Appropriate Christmas Gift
So, what's a suitable Christmas present for a seven-year old girl? Book? Doll's house? Bike with stabilisers? Lego? £1200 quad bike that can do forty miles an hour?
Quad bike! Great idea! And perhaps she and her brother, who is ten, could have one each, and drive their quad bikes in the darkness on an unlit winding country lane, following their dad's car, near the village of Blackmore, Essex.
Yes, an interesting gift idea, but unfortunately a Range Rover collided head-on with the little girl's quad bike and killed her.
So, on to the quotation from Schoolfriend's Mum, on the subject of the little girl:
"She was absolutely perfect and was loved by everyone. She loved horses. Her mum used to bring her horse to school for Elizabeth to ride home. They were wonderful parents, really lovely."
They always find someone to give a quote like this, don't they?
This autumn I took part in a conference on Child Neglect in a very poor region of the North. The stories of neglected children were horrifying.
But this story is equally horrifying. The only difference in this one is that the parents were rich.
Never mind the "wonderful parents" bit. Bollocks. Over-indulgent, thoughtless, deeply stupid and criminally neglectful in a different way. It's illegal to ride a quad bike on a public road if you're under sixteen anyway.
Of course, the parents will be devastated. I hope they'll replace ten-year-old Jack's quad bike with a more suitable Christmas present before he gets himself killed, too. I hope the story will have some influence on other rich-but-stupid parents.
Quad bike! Great idea! And perhaps she and her brother, who is ten, could have one each, and drive their quad bikes in the darkness on an unlit winding country lane, following their dad's car, near the village of Blackmore, Essex.
Yes, an interesting gift idea, but unfortunately a Range Rover collided head-on with the little girl's quad bike and killed her.
So, on to the quotation from Schoolfriend's Mum, on the subject of the little girl:
"She was absolutely perfect and was loved by everyone. She loved horses. Her mum used to bring her horse to school for Elizabeth to ride home. They were wonderful parents, really lovely."
They always find someone to give a quote like this, don't they?
This autumn I took part in a conference on Child Neglect in a very poor region of the North. The stories of neglected children were horrifying.
But this story is equally horrifying. The only difference in this one is that the parents were rich.
Never mind the "wonderful parents" bit. Bollocks. Over-indulgent, thoughtless, deeply stupid and criminally neglectful in a different way. It's illegal to ride a quad bike on a public road if you're under sixteen anyway.
Of course, the parents will be devastated. I hope they'll replace ten-year-old Jack's quad bike with a more suitable Christmas present before he gets himself killed, too. I hope the story will have some influence on other rich-but-stupid parents.
posted by Daphne at 1:35 pm
5 Comments:
I couldn't believe that there didn't seem to be any "but what was she doing on a quad bike, on a public road, in the dark?" questions on the news reporting that I heard - only the inference that 'some stupid drunk driver in a 4x4 caused a tragedy'.
My first reaction to the M***** case was "Good god, when they find her I hope her parents are charged with criminal neglect."
I am so, so unsympathetic.
And to think I felt ever-so-slightly cruel and judgemental to think (when the story broke) "Oh god I bet it was a Christmas present and this is all due to adult stupidity." Silly, snap-judgement me. I feel terrible too for the poor woman driving the 4x4.
Yes, I gather that the driver of the Range Rover tested negative for drink/drugs. I bet she'll find it hard to get over the accident.
Thank you all for your comments.
hear hear here.
"We've already bought her expensive presents like horses, what the hell can we top it with this year?"
FFS, people, there are *reasons* why most of us wouldn't leave under-fives alone in a building or let a small child out on a powerful machine...
Julie paradox
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