Wow this could be the plot for a Stephen King novel

[Doc Wilson]

And it's happening right now. I pray for the poor kid and wonder at the stupidity of his parents.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...5161&catid=339

[Charms7]

My prayers are with Falcon Heene also. How awful for the family. Some people go through life thinking nothing truly tragic can happen to them until it happens. Not to say all storm chasers are like that, but how sad and scary this is.

[Kacee]

That's just plain idiotic. What was the point of making this thing in the first place? And WHY would anyone leave any child unattended next to a UFO look-alike, especially if it's supposed to fly?

[betsymae]

I said the same thing, Doc, while I was reading the story and watching some of the news footage! Surely hope this little guy is alright...praying for him and his family!

[benbennett]

Just shows that truth is stranger than fiction.

[Kim L.]

Fortunately, it appears he was never in the balloon in the 1st place. WHAT were the parents thinking?

[Jake Featherston]

I suspect the older brother yanked the stakes tethering the balloon. It didn't just take off on its own. They probably had some dumb idea it'd only lift 30 feet or so off the ground, and it'd be fun.

In any event, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a vehicle like this in your backyard. If my dad had one, and he told me to stay away from it, I wouldn't have gone near it. Being a kid doesn't excuse everything. Sometimes, you pay for your stupidity, and your refusal to do as you darn well know you should, even if in the case of a child, it does seem unfair. But that's life in the physical universe....

Society will take this example as a learning lesson that men should be more like women, and refrain from anything potentially hazardous (and instead just play "fantasy football" on the internet; if you ever see me doing that, please kill me), when the real lesson is that boys should be more like men, and not mess with their dad's balloon when told not to do so.

[Anton177]

If I were still 6 years old, and if I were in that kid's position after seeing something like that, I would have totally done it, too.

Mom and Dad couldn't stop me.

[~Ally~]

Umm...I think this has the whiff of a publicity stunt in the parents favour written all over it.
Just doesn't ring true to me, sorry.

[Dana Jean]

Well, I guess I'm the only one who thinks it's cool that this dad wants to be involved with his children by teaching them science things. He's a science guy, so I don't find this odd at all. Apparently they do these things as a family all the time (although how big these storms they chase does give me pause--hopefully they aren't chasing big dangerous storms with their kids in tow).

Good for him that he is an active participant in their life instead of plopped down on some couch telling them, "later."

And, every single one of you know exactly where your kids are every single minute? Every minute? You don't go to sleep at night? You may think you know where your kids are, but do you really?

I knew where my kids were most of the time. But, depending on their age and maturity, I would go to the bathroom occasionally and leave them in their rooms playing. Or I would fix them lunch while they watched TV. I assume they were watching TV. THose few minutes I was fixing lunch, I didn't have them chained to my leg. ANd, when I stepped back in the room, they were in front of the TV watching BArney, but did they stay there the whole time I wasn't watching them?

Come on. We don't have our eyes on our kids every single minute. And that's where the old adage comes in, "In the blink of an eye." Things happen in the blink of an eye. You just pray that nothing bad happens.

Stephen King says in On Writing that he and his brother Dave knocked out the electricity for a number of apartments (I think it was), and they also climbed on the roof. I suppose we should have thrown Mrs. King in the slammer for that?