Incident in Solihull

[YoSofi]

Comments on news reports are saying that five children/young teens have gone through ice into a lake and are in a critical condition.

Really hope that all involved make a full recovery

What an awful tragedy. I just spoke to my own sons who are the same ages reiterating the dangers. I was very shocked by how young they are, i thought they would be teens, but a 6 year old 😞

My heart goes out to their parents, relatives and friends.

You can't judge children for being children. The Times have a fine example of adult stupidity today showing a picture of skating on the fens in their best pictures section. It's not an activity that should be celebrated.

@TerraNostra kids play out, it’s what they do (maybe not in your perfect parenting, watched like a hawk utopia) but in real life they play out; they will have been wrapped up for the weather and out playing, no different to any other day.

It's incredibly sad. I don't think it matter how many times you tell your children to not do something. You can never be sure that they will not do it especially at that age when all their friends are doing it.

It has made me think though that when I was that age (in the 70s) there was a lot more public information about not treading on ice. I don't see it much nowadays, perhaps because there are so many other things which are known dangers (e.g. cars, paedophiles etc) and the message has got buried.

I agree.

God knows, their poor parents will be torturing themselves anyway - "if only I'd remembered to tell them X, Y, Z . . made them tidy their bedrooms first . . . told them to stay inside because it was too cold . . . "

None of us needs to be piling more guilt on to that.

It's a fact of life, as others have said, that children can't be kept in all of the time, and nor do they always think ahead, no matter how sensible they are. This is the most horrible, heartbreaking thing - but their parents aren't to blame, and nor are those poor little children. Three of them have been confirmed dead, the fourth is critical. This isn't something to crow about.

I grew up rurally, and a young lady aged 4 died on a farm by being run over by a tractor. We had the Police into school shortly after, and they regularly showed videos about farms, the local river and electricity pylons. Accidents like this are the price paid when society doesn't show kids dangers because we're too scared of worrying them.

Well done to the rescue crews, what a challenge and done without thought to their own safety/wellbeing. The water must have been perishing overnight even with safety equipment on.

I don't understabd why so many posts say things like "how awful right before Christmas"....as if it makes any difference what time of year it is when your child dies? It's pretty crass.

And yes, kids play out, that's great. Mine do/did. But at 6, 8 years old, next to lake, in sub zero temperatures...that's not normal, or ok.

Those public announcements back in the 70's were very very haunting and thought provoking

As a child I hated them. But we DO need them back to cover this kind of topic, as well as for drug use etc.

They need to have the shock factor though, sadly, parents would complain about them if we had them back

Done nothing for their level of anxiety or bad mental health, either, its all got worse.

Anxiety was unheard of when I was a kid, as were MH issues in children/teenagers, and pretty much most of the community.

Th standing water one makes me shudder to think of it even now.

So does the one about fire.

Very year we got a fireworks safety one as well - usually showing graphic footage of burns, scars etc. We don't have them anymore either.

Skating on the Fens is actually relatively safe - it's mostly very shallow water, flood water over meadowland - rather than a deep lake. Obviously there are deep areas, but it's generally regarded as a safe activity by locals.

Such a terribly sad thing.

This all serves a purpose. Humanity is a social species we empathise with one another, and communicate. I can well imagine most parents can put themselves in the shoes of these boys parents.

Whatever elements people happen to focus on emotionally is a good thing, because these whole conversations serves to put this tragedy upmost in a lot of parents minds. There is utility in this, as I would imagine many parents are drumming into to their child’s heads the danger of frozen bodies of water as we speak.

We can’t bring these lost souls back sadly, but we can resolve to prevent further tragedies occurring as the cold weather is going to be sticking around for a while.

I am struggling to pinpoint the precise benefit of pejoratively calling this process grief vulturing. If
it bothers you that much just close down the thread. Nobody is forcing you to engage to even read it if you don’t wish to, let alone the snark peacocking you felt the urge to engage in.

Press conference on Sky now

Heartbreaking also for the emergency services, absolute heros every single one of them.

Whilst I enthusiastically agree with most of your post, anxiety and poor mental health definitely affected children back in the day (I'm 43, for context - so perhaps if a different generation to you?). Usually under the guise of self harm, anorexia and school refusal. I remember a girl in my year whose panic attacks were so bad she had to sit her GCSEs and A Levels in a separate classroom.

Our whole community is in shock. I can see the lake from our back windows.

It's very busy area, especially in summer, dog walkers etc and perfectly normally to children of all ages over there, especially during snow and ice. It's not in a beautiful location any means, its surrounded by houses and not particularly remote at all, you wouldn't want to walk round there once it gets dark alone

The policeman said 'the family' so it seems they could be brothers.

Police have confirmed that they have had no further reports of anyone missing, and that they are just making sure there is nobody else in the water as reports from eyewitnesses have given conflicting accounts of the number of people on the lake.

I dearly hope this means that they are not expecting to find anyone else.

I went to school just up the road from babbs mill. Horrible to hear this awful news.

I don't know your age, but anxiety was also unheard of when I was a child (I am mid forties). That doesn't mean I didn't suffer from terrible anxiety, physical panic and some pretty full-on Obsessive Compulsive behaviours, it just means it was unheard of because no-one really talked about it, even my doctor shut me down pretty quick when I took an article on OCD to her and said this is what is happening to me. Children suffered, but mostly in silence. We should talk to our children about mental health in the same ways we would physical health.

To be honest I can’t believe it’s still there, my mum and her friend used to swim out to the island in the summer until one day. Somebody at obviously chucked a load of metal in there and he literally got stabbed through the stomach, had to go to hospital. I was swimming in the part by where the boats are launched and got a piece of glass. The size of a bottle wedged in knee. I’ve still got the scar. I don’t know I know we can’t sanitise everything but the lake has never been anything but trouble in my opinion.

Police are saying there’s ‘no suggestion’ that there are more children missing, they’re just being thorough?

my goodness those first rescuers were brave

I can totally see why the police/fire service are still checking the lake as all the details are not confirmed

@CentrepieceOfDoom there have been reports of members of the public and dog walkers jumping in too, have to assume no one has been reported as missing but case of it being someone for eg who lives alone and wouldn’t be flagged yet, they need to ensure no one else in there.