When a joke is no longer a joke...

[pylon]

I have read the original post about 10 times, and I have no frikkin clue what actually happened.

Who went to the hospital, the parents? The kids? Did anyone actually go to the hospital? Was there bugs in the danishes for real? Who were they joking about going to the hospital? Were the Cherry danishes eaten by the girl? Who was going to who's house? Who makes such a big frikkin deal about a kid eating a cherry danish?

Am I going insane, and completely losing my grasp on the english language? Help, I'm scared.

[BloodFetish]

^^ I think I cracked the code.

The facebook post is from the kid's mother. The bits in parentheses are additions by the OP, a next door neighbor and a parent of the cherry danish consuming girl.

EDIT: and oh yeah, not cool at all. Those kids are going to grow up crooked.

[ernie]

Parentheses are my additions and I scrubbed the names. The parents told the kids they were going shopping in a city several hours away. They left to do something in town. They phoned the kid to say not to eat the danishes because they were full of bugs that could make him sick. The kid having already eaten the Danish and thinking he was going to get very sick was heading over to my house to go to the hospital.

[gargamel]

I'm not one to usually blame society's problems on Hollywood, but, in this case, I actually do blame Jimmy Kimmel. His signature bit is having parents pull mean pranks on their kids, and everyone thinks it's hilarious. Wannabe comedians like the OP's neighbors see that and think that it's acceptable to torment their children for their own enjoyment. It's pretty pathetic.

[missdpuck]

This is so sick. These parents need to get a life. Hopefully these kids move out ata young age and get over this crap. If not they'll probably become totally evil or totally reclusive untrusting adults.

[Regular_John]

I'm not saying they're one in the same, but it's interesting to see CP jump all over helicopter parents raising a bunch of wussy kids, and then seeing CP turn around and say these parents are raising bullies/psychopaths with stunts like this.

But as Gargamel pointed out there is the Jimmy Kimmel Effect™ of parents bullying their kids & sharing it with the world.

My two cents (as a non-parent), if you make the kids cry, or have them convinced their going to get sick & die (to the point they called the ambulance) you probably took it too far. But don't coddle your damn kids either.

[Daradon]

Bad parenting for sure, and a hint at their intelligence just based on the fact they thought it was a cool thing to post on Facebook.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What kind of psychopathic thought process involves telling some, albeit crappy, parents that their child is in the hospital?

Same process used to tell little Johnny that the Danish is full of bugs.......

[bigtmac19]

That is seriously messed up, these people are complete aholes. Was leaving them home alone, just for the sake of the joke, or do they also do that often, because those kids are too young for that.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by ernie

Parenthese arenmy additions and I scrubbed the names. The parents told the kids they were going shopping in a city several hours away. They left to do something in town. They phoned the kid to say not toneat the danishes because they were fullnof bugs that could make him nsick. The kid having already eaten the Danish and thinkning he was going to get very sick was heading over to my house to go to the hospital.

The kids came to your house so you could take them to the hospital? wow. I would've taken them to CPS, and told the parents it was a joke on them.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by ernie

Parenthese arenmy additions and I scrubbed the names. The parents told the kids they were going shopping in a city several hours away. They left to do something in town. They phoned the kid to say not toneat the danishes because they were fullnof bugs that could make him nsick. The kid having already eaten the Danish and thinkning he was going to get very sick was heading over to my house to go to the hospital.

Ah, ok...thanks for clarifying.

And yes, I think this is very irresponsible parenting.

[ernie]

Pretty much everyone is summing up our thoughts. We will discuss the situation with them and see how it turns out. I fully expect they will cut us out of their lives and not get help. If that's the case I'm fine with it as it is their choice and i know that if something like that ever happens again I will call CPS. I'm hopeful that instead they think about what their son was thinking and how terrified he must have been not just for his own well being but that of his friend who he shared the danish with and decide to do something about it.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

I'm not saying they're one in the same, but it's interesting to see CP jump all over helicopter parents raising a bunch of wussy kids, and then seeing CP turn around and say these parents are raising bullies/psychopaths with stunts like this.

