1-year-old girl loses finger in escalator accident at supermarket in Hiratsuka

Gotcha! Sorry, I was pretty tired last night, just got back from the US and still kind of groggy. I didn't mean to misinterpret your post.

I was referring to you Himajin because I totally agreed with your post about 1 year olds.

RJD, I think that was what I was saying.I don't think I cast judgement on anyone, I was asking the other posters here, 'do you know how short a one-year-old is?' because until you've had one that small, you have no idea of what little Houdinis they are. In other words, they should not have been castigating the parents.

The parents were eating lunch at the time(japanese husband told me). So why wasn't this little girl sitting in a child seat at the table with them? I get so frustrated when I see things like this happen. Unfortunately unavoidable accidents involving kids are very common in Japan. But it's not only japanese parents. I have a chinese woman in my japanese class who lets her 1 year old boy run all over the place...elevators...escalators...up steep steps etc. The rest of us panic, and she just stands there yakking to friends! Grrrrrrrrrr.

RJD, Nice post buddy

rjd_jr - exactly, nice to read a balanced sensible reply.

Himajin, this was a tragic accident. It could have happened anywhere in the world, but for many here it is justification to badmouth all Japanese parents. Indeed unless we have our young children on literal leashes, anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Kids all over the world get abducted, killed, or maimed from losing sight of their parents for just a split second. No need to cast judgement on others.

how does 39 and 29 year old parents lose sight of a 1 year old child???

I see it everyday. Seems like some mothers in Japan feel nothing will happen to their children. kids running wild through the store. Wrestling and tackling each other. Supermarkets are play grounds for kids. It drives my wife nuts, she has a tendency to complain to some errant mothers who are neglecting their child's welfare.

5-1 minus the thumb unless you count it as a finger.

Now this girl with the 3 fingers on her left hand

5 - 1 = 3?

sarge and cleo,

By the time this girl is in high school she will have a brand new genetically grown finger sown to her hand. no problem. It may also be true that bullying J teens are extinct. This kid is just one. There are oceans of possibilities ahead of her.

wottock,

I will excuse you in your Ferrari whilst I go home to a nice dinner, and push my 2 year old about the house, safely might I add, In his kimi replica. I would trade a million Ferrari for him. I suggest marriage and all the love, attention and care a child needs. Once you see your own, there is no going back.

<strong>Moderator: Stay on topic please.</strong>

"Poor little Maika"

Poor little Maika is right, Cleo. Now this girl with the 3 fingers on her left hand will have to endure the endless teasing by her classmates throughout her elementary and possibly junior high school years...

but the ring finger of her left hand?

Azrael - that's a very astute observation. There can be few things crueller than teenage girls. I know, as I used to be a teenage boy.

The parenting skills notwithstanding, this is clearly a dangerous piece of apparatus. There should be a lawsuit for mucho spondola to ease the poor infant's pain as he grows up.

"OK, you're right, I can't get married. Excuse me while I drive home in my Ferrari."

This is terrible....

I wonder what these parents were doing...?

1 year olds aren't suppose to roam around freely...

It's so sad and these kinds of things are accidents waiting to happen, during my lunch hour a couple months back, I was shocked to see 2 young sisters, probably 2 & 3 years old, playing directly in front of the down escalator, where the stairs get meet the ground floor, and these girls were unattended, wearing children's sandals and grabbing onto the moving rubber hand rail...

Unbelievable... I couldn't believe it, I was in a hurry to get back, but I stopped and started to walk over there, luckily an old lady passing by noticed and said something to these kids...

The mother wasn't paying the least bit of attention...

I was a Super Escapist when I was a little kid (I still can manage to disappear whenever I want, and I can appear out of the blue, too). Definitely, loudspeaker warnings will never work with anyone under the age of 6. It's terrible enough she lost a finger, but the ring finger of her left hand? I foresee some cruel teasing from the usual high school girl bullies coming her way when she hits puberty. I hope she will be fine. Thank goodness it wasn't her thumb.

Do you realize how short a one-year-old is? Even if you've got sight of them, how fast they can trot off is sometimes amazing. You make a swipe for them and come up with empty air, they scoot right by under your reach.

"More common sense.....the usual solutions." Regrettably, common sense isn't all that common here. Just look at the exemplars they've elected!

how does 39 and 29 year old parents lose sight of a 1 year old child???

In a crowded supermarket? Very easily, if the child isn't safely seated either in a buggy or the child seat of the supermarket trolley, or a parent doesn't have firm hold of the child's hand.

Poor little Maika.

"Frequent warning announcements" - the solution to all problems?

The trouble then is the continuous cacophony of "abunai.....abunai" warnigs from dawn to dusk just turns into background noise, and real "danger" cannot be distinguished from service calls.

Better parenting, more common sense.....the usual solutions.

oh dear. more shocking parenting. I went to the park the other day a 1 year old was sat up on a high slide platform crying and balancing precariously while her mother was smoking and talking with friends 25 meters away. all the kids were unattended and it looked like an accident waiting to happen. I grabbed the kid down myself before she fell and took her over to the gaggle of woman and was greeted with "sumimasen, wink, nudge, smile, flirt". disgraceful!

how does 39 and 29 year old parents lose sight of a 1 year old child???

"when she was trying to get on it alone."

you`ve got to be joking?? a 1 year old? where the hell were the parents?