To think this is without doubt one of the most irresponsible parenting fails ever?

[Charlie97]

Talking the dog for a walk, very cold and icy here today. We drove to a common nearby, it's just stunning when it's covered in white frosting.

On the drive alongside the common, there is a pond. A family of five where walking across the large frozen lake!

Three children, mum and dad.

I wanted to stop the car and tell them to get off and to stop putting their children in such massive danger.

OH, said it's none of our business drive on.

Why would you do that, everyone knows it's so bloody dangerous.

Like this idiot caught on camera walking over a frozen pond pushing a pram and with his kid.

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/misguided-thrill-seekers-warned-stay-3433168

That article from the Echo is ridiculous. Does that guy really look like he's there for the adrenaline rush? And what the hell is "full ice skating clothing"? They're just describing someone in winter clothing, which is exactly what you'd expect them to be wearing in January. Slow news day in Liverpool!
Agree with PPs who've said some people do know what they're doing when it comes to frozen bodies of water. My OH was raised in a very rural area where the lakes and rivers regularly froze over in the winter - he knows the difference between a sturdy one and one he's going to fall through. Incidentally, his parents also used to take him mountaineering from about age 9. Not up Everest admittedly, but still up some serious peaks. You don't climb Everest until you know what you're doing - it's not an age thing; it's a preparation / knowledge thing. What do you think Himalayan kids do??
These things aren't "so bloody dangerous" unless you don't know what you're doing.

Oh I don't think he did it ''for a thrill'' I think he was just being an idiot and walking over the pond, either way its a stupid and dangerous thing to do. Its like the guy in Scotland who drove down the canal in Scotland beside the motorway due to traffic. He got about 10 miles before he broke through the ice.

Sorry 7Sunshine - the "adrenaline rush" comment wasn't aimed at you personally, just at the melodramatic headline in the Echo!
The guy in your anecdote was stupid, agreed. There's no way he could have known from inside his car how thick the ice was. But on foot you can tell if you know what you're doing (not claiming that I do!).

Oh I know, its a little ridiculous. I think some people didn't realise the danger, some people didn't notice it was different from the walkway and others were kids just playing - I don't think anyone was adrenaline seeking, I don't think they realised the danger enough to get a buzz

Here's the Scottish article for you: www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/12/men-arrested-after-driving-frozen-canal

Even if it was a shallow pond it's still irresponsible.

I fell through the ice over a shallow pond once, about knee high on an adult, which is flipping deep when you are 5. I couldn't have got myself out. Dad had to lay a bit of wood across and rescue me, no lasting harm but my legs had got really cold and it was really painful when they were thawing out. I was in my back garden so was in the warm and out my wet clothes pretty quick, these poor kids were on a common so presumably much further away from home, it might not have been deep enough to drown but it'd definitely be an awful walk home/to the car in cold wet clothes.

Trainspotting

Two things, my title says ONE of the most irresponsible things

And

Secondly, the link you posted was about evil and vile parents.

Not ones that are "irresponsible"

Not sure it's a comparison, it also doesn't mean that parents can do irresponsible things and their defence is "I not that bad, look at these parents"

Agree with PP, 3ft of "summer" water is different to 3ft of "winter" water.

YANBU, it's the same mentality that leads people to go wave dodging during stormy weather at the coast. Utterly bonkers. But I have a feeling that what you and I call irresponsible patenting, they would describe as making memories.

Why does anyone else care?

OK, I care because other people might have to put their lives at risk to rescue them.

But other than that, none of my business.

If people put themselves at risk, their business. If they put me or mine at risk, my business.

Along a similar vein of unbelievable stupid things...I once saw a woman and two small children (probably 4 and 6) playing in the middle of a mini roundabout. It was one of those tiny grassed over ones in a busy urban area. The kids were running around and she was playing with them!

Me and DP looked at each other like and I shouted "what the hell are you doing?!" out the window as we went past. She sort of gawped at me...

Darwinism in action and a horrific accident waiting to happen.

Has it really been cold enough in London for a pond to freeze over to a depth of 2-3 inches?

Has it really been cold enough in London for a pond to freeze over to a depth of 2-3 inches?
Yes it has.
How many 3 inch deep ponds do you know?

Oh, I'm not questioning the OP's word, just genuinely surprised that it's been so chilly in the capital! I'm in Sheffield and it's not nearly as cold even on the tops in the Peak District.

shovetheholly it was recorded as minus 6 last night.

The car recorded -5 this morning at about 7:30am and -2 now.

(SW London)

Fgs "trainspotting". The op is right. It WAS bloody irresponsible. There are different degrees of irresponsible but it is right at the top as far as I am concerned. Your post is similar to those who reply to an op that no matter what their grievance they should not be pissed off because there are homeless / starving people out there. Now you give your head a wobble.

Some hilariously goady posters on this thread. I think perhaps some people need to revise the concept of 'the spirit of MN' .... or did you all come here from the Daily Mail website ?

Anyway OP of course YANBU. London is cold but it's not that cold.

A man died after going in a frozen pond near us a few years ago.

Those parents are extremely foolish.

shovetheholly it's been consistently 6 below freezing every night for about a week and barely above freezing day time down here. If you look at the weather charts there is a marked distinction between North and South at the moment with the South being considerably colder right now.

Bonkers walking on ice. That story about the hockey boy is horrific, so tragic .

Yes though totally agree that not cold enough for thick ice to form in London, suspect it hasn't been for about 400 years since the mini ice-age.

I hope I would have done the anti-evolutionary thing by remaining there phone at the ready until they got off. Lunatics.

When I was a child in Yorkshire there was an incident when a man rescued his neighbour's dog when it went through the ice. There was a page of letters about in the local rag; some of them called him a hero and others . . . took a different view of him!

There really is no accounting for stupid, is there?

I remember watching a couple and a child climbing up Ilkley Moor. It was a warm dry day but she was in stillettos!

Brrrr! Hot for all those in -6! That's no fun at all. I'm guessing some plants in gardens may die with such cold weather.

All that said, it still doesn't seem cold enough to make it sensible to take teenies walking on frozen ponds. I would be worried that rising daytime temperatures could cause problems. There's a graph of the weather over the last week here, and while it confirms some bone-chillingly low nighttime temperatures, it also shows that it's been above freezing for significant portions of the daytime. I'm no scientific expert on ice formation, but I'd have thought routine daytime temperatures of 4 degrees and above could significantly weaken any ice forming overnight??

www.timeanddate.com/weather/uk/london/historic

Slightly bemused by those berating OP for being OTT and claiming that if it wasn't very deep then it's all fine and dandy. Who the fuck wants frozen feet when they plunge through? Bonkers.