My parents didn't overly coddle me, but they didn't take fiendish delight in causing me emotional distress for their own petty enjoyment, either. I'm not sure where the disconnect in logic lies, other than in your own odd perspective.

The parents referred to in the original post sound like child abusers to me. They are abusing their position of trust to cause willful emotion pain to children in their care, which is reprehensible and unforgivable. What "lesson" are they teaching the kids, that you can't trust adults? How enlightening.

[PsYcNeT]

I'm more offended that it's a terrible prank that's unfunny, rather than they are ####ing with their kids.

[bigtmac19]

Originally Posted by ernie

Pretty much everyone is summing up our thoughts. We will discuss the situation with them and see how it turns out. I fully expect they will cut us out of their lives and not get help. If that's the case I'm fine with it as it is their choice and i know that if something like that ever happens again I will call CPS. I'm hopeful that instead they think about what their son was thinking and how terrified he must have been not just for his own well being but that of his friend who he shared the danish with and decide to do something about it.

Though I would agree with this, I would want to stick around for the sake of the kids, in case stuff like this actually escalates into something really damaging. At least the kids knew they could count on you to help them.

[rd_aaron]

Originally Posted by gargamel

I'm not one to usually blame society's problems on Hollywood, but, in this case, I actually do blame Jimmy Kimmel. His signature bit is having parents pull mean pranks on their kids, and everyone thinks it's hilarious. Wannabe comedians like the OP's neighbors see that and think that it's acceptable to torment their children for their own enjoyment. It's pretty pathetic.

I've seen the videos people send in to Kimmel (they're on YouTube). I can't believe parents actually send in a video of their 10 year old flipping out, screaming, and cursing at their parents for getting them an Xmas gift they didn't like. Why would you want the whole world to see that?

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by rd_aaron

I've seen the videos people send in to Kimmel (they're on YouTube). I can't believe parents actually send in a video of their 10 year old flipping out, screaming, and cursing at their parents for getting them an Xmas gift they didn't like. Why would you want the whole world to see that?

Free t-shirt?

[GreenLantern]

When I was little my brother and I were in a time out.. we were trouble makers.. maybe nothing has changed Anyway, we were sitting by the phone and my brother convinced me to call 911.. I was young, maybe 4 or 5, so I didn't fully understand what this 911 was all about. I knew you called it if you were in trouble, and well I was in trouble for something I had done.. maybe the wrong kind of trouble though.

The woman kept asking me questions and I kept giving her little kid smart ass remarks, then my brother grabbed the phone and said Shut up lady! And hung up.

Well we got a call back and my Mom answered the phone, talked in a very hushed tone and then hung up. She told us there was bad news, we had committed one of the most serious crimes by pranking the police and now we had to go to jail. They were going to donate all our toys to kids that needed them since we couldn't bring them with us, and there were no video games there or recess. We cried, and cried. We cried some more. Then we got a phone call from the police chief and he talked to us very sternly about how serious this all was. He said JUST this time he would let us off the hook, but they would be watching us for years to come.

My Mom passed away when I was 9, but she kept a journal about our childhood in our memory boxes, or whatever you want to call them, where all our childhood memories were stored. I was leafing through it when I happened across a page talking about that day. She mentioned how the first call back was the police, they explained what happened and my Mom explained her end, she told them she would discipline us for it. So instead of more time outs or spankings or what have you, she got our Uncle to phone back pretending to be the police chief and give us a hard time. I tell you that was the most effective form of punishment she could have brought down on us and it had us walking straight for years afterward. I found this journal just 3 or 4 years ago, when I was 25, and had believed for 2 decades that the police chief was watching me.

[Cortez]

Awesome story GreenLantern. Now that's an effective way of punishment- reminds me of Arrested Development...

[Flames89]

So the parents tell the kids not to eat the danish because it is full of bugs, and the kid (who already ate it, likely knowing not to) freaks out and goes to the neighbour to be taken to the hospital?
Meh. Not as bad as I first thought.
If you see a parent spank their kid (not throttle/beat), are they bad parents? or maybe there be more to the story ...