Althouse: Should a 6-month-old be water skiing

May 26, 2016

Should a 6-month-old be water skiing — 686 feet across a lake?

"People don’t realize that it was done properly... It was planned and she was ready for it."

34 comments:

dreams said...: And she had six months of worldly experience.; 5/26/16, 10:28 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: If she has proper flotation gear, why not?; 5/26/16, 10:34 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: I'll take a kid water skiing over a kid directing air traffic anytime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ontq2qoU8SU; 5/26/16, 10:34 AM
n.n said...: Only 15 months following conception. Probably not.; 5/26/16, 10:35 AM
Etienne said...: I saw the skis. A stuffed bear could have done it on those skis.; 5/26/16, 10:39 AM
Etienne said...: The way I figure it, if you can find the way out of a Uterus, then you can do anything.; 5/26/16, 10:42 AM
Quaestor said...: Huh? Who did the planning? How can a non-verbal baby signal its readiness for anything?

Conception is far too easy. It's like impulse buying a Glock.; 5/26/16, 10:48 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: Conception is far too easy.

Much easier for roughly half of the population...; 5/26/16, 10:54 AM
rehajm said...: Mother in law performed in her water ski show while my wife was in utero. Beat ya!; 5/26/16, 10:55 AM
Fernandinande said...: "Should a 6-month-old be water skiing — 686 feet across a lake?"

Using the "100 feet per month" rule it's 86 feet too far.; 5/26/16, 11:32 AM
Paddy O said...: Only if she's rear facing.; 5/26/16, 11:49 AM
Phunctor said...: Normative parenting is the culmination and perfection of the long march through the institutions, and I abhor it. To answer such a question is to accept its frame.

"Should"? Who the hell do you think you are? is the correct response.; 5/26/16, 11:50 AM
JPS said...: I wouldn't have done this with my kid. But it's a cute video, and I'm more bothered by the comment in the article, “I hope the child welfare authorities come down hard on these ‘parents.’" than by the stunt itself.; 5/26/16, 11:51 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: This could certainly be done in a way that made the water skiing safer than the car ride to the water skiing place. If so, fine.; 5/26/16, 11:51 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Note: I'm not suggesting that you drive recklessly to the water skiing place. That was not my point.; 5/26/16, 11:53 AM
JPS said...: I mean, my God, people. Do you have any idea how many babies drown waterskiing every year?

[um…]

TOO many, that's how many!; 5/26/16, 11:53 AM
Curious George said...: Meh.

Squirrel skiing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdmuVQAQSrY

Pug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoAXU-A8wNU

Monkeys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A-hADCTHqM

Elephant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nVm3a9q01s

Cat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FcFmIDcaDg

Pig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgkGzR8naL0; 5/26/16, 11:58 AM
CStanley said...: I thought it was adorable and it looked like they did it in a way that kept her reasonably safe. That said, I'm not find of the idea of using your kid for a publicity stunt.; 5/26/16, 12:04 PM
Fernandinande said...: Curious George said...
Elephant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nVm3a9q01s

That elephant looks to be about 6 months old, as does the squirrel.

No water-skiing baby unicorns?; 5/26/16, 12:04 PM
Joe said...: That's not a very cute kid.; 5/26/16, 12:22 PM
Fabi said...: Did the baby drop a ski or get up on slalom?; 5/26/16, 12:53 PM
dreams said...: "Buckets seem so innocent -- how can a bucket kill a child? Unfortunately, about 20 children die in the U.S. every year because they drown in buckets."

http://www.marshallbrain.com/cp/buckets.htm; 5/26/16, 1:24 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Why? What possible reason except the vanity of the parents? Hillbillies everywhere these days.; 5/26/16, 1:29 PM
Rae said...: A paraplegic octogenarian could "water ski" using that rig. SAD.; 5/26/16, 1:39 PM
Quaestor said...: Ancient sources like Strabo and Priscus made similar claims about the Huns and Avars along the lines of able to ride before they are able to walk without conformation, or asking obvious questions of how and why. What would be the point of such precocity in horsemanship? Wouldn't it be safer and cheaper to wait until the children could at least walk competently before demanding that they ride? The answer of course is yes, and that's why modern scholars dismiss such claims out of hand because they assume that ancient nomadic peoples were smarter than that.

