Get off Your Phone, Or You Will Lose People You Hold Dearest!

It should be obvious that parents must always be watching over their children whenever they’re playing around in public, especially when on holiday. Summer vacation rings beach and pool time where accidents are likely to happen if you’re not paying full attention. Sadly, our addiction to our phones has already cost the lives of many children who were left unattended.  

photo credit: 新华网

A tragedy shook the city of Qingdao in Shandong province on August 6th when the police confirmed the death of 8-year-old twins who had been visiting from Beijing with their mother and were found drowned by the beach.

Shandong police update: body of one of the two girls was found at 11:30 AM on July 6th.

A rescue team found the body of the elder twin out in the water around 11.30 AM and the other at 3.45 PM close to where the girls had been reported missing.

Photo credit: 新华网

The mother said she lost sight of both her girls around 3 PM the day before while she was resting on a beach in the Huangdao district of Qingdao. They were digging in the sand only a few meters away from their mother and were wearing their swim suits.

After occasionally checking her phone, the mother would quickly look up to make sure her girls were still there. Unfortunately for everyone, the last time she checked her phone was one too many. She looked up again only to find that both her daughters were missing and called the police after an hour of searching for them. They were both found dead the following day.

Photo credit: 新华网

Once the discovery of their bodies had been announced, the mother collapsed in agony, unable to put into words the remorse she felt for letting her two children die while on her watch: "I felt so much pain and regret”, she said repeatedly. She couldn’t believe this had really happened… How could she?

You’d think that someone - anyone - would hear the sounds of distress from a drowning child in their struggle to get themselves out of the water. But despite what we may often see depicted in movies with waving hands immediately followed by a rescue of some kind, things don’t always turn out that way in real life.

Some people may drown quietly or be left unnoticed, especially children. Unfortunately, public pools are no stranger to children who are often left unattended and never make it out of the water alive.

We all know the saying “we learn from our mistakes”, but when a mistake like spending too much time on your phone costs the lives of your own children, how can you possible bear the pain from such a thought?

Another report comes from Mrs. Shaw who took her son to the local swimming pool and quickly noticed his absence after checking her phone. Only an hour of search went by until his dead body was found floating in the water.

Mrs. Shaw caught turning her back on her son while using her phone.

The surveillance camera from the public pool clearly shows the ignorance of the mother who was checking her phone instead of watching over her son. The worst part is that she was not only standing 3-4 meters away while her son was slowly losing consciousness and out of breath, but she actually thought that he had gone to play somewhere else and walked away from his dead body.

Another mom from Hunan province was caught looking at her phone while her 2-year-old daughter began crossing the road without paying attention to the car coming towards her. The driver didn’t have clear vision on the little girl and ended up crashing into her. Before the mother could even begin to process what had just happened, her daughter had been killed.

Parents should never prioritize their addiction over the safety of their own child. As seen in the above-mentioned examples, such negligence can easily cost their life and leave the parents with only feelings of genuine regret and depression. Such accidents happen in a short matter of minutes. Please get off your phone. Your children’s lives depend on it.

WATCH YOUR CHILDREN!

Parents should always keep the following in mind:

1. Never leave your children alone and unattended. Their awareness of what is and isn’t safe is very limited and can’t always make the difference between what is dangerous and what isn’t.

2. Do not risk taking your children to a dangerous place where medical assistance or general safety measures are out of reaching a mountain or on a remote beach. And PLEASE, never place your children in a dangerous position just to take nice photos.

3. Parents should educate their children on potential dangers to look out for:

Never accept food offers by a stranger;

Never accept to walk away with a stranger;

Never communicate personal family information to strangers.

4. Do not always let your children try new food, particularly seafood which may be contaminated and cause diarrhea.

5. Stay away from crowded places as you may easily lose them.

6. Do not use dangerous playground facilities.

7. Do not break traffic rules; cultivate children's good habits by complying instead of rebelling.

Last but not least, do NOT ever play on your phone whenever you are spending time with your children. Put it on silent mode and go enjoy some quality family time together.

Source: 新华网

Supervisor: Crystal Huang

Editor : SC

Proofreader : Ed Bellin

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