Terry Foster: Parents Need To Keep Their Children Close To Them

By Terry Foster
The Family Deal

My daughter Celine loved to dart and run and have a good time no matter where she was even at the age of two.

She once broke from me at the pumpkin patch and did a big splash into a puddle of mud and water.

I knew I had to be on guard with her. That meant holding her hand tightly when we walked through parking lots and being more diligent around swimming pools and lakes. I helped bring her into the world and it was my job to make sure she was safe.

I cannot imagine what Matt and Melissa Graves are going through after their 2-year old son Lane was grabbed by an alligator and drowned at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa near the Magic Kingdom during family vacation.

They were in a family area when Lane walked toward the lake. The gator grabbed him and pulled him 15 feet from shore and into six feet of water. It was a tragic accident but this is shared blame between parents and Disney.

The parents needed to keep their children close to them and Disney needed signs that warned of possible gators in the area instead of just posting "No swimming" signs. They had to know there were gators there because five were killed while looking for Lane.

You must pay close attention to children, especially in dangerous places. A few days ago a mother lost her child who ended up in a gorilla pit at the Cincinnati Zoo. And now this.

The attack in Orlando happened in a minute.

"I thought someone got into a fight," tourist Bill Wilson of New Harmony, Ind. told the Orlando Sentinel. "I looked over and here comes one of the life guards. The mother was there, and she was frantic, running up and down looking."

Reports say the dad tried to wrestle the child away but he was no match for a gator.

I've taken my children to Disney three times and we stayed at a resort with a pond. They even posted a sign that said "Gator crossing" with a bite taken out of it. It was meant as a joke but I knew the dangers.

My children were not allowed near the water without being by my side. Florida petrifies me because there are more than a million gators there. After graduating from Central Michigan I stayed friends in Orlando. They warned me about a pond on their property where they claimed two gators lived.

I never saw them but I watched my every step when walking around.

Celine got away from me once, inside a K-Mart, and she went to a clerk to ask for daddy who called over the loud speaker: "A little girl is looking for her daddy. She thinks his name is Terry."

She was nearly three and that was the last time I lapsed.

I got lost in a department store when I was that age and was petrified. But I was united with my family quickly.

Kids do not know any better. They don't know the dangers that lurk. It is our responsibility to protect them as if life depends on it.
And in this case it did.

(Foster can be reached at Terry.Foster@cbsradio.com)