I don’t normally dedicate this space to current events, but maybe my blog and I are going through some kind of transition. Anyway, fortunately the situation I blogged about yesterday turned out okay . . . at least in that the little boy was found alive.
However, questions linger and are actually being fueled today by the family’s Thursday night appearance on Larry King Live, in which the previously missing six-year-old said, “We did this for the show.” (Story here.)
I just bet they did.
I said yesterday that I would withhold judgment for a bit. Well, I have some thoughts that transcend the whole balloon incident.
First of all, it would seem to me that these children are being raised in an extremely laissez-faire environment. Why in the world would these kids be playing on the roof with a video camera? And yes, apparently both mom and dad were home at the time, so supervision theoretically should have been going on.
Secondly, I stand by my original statement that these parents (or at least the dad) indicate a huge need for attention that goes far beyond any normal limits. And I simply detest it when people even remotely appear to exploit their children to fulfill that attention need. Jon and Kate are another example of reality shows gone very bad. I suppose that’s why I very rarely tune in to such programming. The skeptic in me is always at work.
Thirdly, I’m all for adventure. And clearly this father is adventurous. With his incredible attraction to science and fascination for exploring extraterrestrial life, he seems quite the character. Add to that this interest in making homemade helium balloons, and . . . well, let’s just say it would seem that his sense of daring and adventure has overtaken any reasonable level of common sense.
The fact of the matter is that we’ll probably never know for sure what the real situation was. Did the parents really believe the small child was in the balloon? If so, then why did we hear nothing about a detached basket until after the thing crash-landed? I mean, with the whole world watching on live TV, it was pretty clear that there was no basket for the 90 some-odd minutes that I watched.
I guess that on the bright side, this kid will have a great story to write when his teacher assigns the “What’s the Most Exciting Thing That’s Ever Happened to You?” essay.
Never mind. I’m wrong about that. Who wants to read about someone hiding in a box in the attic for four hours?
I guess the dad will just have to keep trying. After all, with a name like Falcon, this kid of his was apparently born to fly.
Better yet, family therapy and parenting classes. Now there’s an idea worth pursuing.
