child drowns in pool in the county where I live

[Bertha Venation]

Unwatched Boy Drowns in Pool In Apparent 'Tragic Accident'
By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 9, 2009

A 19-month-old boy left unattended in his mother's Charles County home Tuesday wandered into the back yard and apparently drowned in a pool, police said yesterday.

Jason Daniel Burke Jr. was discovered by his mother just after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday lying unconscious in an aboveground pool in the 4300 block of Middletown Road in White Plains, said Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff's Office. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Richardson said the mother had left her house to run an errand, telling the toddler's 15-year-old cousin, who lives in the house, to watch the boy while she was gone. The cousin, Richardson said, left to go fishing.

~~~~

How fucking stupid is this mother, or the cousin, or both?!

[Hepburn]

1. I started babysitting when I was 11 years old....

...at that age I knew enough to watch a toddler and was totally responsible. I babysat for YEARS ~~ at 35-cent/hour. This was way, back when...obviously.

People would book me for holidays like New Year's Eve months in advance. I babysat all the way through HS and saved enough to buy a car for college.

At age 15 I knew enough to know to NEVER, EVER leave a toddler alone. You think they are napping? Riaaaaaaaaaght.... Two minutes flat, one of those kiddos could be out of his/her crib and into ANYTHING. I knew that way before age 15.

Unless the mom had some reason to know that the 15 year old was a mega fuck up, I see no problem with leaving a responsible teen that age with a toddler.

This is really sad...wow...:cry:

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Me too. I did have one tot run away on me. Thank God the neighbors brought him back. But the

house was a weird one. The bedroom was in its own building, and then the living room and kitchen were a different building. They were next to each other but with my hearing impairment I never heard that little guy leave. I guess I should have known better and just stood at the door and watched it the whole night.

I count that kid and myself really lucky that nothing bad happened to him.

[applegrove]

2. When my sister & brother in law bought their first house they had a little baby.

They had that pool filled in first thing. Pools and little kids are a dangerous combination.

[DarkTirade]

3. First thing my parents did when my little sister was on the way was install a fence around the pool.

And they made sure all the locks on the doors that led to the patio worked properly.

[applegrove]

4. You can never be too sure with little tots around.

[Roon]

5. My little sister used to sleepwalk

so my father and step-mother had to deadbolt the doors going out to the pool.

[CBHagman]

6. I read that too. Unbearably sad.

I don't know what the deal is with the 15-year-old, but I'll assume the mother thought she could trust him/her.

Still, what a senseless and completely preventable tragedy.

[NJmaverick]

8. Sadly like so many tragic stories, this was the result of multiple break downs

in this case the mother made the mistake of trusting the cousin. The cousin failed to watch the child. Finally, the pool was not properly child proofed (which is a worse offense considering it was an above ground pool, which is usually easily secured)