S/O of Dog park: Toddlers and active construction site

[Minmom3]

Another zoo story (although not really life-threatening).

I noticed two men with a few small children (obviously, Dads out for the day). The kids saw some Canada Geese up ahead, and ran towards them, arms outstretched, clearly thinking these were for petting. The dads watched calmly, with a beatific smile.

Yeah, Canada Geese are not cuddly. Suddenly, screams and toddlers returning in great haste, with dads having to suddenly switch from "Ah, adorable!" to "rescue the offspring!" mode.

A zoo story with a tragic ending (for the animals)-- several years ago, a child climbed up and reached into the meerkat enclosure.  She was bitten.  The child's parents didn't want her to have to "suffer" a series of rabies shots, so the entire family of meerkats was put down to test for rabies.  They were negative.  I am still livid that anybody would 1) allow their child to climb up and stick their hands out to wild animals and 2) kill innocent animals to avoid a small amount of pain to their child (rabies shots are much less invasive/painful than they used to be, but in any case, I think the shot should be preferred over killing animals that show no outward signs of being ill).

And this was no toddler.  The child was NINE.  Old enough to know better. 

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=131535

If I were running the zoo, I would have said "you can choose to get her tested or choose not to get her tested.  We will not be putting down a single animal on account of your failure to parent your child."

I seriously doubt the state law gave them that choice.  Humans ALWAYS have more rights than animals, no matter that they should ALSO have more brains and common sense and so frequently fail miserably.  I remember reading about that incident, here and elsewhere, and it was sickening.  I would have defriended them then and there if I had actually known them.  Horrible selfish people.

[GreenEyedHawk]

The parents in the OP are lucky...VERY lucky...to not have lost their child.  There are a million ways to be injured or killed on an active construction site and construction workers are not looking out for children....they don't expect to see them on site because parents are supposed to be smarter than that.  I don't know that I wouldn't have called the foreman...or the cops....to deal with these morons.

[SiotehCat]

"I'm wondering how many of those people (the toddler-in-the-dog-park people), when asked why they brought pwecious to the dog park, would reply 'because pwecious loves doggies!' "

I debated on posting what happened yesterday, but reading this in the other thread made me decide to.

The company that I work for is in full swing of building houses on some property smack dab in the middle of our complex of office buildings. It's messy, it's noisy, and very, very dangerous with unseen holes in the ground, and equipment everywhere (I tripped in a hole yesterday when I was walking well away from the sites; just didn't see it), and bulldozers, earthmovers, and assorted really cool machinery moving around-

Anyhow, I was teaching yesterday afternoon, and a couple nonchalantly pulls in our parking space reserved for our disabled assessable bus, and proceeds to takes a 2-ish yo boy over to the site, and they just stand there. while the kid runs around.  I thought that they were looking for someone, so I just kept and eye out, and then they walked over to the other side of the main site area, and let the kid run around again. I called up to the main office to see who these people were, and no one knew, so I left my class, and went out to them, and asked if they needed help, and the mom said, "Oh no, my son just looooooves this equipment, and we thought we would show him this."  In the meantime, one of the big machines (don't know what it is) swung around with a huge section of sewer pipe and got way to close to the dad and boy (I think the operator just didn't see them).  And dad thought it was funny--"wheee, little boy's name! Look at that! Maybe he'll do it again for you!!"  About this time, a construction guy came up and told them to leave, and they did---after 10 more minutes of the kid playing on a parked bulldozer--

My question: did I behave appropriately? Should i have waited for a construction person to say something? (I didn't know if they saw them, and I didn't want anyone to get hurt.) What would you have done?

This isn't even an etiquette issue but one of safety.  I do not even know of a construction site that would tolerate visitors, of any age, who were not there on official business.

When I was a Cub Scout leader, we organized a visit to a construction site. I was unable to go, but the boys toured the site and learned about all the equipment. It sounded pretty cool.

[bah12]

"I'm wondering how many of those people (the toddler-in-the-dog-park people), when asked why they brought pwecious to the dog park, would reply 'because pwecious loves doggies!' "

I debated on posting what happened yesterday, but reading this in the other thread made me decide to.

