Your Heart Will Throw up in Your Brain
Sometimes things are captured on video that make your heart throw up inside your brain. It makes you wonder how humanity has survived as long as it has.
We posted this to our Facebook Page the other day, thinking people would be screaming, “what horrible parents that kid must have.” And then the comments took some interesting turns.
We know people lose track of their kids. We know there isn’t such a thing as perfect parenting. But allowing your kid to almost ride the escalator in the sky? Then, deep down or plain as day, we all know we’ve failed or at least rubbed elbows with the ultimate fail as parents.
This could have been any parent. Maybe they’re oblivious, absorbed in the sale section of some store or junior was lured away by a flashing light. We don’t know. But what we do know, is that some of you are the “catchers” in life, the people and parents doing good deeds because they desperately need doing. Trying. Striving. Catching.
We salute you. Whether you are catching your own kids or someone else’s. You are heroes.
Have a great weekend, heroes.
41 Comments
41 Responses to “Your Heart Will Throw up in Your Brain”
Saw this on your Facebook page…really freaky stuff. That could not have been an easy catch, either.
He definitely made it look easy, didn’t he?
Two thoughts.
That kid has got a gymnastics future.
The catcher needs a new pair of underwear and a hug.
Everyone else around should be shot for ignoring a screaming (I assume) kid hanging from an escalator railing.
1. Stuck the landing.
2. I need a new pair of underwear as well.
3. Firing squad at the ready.
Wow! Thank God that man noticed him, and moved so fast…and has such great hand-eye coordination! A hero, indeed.
We need to be the hero, not the complacent sheep. Indeed.
My fiance posted a link on her facebook to your site. I’m a stay-at-home-dad and am interested in reading through/listening to your advice etc. I also love the “Share the Radness” title as my pseudonym online has been Mox Rad since I was 11 or 12.
Thank goodness for good people, so glad he saw the kid going up.
I just like talking to other dads (especially if they are SAH-Dads like I am). I’ll surely dive in. Have some sort of stomach flu, so not been online much today. Thanks for the warm welcome! And, in relation to the video, I am that guy running to catch any kid. Hell, I own an antique mall and literally dove to catch a wrought iron stand from falling on a kid (not-being watched by his parents) after he played with it. I have some stories about children running free when they walk into my antique mall, and I’m not afraid to tell the parent to stick with them or they have to go; they always seem to break things.
Any chance the ‘catcher’ was the dad/guardian?
Either way, this whole parenting thing is pretty freaking hazardous.
Nope. Shop owner. ;( –> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/man-catches-boy-falling-f_n_591904.html
Got it, yeesh. I hope the mall at gave him a break on his lease or a lifetime of free Orange Julius (or whatever the Turkish equivalent is…)
I wonder what the Turkish equivalent to that would be…
Hear hear!
omg I almost had a heart attack just now. That’s terrible! why wasn’t that kid’s parent or parents running to help catch him?!?!?! was that guy walking non-chalantly towards him the dad?! yes kids can get away from you…but then you’re supposed to be the one running like a mad person to try and save them! and the FB person {saw that comment too} is an idiot. Sorry I’m just angry now.
Total insanity…. GRRRRR..
Yes, thank goodness for the shopkeeper. And yes the facebook commenter that barfed her craziness all over the place was an idiot. I commented my little story on my own traumatizing parental fail. Parenting fails suck.
Mo,
I read your story and thanks for posting. I think every parent has a fail story like that which you can usually get out of them after you have the guts to admit you aren’t a perfect parent either.
My first day carrying my newborn daughter into the house (she was in a car seat carrier, thank god) I tripped on the walk way into my house… on nothing but my own feet. I was so damn tired and probably shouldn’t have been carrying my daughter. I went flying forward and so did the car seat with my daughter in it. It flew out of my hands on to the lawn doing about two full rolls. Talk about throwing up in your brain. I hadn’t even managed to get my newborn in the house before this happened. My daughter was secured so well in the car seat that nothing happened. She didn’t even cry. I, on the other hand, had a sob fest. Felt like the worst parent EVER. Not until talking to a few other parents who had similar stories was I able to forgive myself. *sigh*
Oh man! I can imagine!
Intense story. We all fail. And if anything, I think I’m saying (even though aforementioned commenter missed the boat) that we need to take stock in the consequences and live a more active, present life.
Fantastic blog – I must be the worst parent of all because I was wondering how they (the cameras) got so many angles on this thing???
Hey Jody, I think they were all mall security.
This just makes me angry at the terrible parents that weren’t watching their child. I mean honestly – how do you forget that your child is messing around an escalator?
Thank goodness for that wonderful citizen who saved that innocent boy’s life. The parents however should fall off a couple of escalators to teach them a lesson.
‘Nuff said.
Understood. Hard to know. Let’s all be “catchers” if we can.
Good catch! My nine year old is forever trying to climb up the outside. We always tell her it’s dangerous and not to. I’m going to have her watch this.