Today, unfortunately, one cannot much such assumptions. The era of video jackassery leads inevitably to video jackassery by proxy.; 5/26/16, 1:50 PM
mikee said...: Questor, I cannot let your gun-buying canard continue to exist unchallenged.

Conception can be accomplished by any two individuals with the appropriate biological prerequisites and minimal effort at no immediate cost. In the dark, even, when one of the two is unconscious, or their goal isn't even to conceive.

Buying a Glock, even impulsively, requires a buyer finding a willing seller, and in most cases (at a FFL dealer) filling out of government-mandated forms, under threat of prosecution for perjury, providing valid government ID, sometimes waiting several days, and you must fork over a lotta cash. Plus, if you try to buy a normal one in a lot of places, you are subject to felony prosecution (NJ, I'm looking at you!)

So stop trying to make the Glock lie happen, it isn't gonna.
Or am I doing one of these two things differently from you?; 5/26/16, 2:24 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Very cute kid, but I vote No.

The kid is too young to capture the memory, which means the parents are doing it for their enjoyment, not the kid's.

I say a bit too risky, and not enough meaningful benefit.

I am for taking risks and having fun -- just not too early.; 5/26/16, 4:23 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: "too young to capture the memory"

But not too young to love doing it.; 5/26/16, 5:06 PM
Big Mike said...: @Quaestor, if you're able to buy a Glock on impulse, without going through a background check, then you should consider the possibility that it's a hot gun. Or stolen. Or both.

As for the water skiing, it's no one's business but the parents. I regard the sort of people who called the cops on the "free range" children over in Montgomery County, Maryland, as scum so utterly despicable that no self-respecting stone would permit them to slither underneath. The sort of people who look at this video and have a fit of the vapors are only slightly better. I wouldn't have done it with my kids, but that's me and the kid's parents are the ones ultimately responsible for the child's safety.; 5/26/16, 5:16 PM
Quaestor said...: I cannot let your gun-buying canard continue to exist unchallenged.

If one is so inclined one may buy a Glock on impulse the same way, and quite likely from the same vendor, as one would buy crack, smack, PCP, crystal meth, and other substance on impulse.

And just so you know where I stand I'm better armed than most people. I own two handguns, one is a .32 Beretta that I carry legally concealed, two rifles, one of which is a wicked "assault rifle", and a over/under skeet gun.; 5/26/16, 6:01 PM
Quaestor said...: I wouldn't have done it with my kids, but that's me and the kid's parents are the ones ultimately responsible for the child's safety.

I trust you're not one of those who bandy about the word responsible without the concomitant accountable in train, like the unlamented Janet Reno.

The video is a cheap stunt done for less than worthwhile reasons by people unaccustomed to introspection.; 5/26/16, 6:07 PM
Big Mike said...: I trust you're not one of those who bandy about the word responsible without the concomitant accountable in train, like the unlamented Janet Reno.

Of course. But comparing me to Janet Reno? You may need that baby Beretta, son, 'cause them's fighting words.; 5/26/16, 6:55 PM
William said...: Six month old babies lack tact and discretion. If something is not to their liking, they tell you about it. The term cry baby originated with them, and some of them deserve it. Even when conditions are ideal, they can get all whiny and colicky. The fact that the baby is not crying is evidence that he is not being mistreated--unless they gave him some drugs to mellow him out.; 5/26/16, 10:16 PM
mikee said...: Questor, I applaud your fine selection of firearms and your legal concealed carry, but does a mere five firearms really call for bragging? I've given more than that number of guns to each of my kids! /humblebrag

And, however unfortunate this makes my life, I don't know anyone from whom I could buy, impulsively or addictively, any of the substances you mention. Or a Glock. So I'd have to go to an evil gun show to get a semi-impulsive Glock from a private seller if I could find one wandering the aisles, or arrange to meet up after finding an ad from a seller online. Not so impulsive now, eh?

Baby swimming I'm ok with, having been around it since the 1970s. Skiing, I've never been able to do myself, so I am adamantly for anyone who can, so I can enjoy the experience vicariously.; 5/27/16, 11:39 AM