A Sad Carnival Story

[Desertbelle]

I am part of an extended family that loves to cruise. We and our children have cruised with small children and babies with wonderful results! So it made me upset and very sad to hear this story.

 

My 24 year old son, who is a wonderful, stay at home, father of a 2 1/2 year old daughter, was on the Carnival Elation last week with a few of his friends for a guys only get away.

 

One night after midnight my son, and one of his friends, noticed two very small children, 2 or 3 years old, wandering around a hallway. He approached them and they were very upset but able to show him where their cabin was. In the cabin was another child around 5. These 3 small children had been left alone in the cabin.

 

My son and his friend took the two smallest children to the purser's desk, the oldest child wouldn't leave the room.

 

My son was so shocked that people would leave their 3 small children alone in the cabin. His remark was rather funny "It sure took the buzz off!!" ...in other words it's a very sobering experience to see such blatantly bad parenting. :(

[crusinmama06]

That would just make me sick. :( I would have gone ballistic.

 

What did the purser's desk say? Probably nothing much. :(

[cusyl]

Wow, I'm glad your son took charge of them. I am wondering if the ship put the family off at the next port. Anything could have happened to them. Poor kids must have been scared to death. :eek:

[Desertbelle]

My son said the person at the purser's desk was very upset and they said they would find the parents. Not sure if they sent someone to sit with the child left in the cabin or not, my guess is that they did. I also wondered if they put the family off the ship but I doubt it.

 

This story does remind me of an experience we had once. We have 4 children. When our oldest kids got to be teenagers my husband and I would sometimes leave the house after everyone was in bed to go out for awhile...of course the teens aways knew we were going out.

 

One night we returned home after about 3 hours at about 2 am to find the police at our house. I about died running to door thinking the very worse. Inside our house were the two policemen and my youngest two sons, 8 and 11 years old. The police are very angry at us. My youngest son (the one from the ship story) is so happy to see us and runs to my arms crying that he was scared....he had woke up and couldn't find me so he called 911. I asked him why he didn't go to Shellie or Matt (the 18 and 16 year olds) and he says he forgot. The police ask; "You have teenagers here?" I say, yes, of course, I would never leave my young children alone! I asked them if they wanted me to wake them up to prove it, but they realized we were seriously concerned about the whole thing and left. I was so shocked my son would call 911 because he couldn't find me. Silly boy! :rolleyes:

[Onessa]

I'm just hoping that the 5YO didn't get into any trouble with Mom and/or Dad :eek: . Anyone so naive to leave the three little ones in a cabin alone, probably also decided to put the oldest "in charge"!

[Onessa]

. . .I was so shocked my son would call 911 because he couldn't find me. Silly boy! :rolleyes:

 

Seeing life through the eyes of a little kid is always interesting. That's why I like to travel with my DD -- she looks at things so differently than adults. Even though she is 12.5YO and nearly as tall as I am, I have to remind myself that she is still a kid and does not have the experiences, the perspectives, or the thought processes of an adult.

 

When DD was 7YO she had the presence of forethought to call her dad at work one day. It was about 8:30am - she had off of school that day and I was staying home with her. At about 5:30 DH and I had been awoken by a very loud pop and crack (so loud it was as if a gun had been shot in our room). DD had slept through it, but in the grey morning DH and I discovered one of the oaks in the front yard had twisted in the high winds and cracked vertically the only thing holding it up was a very dead skag in a neighboring tree. DH went to work and I called the tree guy. He came by about 8:15 and we were out looking at the tree. When DD awoke, there was no Mom at home -- so she took out her listing of emergency numbers from her school backpack and tried first me at work, then Dad -- Dad convinced her to look out the front window and sure enough she saw me. I was really impressed that she thought through the situation so well (and also happy Dad had been at his desk so that DD didn't have to call my best friend at work, who would have panicked, would have left her job to drive over -- just to find me out on my front deck with the tree guy. Nice to have a friend who would do that for you -- it just would have been a bit embarressing!)

[Karysa]

What were they thinking. It reminded me right away of the Maddie McCann story. She was the little girl who was left in her hotel room in Portugal while her parents went for dinner.

Karysa

[pms4104]

To the OP ... while your son was noble in dealing with this terrible situation, the outcome for him could have been horrible. In his place, while being concerned for the safety of the kids, I also would have been afraid of any accusations that would have put him in a precarious legal situation. I'm talking about sex abuse here.

[Desertbelle]

What was the alternative? Just let those babies continue to wander around? Sometimes decent people have to do what's right even in the face of possible repercussions. The safety of those children were utmost in his mind. I am proud of my son and his decisions.

[maxamuus]

I dont see what makes this "A Sad Carnival Story"?? From what you posted i dont see what Carnival did wrong?

[pms4104]

What was the alternative? Just let those babies continue to wander around? Sometimes decent people have to do what's right even in the face of possible repercussions. The safety of those children were utmost in his mind. I am proud of my son and his decisions.

You should be proud of your son ... I don't think there was any other reasonable alternative. I was merely pointing out that there are all sort of unfounded accusations out there these days. What a shame, though, that a perfect stranger would have more concern for those wee ones than their own parents!

[crusinmama06]

I dont see what makes this "A Sad Carnival Story"?? From what you posted i dont see what Carnival did wrong?

 

Desertbelle never stated nor implied that CARNIVAL did anything wrong.

 

On this board, since we discuss so many different cruiselines all with one common theme, children, we all have a tendency to put the name of the cruiseline, no matter the topic.

 

So to be fair...it's not unusual for posters to use the name of the line.

[pms4104]

I dont see what makes this "A Sad Carnival Story"?? From what you posted i dont see what Carnival did wrong?

I would gather the OP's thread title implied "A Sad Story on Carnival".

 

Perhaps the "wrong", if there is one, is that Carnival didn't pitch those neglectful parents and their children off at the next port.

 

Granted, this happened at sea. Had this occurred on land, in any community in the United States, the parents likely would have been arrested and charged with child endangermant.

[Desertbelle]

I didn't mean to implicate Carnival in any way, I just meant to state the location of the story. My apologies to loyal Carnival fans.:)

[Cruisin' Chick]

I too was thinking of the McCann girl. My girl is ten and she hasn't been left on her own yet. Just the thought of an serious earthquake happening if I go on errand leaving her at home alone...

[Dr_DNA]

Wow. Some people never cease to amaze me.

[NoelsCat]

It's just impossible to fathom what goes through these "parents" minds.

 

Thank goodness your son was there. It could have been someone who would have loved the opportunity to hurt little kids.

[Meggiewegs]

I'm so sad for those kids. I wonder where the parents were. I hope they got an earful.

 

Kudos to your son, though! What a responsible guy!

[PrincessYoga]

What were they thinking. It reminded me right away of the Maddie McCann story. She was the little girl who was left in her hotel room in Portugal while her parents went for dinner.

Karysa

 

That is what came my mind as well. Very sad for those children.

[keep on cruisin]

To the OP,

 

Luckily your son was there to do the right thing. The worst part is if something had happened to these kids, the parents would be blaming Carnival. To many people think bad things won't happen to them. Unfortunately that kind of attitude is usually what puts peoples guard down and makes them a target.

 

It would be interesting to know what if anything was done to the parents.