that happens. My point is that is irrelevant to the question of societal interference with parenting. If we lived in a society where your career was chosen for you, then maybe the anguish of public safety personnel would be relevant to the issue - you wouldn't have a choice about your painful role in dealing with the aftermath of other people's parenting choices. Thankfully, that's not the case.

 

[bfw]

I didn't attack you,

"Random useless rudeness" - those are your words, no?

I responded to you.

A response would have addressed the question of why you feel compelled to interfere in one situation and not the other, and how you distinguish appropriate interference from inappropriate.

Several people here have offered reasonable sounding explanations of why the actions described are acceptable. I don't agree with them, but they are far more sound than any justification I've heard for not wearing seatbelts, so my question stands - why would you accost a stranger in one case and not the other?

 

[bfw]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Please remember in your posts that the children involved here are not at fault and references to their genetic heredity is irrevelent and in poor taste. Let's keep the conversation civil.

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Any question regarding the limits on parental freedom to expose children to risks others find insanely unwise reasonably raises questions of the social value of natural selection. It does no harm to children who will likely never read this thread for that issue to be frankly discussed, nor is it uncivil.

The current standard of reasonable risk tolerance may be the result of evolution, resulting partly from those with unreasonably high risk tolerances who may have bred and subsequently reversed the effects of their breeding by exposing their offspring to fatal risk. If one considers the current dominant level of risk tolerance good, then it's reasonable to explore whether one is willing to preserve that state of affairs by having society stand down, and let the same evolutionary forces continue to act on the trait of risk tolerance.

Now, maybe I put it a little more colorfully and less precisely before, but I like to treat people as reasonably sophisticated until they prove otherwise.

 

[Gregordo]

I've almost given up.
Without bringing up big brother, abortion, cars, or meth.
What is the responsibility of the boat crew? I've seen this once in Cozumel and the couple weren't allowed back on the boat.
Is it really harmful to dive with asthma? I would think so, but without knowing any better I once thought you could not breathe underwater.

 

[kodiak1961]

Just a quick update, our daughter returned from the Keys Sunday evening. We did discuss it with our attorney and she is preparing a letter to the Bio father's attorney, simply stating that this was inappropiate and could be considered child endangerment. It also is going to ask that the grandparents exercise better judgement in the future, since they are the ones responsible for her safety when she gets to visit her dad. It is documented and I doubt we will see a repeat. I appreciate all the imput, it seems I hit a nerve.

My thoughts on raising kids....life is best lived. My degree is in Biology and my daughter has a keen awareness of the biological world, my son, ....he lives in an XBox world. Two different children, same family. I want them both to be exposed to as much as possible so that they can choose their own paths when the time comes. I would not do something to endanger either, and I expect the same from others. That said, I was both angry and worried about my daughters safety. I felt like I had no control over something that could have gone horribly wrong. It worked out this time. Everyone on both sides now know how my wife and I felt about it and we handled it in a way that voiced our concerns, and documented the problem without escalating any hostilities.

I caught myself telling my son stories of my childhood. It is a wonder I still have both eyes, hands and ears (and I still haven't told him any stories about college). I got in trouble for swimming with a nurse shark when I was in 5th grade, I think it was a double dog dare. Needless to say, all children will be exposed to situations that could hurt them, sometimes we are there, sometimes when we are not. When we are not there, that is when we feel the most helpless. Perhaps we tend to be too cautious, but these are my kids too.

Thank you all for your feedback. I saw both sides, and saw how strongly everyone felt. This helped guide me in choosing our course of action. I know, some of you will say not strong enough, others will say too strong. I can only hope it was the right way. Thank you again.

 

[In10se]

"Random useless rudeness" - those are your words, no?



A response would have addressed the question of why you feel compelled to interfere in one situation and not the other, and how you distinguish appropriate interference from inappropriate.

Several people here have offered reasonable sounding explanations of why the actions described are acceptable. I don't agree with them, but they are far more sound than any justification I've heard for not wearing seatbelts, so my question stands - why would you accost a stranger in one case and not the other?

Good question, but yeah I would. Maybe ... probably. If I felt uneasy about the situation than absolutely. Then again I'm not known for being the shy type.

The one thing that nobody has mentioned here though is how would any of us passers-by even know what was really going on? Seeing him take her under while sharing air gives us no sense of the reality of the situation. From land, with no bad reactions from lil princess ... we'd all be seeing what looked like pops taking her just under the surface. I would not fathom he'd take her down to 30'. A more experienced diver might recognize something that I wouldn't, but it would take that experience to recognize something amiss. Seeing a lil girl go under with pops while sharing air and not surface for a few minutes would ring a few alarm bells, but as soon as she came up with no obvious distress the bells would fade out and I'd either go about my business or chill and watch the lil princess enjoying life.

If I felt uneasy about something, then I'd have stuck around. I'd remark, honestly, how cool I thought it was that dad had the young lady out diving with him at such a young age. I ask the lil princess a few subtle questions in a complimentary way and see what she said. Kids at that age are still easy to read. If it was all legit I'd be all hats off to pops for a job well done, but if it turned out like this one did than I'd ask the lil princess to call mom and give pops a head check. We know the bio-dad loves his daughter, so reasonable conversation would prolly get the desired result.

We all know our own history and can gauge how we'd react from that. I can't speak for everybody obviously, but I can say that my belief is if most people saw a man beating a woman they'd stop the beating. If most people saw a man hurting a child they'd end that situation. Not always, as we've seen in the media, but mostly.

 

[knotical]

When you brought it up, I believe it was in response to questions about whether it violated any enforcable rule.

not so

 

[MN1974]

I have a question regarding this. If I wanted to share my octo in my 3 ft deep pool with my son, so he could see how it felt and if he was too afraid to try it yet, could I do that and would that be "Okay/allowed"?

Thanks

 

[fisheater]

I have a question regarding this. If I wanted to share my octo in my 3 ft deep pool with my son, so he could see how it felt and if he was too afraid to try it yet, could I do that and would that be "Okay/allowed"?

Thanks

NO!

That's plenty of pressure change to cause serious lung injury should he freak and surface while holding a breath.