How could this even happen?

Neither of them was paying attention to her. Probably something like this:

“But you were watching her!”

“I thought you were watching her!”

I’m wondering if there is now a CPS report.

If it happened to me (or anything similar), I would be seriously looking at my attention and interaction with the baby, and looking at my S.O. and re-evaluating our parenting skills.

Unfamiliarity with the ocean’s behavior must be factored in. I suspect that they settled in too far out on the beach to be completely safe. Plus the inflatable crib clearly had not been anchored on the sand by a weight of some sort.

Still, enough water had to flow up onto the beach to lift the crib off of the sand. How could the mother not be aware of the rising water level?

Ah, @sahID. How could the mother not be aware of the rising water level? What about the father?

I’m baffled.

But after this nothing about moronic parents surprises me any more.

In a way, @sahID and @Dutchess_III, thankfully the inflatable crib was not anchored to the ground because then, the water would probably rise over the baby’s head and the baby would drown.

We won’t be able to figure this out by speculating. But it seems that @zenvelo‘s scenario is probable enough. There are so many times as a parent where there is an opportunity for something to go wrong. But since it doesn’t, we don’t remember or even register these moments. But when something does go wrong, it’s easy to feel angry and place judgment on people we don’t even know. It seems to me that the reason we have the luxury of doing this is that we have been lucky enough to not make a mistake or have a lapse in attention at the wrong time.

I’m curious as to how far away the baby was from the parents?

@DoNotKnow Ver ywise answer. I’ve always thought we parents are all experts at what other people should have done.

We are. And we are guilty.

The key is to try to minimize the times when something could have gone wrong.

(No shit. And Praise God when things do go wrong, but everyone is OK) Sry. didn’t know what other term to use!

When my daughter was born, I was told by my fellow CPS workers (multiple workers) “Don’t ever leave her alone in the car, not even for a minute. Not if you’re going into a convenience store or gas station.” So I was very careful, especially after seeing many children hauled off to foster care and the hoops that the parents had to jump through to get their children back.

As far as this case with the child being taken out to sea, I can’t imagine how long the parents were not looking at the child (we’d call it “neglect” or “lack of supervision”) for the child to go sailing out like that.

For half a mile, no less.

Hm. This article says the parents “forgot about her.”

They should be thanking their lucky stars that she is ok.

Not all that different from this girl being left behind.

Or this girl

^^^ That is just a nightmare. But I don’t consider it neglect.

@Dutchess_III: Leaving a 3 year old girl alone in a hotel room is neglect where I work. Neglect, lack of supervision, inadequate guardianship. If she didn’t disappear she’d have been removed from her parents by the court in a flash.

Oh, you’re right. I thought there were older siblings with her. But she was the oldest. Yeah, I would have done that, either.

Don’t know, this story is unfathomable to me. I’ve always been overprotective of my own brood anyway, I won’t even let my grandkids play on the deep end of a pool unless I’m in there with them, despite all of them being good swimmers and always having floaties on at any rate. And the baby is only allowed in ankle deep water, with adult supervision. But an ounce of prevention of worth a pound of cure.

When I teach my little ones to to swim, starting at about 2 years, I warn them about not getting in over their head. I teach them how to hold their breath and float.
Eventually I take a break. I’ll park them on the pool steps (anybody remember those?) and admonish them not go go off the steps.
Then I’ll sit a few feet away and watch them like a hawk. Eventually they….step off the step. I walk up to them, look down at them under the water, looking up at me, shocked, pull them out, park them on the steps again, and say, “Do not go off of these steps.”
They never do it a second time.
They need to find out how dangerous water can be. They need to find out for themselves and I’d rather they find out in a situation where I have control rather then at a moment I’m not looking.
But…they’re pretty much swimming by the end of that first day. I mostly teach them how to rescue themselves, like, hopping up and down in water over their head until they get to shallower water.

Good advice @Dutchess_III. I did similar things other than swimming, like locking the bathroom door. I stood beside my then two year old and showed her how to lock and unlock the door. She practiced a bit and then could do it. No getting stuck in the bathroom.

Good idea @Stinley! You don’t want them to do certain things, but they have to know what do do if they do it any way and find themselves in a bind.
As my kids were approaching puberty I told them that if they found themselves in trouble because they were doing something I would be mad at them for doing, they had one free pass. They could call and say, “Mom, come get me,” and I would come and not ask questions.
No matter what, they can call me. NO MATTER WHAT.
My middle child used it once, when she was 16, for which I was eternally grateful.
Of course, I would have given them a million free passes to save them, but I wanted to make this quite serious.

@Dutchess_III Good job, and good parenting. Kudos!

Why, thank you! It’s hard. So damn hard. But I think I did OK.