The company that I work for is in full swing of building houses on some property smack dab in the middle of our complex of office buildings. It's messy, it's noisy, and very, very dangerous with unseen holes in the ground, and equipment everywhere (I tripped in a hole yesterday when I was walking well away from the sites; just didn't see it), and bulldozers, earthmovers, and assorted really cool machinery moving around-

Anyhow, I was teaching yesterday afternoon, and a couple nonchalantly pulls in our parking space reserved for our disabled assessable bus, and proceeds to takes a 2-ish yo boy over to the site, and they just stand there. while the kid runs around.  I thought that they were looking for someone, so I just kept and eye out, and then they walked over to the other side of the main site area, and let the kid run around again. I called up to the main office to see who these people were, and no one knew, so I left my class, and went out to them, and asked if they needed help, and the mom said, "Oh no, my son just looooooves this equipment, and we thought we would show him this."  In the meantime, one of the big machines (don't know what it is) swung around with a huge section of sewer pipe and got way to close to the dad and boy (I think the operator just didn't see them).  And dad thought it was funny--"wheee, little boy's name! Look at that! Maybe he'll do it again for you!!"  About this time, a construction guy came up and told them to leave, and they did---after 10 more minutes of the kid playing on a parked bulldozer--

My question: did I behave appropriately? Should i have waited for a construction person to say something? (I didn't know if they saw them, and I didn't want anyone to get hurt.) What would you have done?

This isn't even an etiquette issue but one of safety.  I do not even know of a construction site that would tolerate visitors, of any age, who were not there on official business.

When I was a Cub Scout leader, we organized a visit to a construction site. I was unable to go, but the boys toured the site and learned about all the equipment. It sounded pretty cool.

We do that on our project as well...a preorganized/coordinated visit counts as official business.  Every construction site that I know of would immediately escort off anyone that wasn't there officially. 

[MindsEye]

Maybe the indurance company or pre-existing policies didn't give the zoo an option to refuse.

The law didn't give the zoo an opportunity to refuse; I believe they were legally required to kill the animals if the parents wouldn't take the girl in for rabies shots.

I always thought that the zoo should have turned around and sued the family for the full cost of replacing the meerkats. 

[Just Lori]

I probably would have notified someone on the construction site.   I understand that safety was an issue, but the company may very well have a specific plan for dealing with trespassers, and if it's that easy for someone to access the site, they may need to come up with a Plan B for liability reasons.  They shouldn't be relying on people like the OP to run interference for them.  Please understand - in a perfect world people would have the common sense to stay away from a job site.  But the world is far from perfect, people often lack common sense, and the company should be aware of these problems.

[Outdoor Girl]

Anyhow, I was teaching yesterday afternoon, and a couple nonchalantly pulls in our parking space reserved for our disabled assessable bus, and proceeds to takes a 2-ish yo boy over to the site, and they just stand there. while the kid runs around.  I thought that they were looking for someone, so I just kept and eye out, and then they walked over to the other side of the main site area, and let the kid run around again. I called up to the main office to see who these people were, and no one knew, so I left my class, and went out to them, and asked if they needed help, and the mom said, "Oh no, my son just looooooves this equipment, and we thought we would show him this."  In the meantime, one of the big machines (don't know what it is) swung around with a huge section of sewer pipe and got way to close to the dad and boy (I think the operator just didn't see them).  And dad thought it was funny--"wheee, little boy's name! Look at that! Maybe he'll do it again for you!!"  About this time, a construction guy came up and told them to leave, and they did---after 10 more minutes of the kid playing on a parked bulldozer--

OP, you were fine to say something; the construction guys might not have noticed them.

But I think I would have called the cops, on the parking in a handicapped space alone.  It would have been a good reason to get the cops there and maybe the nice police(wo)man could knock some common sense into those parents' heads.

[Marbles]

I'm horrified that this couple thought that this was acceptible. The parking in a disabled spot, actually going on the site, playing on the equipment... I may have to have a moment.

My boys and I went to watch a road crew replace a section fo sewer pipe near our house for a bit yesterday. And, yes, the big machines are wonderful, but we stayed on the sidewalk across the street from where they were working. We were rewarded at lunchtime by one of the crew letting us come over and look in the hole they dug.

[Sharnita]

OP, I think you mentioned that is where the disabled bus parks?  Is it marked somehow - either with typical handicapped signs or something specially suited to your school?