I’m glad the child is ok. If that was my family, likely I was chasing my nine year old’s two year old sister who probably decided to run off at that moment. It’s not always bad parenting. Just that I usually trust my nine year old to stay safer on her own for three minutes than my two year old.
Ninja kids abound. Especially boys and their tenacious nature for the crazy stunts. And I agree, it’s not always bad parenting, but I guess we’re all responsible in the end.
Remember “Mall Rats”? Jason Lee’s career starting upswing as Brodie.
Quote:
Brodie: Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don’t hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent – I don’t care which one – but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.
Fear and Respect. The one-two punch all parents should yield in time of need.
Fear and respect are sort of ephemeral goals. Too much fear and respect can be destructive. You can only use force so long before it comes an obsession. Likewise, totally permissiveness is a death sentence too.
After I watched the video, I have to admit that my first thought was, “That kid is playing on the escalator again!”.
The fates will probably repay me by having that be my kid in a few years. (Hopefully he won’t get as far, though.)
Fear/respect are good goals, but I agree that too much on the fear side of things is not good. When I was about 3 or 4, my grandmother told me I needed to hold her hand on the escalator to be safe. That part was fine. Then she added that if I didn’t, I could wind up like some other little girl who (ostensibly didn’t hold anyone’s hand and) got her coat sucked under the belt and was crushed to death. Thanks Grandma!
Sadly,
I must admit that when I was 6 years old, me and my sister (she was 3) did the exact same thing at a local department store.
The handrail was lower than what it appears to be here and we would ride up a bit and let go and slide down the exterior side rail.
Unfortunately, she held on too long and when she released she fell into an acrylic display stand. (Chin first). She was fine, but had to have stitches.
My mom was trying on shoes, but we got bored and slipped away to look at stuff on our own. Not my mom’s fault.
Needless to say, my daughters don’t take a breath without me knowing about it when we go into a store.
Wow, that’s an incredible story. I know my past colors my handling of my son sometimes. Many times, it’s helpful and sometimes not. That sounds like impacting experience to say the least.
Holy crap! I think my brain just pooped it’s pants!!! And to think I felt completely horrible when I accidentally clipped off skin on the end of my son’s thumb when he was a few weeks old, yeesh!
I did that exact same thing, too, Mimi! I cried for a solid hour when I did it! (Why do their fingers have to be so tiny and their fingernails grow so fast?!!)
OMG me to!!! Its why I haven’t clipped the new ones nails yet even though she keeps putting red marks on her face…perhaps i’ll ask if the pediatrician does nail clipping…
We need to surround ourselves with catchers. Because shit happens and it happens quickly. You can be the best parent in the world and your kid can duck and run. It’s easy to judge other parents until it happens to you. That’s why I keep my kid on a leash
[...] time reading one of my newest favorite blogs, How To Be A Dad, when I came across their post called Your Heart Will Throw Up In Your Brain. It includes a YouTube video that shows a man catching a boy who falls 15 feet off an [...]
The last five seconds? The seconds when the catcher rights the child, steps back and cradles the child to his chest?
Hang on.
I can’t see to type the rest of this…
Not gonna lie, but my heart does same pounding watching my son on the playground as it does in this video…
Replace 9 year old boy on escalator with 2 year old on towering playground equipment with open drops (was that a rock wall to go up?) as frequently as you come across a “safe” slide. Or watching my son watch the idiotic 9 year olds who walk up the slide…
To be quite honest, my parents kinda trusted us 9 year olds… and to be doubly honest, I don’t see how the playgrounds we let our kids rough-house on are any safer than the outside of an escalator shaft… and I can see a 9 year old asking himself that very question before jumping on.
My major fail moment was when I was blissfully unaware that my son finally learned how to turn a round door handle and took to wandering outside. I remember it being overly quiet and I called out for him and got no answer. I frantically searched every room and then ran outside and down the road calling for him desperately…turned around to go back to the house sobbing when i saw the emergency lights on our car blinking… Thank god I don’t lock my car door or he’d be who knows where…
The disappointing part to me was how no other person in the video seems concerned in the least about the situation. One man, and one man only.
Awesome post.
My partner worked in a mall a few years back, and there was an escalator right outside his store. One day a child was playing on the escalator when her fingers became trapped in it, right at the bottom. 12 years on, and her screams still reverberate around his skull. :/
It’s amazing how horrifically negligent some parents can be. Yes there’s moments for everyone where you turn your back for one moment and your child takes those few seconds of parental inattention to scarper into the path of danger.
But then there’s the parents whose negligence is so profound, you have to wonder if they actually want their children dead. The ones who allow their preschoolers to clamber all over back seat of the car while they’re driving. The ones who walk through a busy carpark with their toddler trailing 10 metres behind, and without giving a glance in their direction.
I sincerely hope there’s enough catchers to go round…
Wow, that was intense. Thank you for recognizing the “catcher”…awesome way to look at it.