To think a 4 year old should know not to push over a giant Lego statue

[sandrabedminster]

4 year old pushes over Lego statue.

That's just a badly behaved child right? Mine at 4 knew not to do things like this because I didn't let then run wild. I don't think the age is any excuse what so ever.

Of course, it isn't at all conceivable that the child rushed over to hug it and the unstable statue fell over? 🤔

Don't be so obtuse ilovesooty

Sorry, I'll get my coat...

I love what passes for 'art' nowadays.

My child is an angel (his personality, nothing to do with my parenting). We can take him round shops with fragile or dangerous things in and he will never touch without asking. Last Christmas we were in a garden centre and with no warning he got excited, raced forwards and knocked a light up polar bear which fell, taking a large part of the the Christmas display with him. I imagine lots of people though we were terrible parents but children are unpredictable and fast and I am old and slow.

The angel wing video is dreadful - the parents were filming and encouraging their children to be behind the ropes.

The rubbish at the museum - again not good . When I take pupils in a school trip we clean up after ourselves, and staff check the place is left in a reasonable state before we go.

The Lego - hard to know without any evidence. The article is very biased - I don't know if the reporter was there or now. The artist did decline compensation so maybe he did see that it was an accident. Hard to know on that one without more details.

I stayed up all night once building the Lego Ferrari Pit Lane. I am an artist!

My child would be in a huge amount of trouble for that!

I have 3 DCs. DC1 knew "no" from 3yrs old and stood by my side when required (now almost 8). DC2 is like the tasmanian devil, he is currently almost 6 and even when we are having to physically restrain him, he can fight with the strength of an adult. DC3 is only 3 but knew "no" from the age of about 12mths.

As a general rule, I don't judge parents unless they casually just stand there if something happens. I am on my DC2 like a hawk because I know he is capable of doing some damage, even though he full well knows what "no" means, he choses to ignore it and there is nothing we can do about it. Doesn't mean we ignore it though!!

Although, despite the parents needing to take responsibility for their DC, the venue and the sculptor in this case also need to take responsibility to ensure that if someone did knock into the sculpture, it would withstand the force.

I am the owner of a wild four year old, and while yes, in general I can trust him to not do something like that, he is also still only four and a little bit unpredictable at times.

So I think YABU. The news stories about this incident are thin on facts so all we know is what happened and nothing about the reasons why.

YABU, even teenagers and adults have moments of impulse, and adults forget that young children (he's only four ffs) don't always think of the consequences. I fucking hate the judgmental pricks that label a child "a very naughty boy" etc because they do something like this, yes it's a "naughty" thing to do but doesn't make the kid a bad child ffs.

Sparkling, lol :)

Catsize that's a very good point.

My first thought was also that the little boy and tried to hug the Lego statue.
Why do some people jump to the worse case senario?

OP are you the author of the blog you linked to?

I read something the other day about the Chinese being known for being the world's worst tourists, and I was a bit because it sounded extremely racist - so I googled it - it was actually quite interesting reading about the cultural differences which have led to some, errrr, differences between what is considered acceptable behaviour in some societies vs others. Even the Chinese government are mortified by the issue m.smh.com.au/world/china-names-and-shames-more-uncivilised-tourists-on-its-public-blacklist-20151222-gltsv2.html

Obviously it is not the child's fault. The parents are to blame. I don't understand how this can possibly be deemed not the case.

As for the idiot parents videoing their children behind the barriers, well, words fail me.

The fact that both things were behind rope barriers really should have given the parents of both children an indication that they were out of bounds and not to be touched.

So the child who destroyed the lego was four, children do stupid things and possibly the child didn't mean to knock it over but that's why children have parents, to ensure they don't do enough stupid things to kill themselves, or indeed destroy other people's property.

The children destroying the glass statue is just awful; the parents should be charged with criminal damage.

I hadn't read that the parents had offered to pay. In that case they really don't deserve the approbation being heap in them.

Yes the child shouldn't have touched it (but sometimes they do)
Yes the parents should have super used better (and they get away from us all sometimes)

However they apologised and offered to pay, what more could they do after the event?

YANBU. A 4 year old is old enough to be severely told off for this. Then maybe they'll understand not to push over things in a public place. I'd be mortified.

^"Mine were no angles at that age"
^
My 4 year old is bloody obtuse

big

I've known a few 4 year olds who were very naughty, never heard the word no & would have thought it hilarious to knock it over. I know many, many, many more who would have just wanted to touch it because it's Lego and awesome. They're 4. It happens. They aren't being naughty. Just curious. And, some kids are fast. And are out of grabbing reach in 3 seconds. Accidents happen.

Blaming the mother for not being psychic and the artist is just ridiculous. It's art. Not a fucking school building. He's allowed to make it our of whatever materials he wants and as flimsy as he wants in the expectation that people aren't assholes who want to smash it.

Why does it cost $15000?

Bit of a rubbish rope barrier imo. Anyway, maybe he didn't do it be naughty, most 4 yr olds are just very curious and want to get up close for a better look. Perhaps it was just an accident.

Lizzie clearly you haven't bought any Lego recently it's expensive!

It's not as bad as the chap that broke those priceless vases a few years ago. Remember this?

Wouldn't have happened if he'd used some kragle.