[onikenbai]

Construction sites like those are private property, and are hard to control because of their size.  It's just not feasible to put a fence around them.  As a result, you get morons.  I'm very surprised the family didn't get evicted from the site instantly because if the kid had got hurt, there would have been serious consequences.  If it had happened in Ontario, it's entirely possible that the site supervisor could have ended up in prison over it.  At the very least there would have been major fines levied against the construction company by the Ministry of Labour.  Giant construction equipment aside, what would have happened if the kid got a nail through the foot because he wasn't wearing steel plate shoes or slashed himself on a stray scrap of metal sheeting?  Heavy equipment sitting in mud isn't as safe as it appears to be, even if it's turned off as you can still get your fingers stuck in stuff, and they do shift in the mud.  There are a hundred random ways to die on a construction site.  You can't really fault the heavy equipment operator in this case for nearly clocking the kid because the visibility out of those things is absolutely hideous, but guy should have had a spotter, especially if the site is within eye line of a school.

As a visiting contractor on a construction site with next to zero authority, I've evicted people from a site for way less moronic actions.  You're all good.  Even if you were rude about it (which you weren't) sometime people need the rude butt kick to wake them up to the stupidity of their actions.

[LifeOnPluto]

Stupid, rude and entitled (the family, not you, OP).

You would have been fine in telling them to leave. And if they refused, contacting the site manager to see if they could send security personnel over to escort them from the site.

What's the odds that if the little boy had been injured, the parents would have blamed the equipment operator, on the basis that "they should have been looking out for Junior!"?

[Lady Godiva]

One thing that will scare off a rearing swan is a rearing horse.

My grandfather got two beautiful white swans evil avian terrorists for the river behind his place, and gave them fairy tale names, Hansel and Gretel. They began a reign of terror--they routed fishermen, attacked boats & canoes, wouldn't let anyone swim or picnic and they chased my poor grandmother back to the house, 100 yards uphill, hissing, biting and pecking and whomping with their wings. They wouldn't let my pony drink out of the river, and lugging buckets past the swan patrol was hazardous duty. A friend had a horse that would rear up on command, like Hi Yo Silver. We took the horse down to the river--the swan reared up, then the horse reared up, and the swan bullies turned tail and retreated. After that we could chase them on horseback, and we got our revenge with swan roundups, but you never wanted to get caught on foot!

[Minmom3]

This is funny - as long as it's you telling the tale - and I'm just listening.  I WISH you had video of it, it must have been funny as all get out!  Glad I never had to deal with swans....  My only contact with swans has been them swimming away snootily while I handed out bread to geese and ducks.

[happygrrl]

OP here--

Thanks for all of the replies, and while it was indeed a safety issue first and foremost, I think that I was dumbstruck enough at first to think they were waiting for one of the crew members. By the time I realized that probably was not the case, they were on the other side of the site, and I just "assumed" they had left, so i started back on the session (I am an RN and teach fundamentals to incoming staff, so no kids), and got back into the discussion. Then they came back, and you al know the rest of the story...

I think I may have confused my actions with ettiqutte vs. legal issues here, and so I apologize for my error. 

[Sunbeem]

A zoo story with a tragic ending (for the animals)-- several years ago, a child climbed up and reached into the meerkat enclosure.  She was bitten.  The child's parents didn't want her to have to "suffer" a series of rabies shots, so the entire family of meerkats was put down to test for rabies.  They were negative.  I am still livid that anybody would 1) allow their child to climb up and stick their hands out to wild animals and 2) kill innocent animals to avoid a small amount of pain to their child (rabies shots are much less invasive/painful than they used to be, but in any case, I think the shot should be preferred over killing animals that show no outward signs of being ill).
And this was no toddler.  The child was NINE.  Old enough to know better.  Old enough to understand rabies shots as a consequence for her behavior.
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=131535

I remember that story!!!!!  I lived in MN (it was the Minnesota Zoo where it happened) at the time; I was so mad at that stupid 9 yr old and those horrible parents. 

On a lighter note, there was an occasion when a child fell into the gorilla exhibit, and a female gorilla gently picked him up and carried him to the zookeeper access door. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/17/us/gorilla-at-an-illinois-zoo-rescues-a-3-year-old-boy.html