This story was sent out over one of my work listservs today to highlight the quick thinking of this 7 year old boy. Hooray for him, but the adults in his life had better start using some common sense themselves.
I'm glad that this grandfather survived and that his grandsons had the presence of mind to help him. Still, I find it difficult to fathom that a man with a condition that could turn life threatening at any moment would go anywhere without his cell phone and even more so that a mother would leave her children at home with no access to a telephone that could dial for emergency assistance. I'm sorry, but that strikes me as incredibly irresponsible. And what kind of "babysitter" leaves a 7 year old and a 4 year old alone in the living room for a few hours?
Not having a land line is not a big deal, many homes don't have one anymore. BUT if she's leaving her kids at home the first question she needs to ask the sitter is "Do you have your own cell phone? Please make sure you bring it."
As for Grandpa leaving the kids for hours, he may not have intended to leave them alone that long. No one knows how long he was altered, it could have been for 2-3 of those 4 hours. The first time my dad had a hypoglycemic episode my mom had no clue what was happening, she thought he was just sleepy. By the time she realized something was wrong and called me, he'd been like that for 4 hours. When the medics got there his level was around 30.
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
Not having a land line is not a big deal, many homes don't have one anymore. BUT if she's leaving her kids at home the first question she needs to ask the sitter is "Do you have your own cell phone? Please make sure you bring it."
As for Grandpa leaving the kids for hours, he may not have intended to leave them alone that long. No one knows how long he was altered, it could have been for 2-3 of those 4 hours. The first time my dad had a hypoglycemic episode my mom had no clue what was happening, she thought he was just sleepy. By the time she realized something was wrong and called me, he'd been like that for 4 hours. When the medics got there his level was around 30.
Yes, that's my point, that Mom never should have left the house without making sure the sitter had some means of communication. Back when all we had was land lines, we didn't need to worry about that... but we did still make sure we left the number for where we were going, or some other way of making sure we could be reached in an emergency, didn't we?
As for how long those kids were alone, from the article, it did sound like he intended to let them play X-box for a few hours. True, no one knows how long it had been since he went into crisis, but he should've been out in the living room, especially with a 4 year old. To me, that's irresponsible. Personally, I don't think 4 year olds should be left alone like that, with just a 7 year old brother for supervision.
woah, hold on a minute. First, they weren't in the middle of nowhere, the upstairs neighbor was available, second, people have lived for thousands of years without their cell phones, I used to spend all summer with my grandparents, and we used to walk to the phone booth and call my mom once a week. Third, the grandfather was obviously too ill to check on the kids, something that had never been an issue before. And its great that the kids stayed up that late and saved their grandfather. How would mom feel if the kids reported that they hopped in bed at 8, like good little boys, but grandpa died during the night.
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
Once again, the issue isn't cell phone or land line, it is cell phone or NO PHONE. That; plus a mother who takes off without ensuring there's a way to reach her.
What difference does it make that people survived thousands of years without phones???? They also survived thousands of years without EMS- just not as many of them made it to old age. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who cares for kids owes it to them to make use of every safety precaution we have at our disposable without regard to how things were ''in the good old days''. Should we also stop turning the lights on? People survived without them for years, you know.
As far as the neighbors being available,what good would that have done if the boys didn't go upstairs and ask for help, which they didn't? The bottom line is that f Grandpa had been in the living room with those boys, where any responsible sitter should be, they'd have known about his crisis as soon as it happened.
But Mercy, just because he was going to let them play with the x-box for a few hours doesn't mean he wasn't going to check on them. He may have planned to check on them every 30 minutes but went into crisis and couldn't check at all. And they're too young to have realized that he hadn't checked on them. I seriously doubt he intended to let them play until midnight at their ages.
Yes, not checking to see that Grandpa had a phone was irresponsible, but the mom probably assumed he did.
I suspect the article was a little off in reporting that the cell phone the 7 year old had was an "old" one. At exactly what age would YOU buy your kid a phone, even one that can only call you? It couldn't have possibly been more than a year or two old, and obviously it wasn't some cast-aside toy, it had service, so obviously someone--MOM--was paying the bill for it every month and knew it was there and functional.
So, even if we can possibly say that Mom was negligent in not double-checking that Grandpa had his phone with him (it would never occur to me to ask my father if he had his phone if leaving him to babysit my son at my house), she didn't leave the home without any phone at all--her son had a phone.
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
But Mercy, just because he was going to let them play with the x-box for a few hours doesn't mean he wasn't going to check on them. He may have planned to check on them every 30 minutes but went into crisis and couldn't check at all. And they're too young to have realized that he hadn't checked on them. I seriously doubt he intended to let them play until midnight at their ages.
Yes, not checking to see that Grandpa had a phone was irresponsible, but the mom probably assumed he did.
That's not what the article said, though. It specifically said he went into his daughter's room while the boys played a few hours on the X-box. Honestly, in all my babysitting and childrearing days, I never left kids that age alone in the living room at night. No telling what mischief they can find, much less what trouble may come knocking at the door. I used to worry about going into the bathroom for a couple minutes!
I'm sure Mom assumed Grandpa had his cell phone. That was a bad assumption to make. Which brings me back to the point of my thread. Really, if we're going to go without land lines, there is a real need to make sure that cell phones are available. Period.
Mercy, I have a 3-year-old. I will sit in the evening and watch tv and sometimes she does not want to watch with me. She will go in the other room and play and I check on her frequently. Just because the grandpa was going to let them play for a few hours doesn't mean he wasn't going to check on them.
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
But leaving alone the supervision issue, the bottom line is that we open ourselves up to trouble when we give up our land lines and either don't make sure a cell phone is available or the one that is supposed to be available either isn't charged or doesn't get a signal, etc. I think land lines serve an important purpose and I'm not about to give mine up.
And that's your choice. My MIL does not have a land line and neither do most of her neighbors. I know several nurses who do not have land lines. This mom didn't have a land line but she probably assumed her dad had his phone with him, so in her mind they were not completely isolated. And as Cymy pointed out, the child had a cell phone.
oramar
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My kids always want to know why I waste money on land line. It is because I fear a emergency, it is a back up.