Abby go round the world

Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old girl who tried to sail around the world and got stuck in the Indian Ocean, is the new poster child for helicopter parents everywhere.

So far, I haven’t found one other person in my life, except my wife, who doesn’t agree that Abby’s parents are horrible or negligent at best.

I think Abby’s parents are awesome.

I thought Abby’s parents might be idiots, until I found out that Abby had multiple safety devices, was GPS’ed and satellited up and even updating Facebook the whole way.  Many reasonable, intelligent precautions were taken, and THEY WORKED when she got in trouble. And I liked how they pushed back against the infantilizing moralizing morons who were scolding them.

Along with thinking that Abby’s parents are morons, most people think that Abby is a victim. They have NO CLUE what this girl thinks of herself and they don’t care.  They’re going to tar her with their victim-brush.

Abby is a hero.

Without claiming special knowledge of what Abby thinks about all this, I think she’s mad she failed and proud she tried and feels like slitting the throats of you scolds who are dissing her parents and treating her like she’s a baby when she’s faster, stronger, smarter and 1000 times more likely to survive in the wild than any of you or your deliberately-enfeebled offspring.

It doesn’t matter that Abby is 16, you idiots. She’s different from your pampered pussified 16 year old.

There are even some asshats saying that Abby’s parents must have pressured her into that boat at knife-point to get a reality show deal. These are the same kind of stupid ought-to-be-sterilized child-ruiners who can’t tell the difference between putting a 3 year old in a beauty pageant and letting a gutsy 16 year old, girl or boy, take the risks they want to take to become who they want to be. Why shouldn’t they/she get a reality show? It would be nice to see some people on a reality show I don’t want to drown in their own filthy hot tub.

Of course, the risk Abby took was somewhat above the ordinary but not that much above riding a bicycle in traffic, skateboarding, swimming without a lifeguard around and lots of other things that kids over the age of 8 ought to do. And I’ll grant that Amelia Earhart would have lived to a ripe old age had her parents clipped her wings.

So, bravo, Sunderlands! What an amazing girl you’ve got there!

And for those of you who disagree with that sentiment, you make me sick. And you make your kids sickly.