The other end of the parenting spectrum

by US Staff (Tue Oct 27, 2009) The Mail Online, a veritable potpourri of appealing anecdotes, reported yesterday on 5-year-old Giuliano Stroe for setting a Guinness World Record for the fastest 10 meter hand walk on record. As you can see from the pictures, little Giuliano is not your typical 5-year-old. His father, Julian, has been training Giuliano since he was 2 and the boy now has a 6-pack that would make Daniel Craig jealous. The comment boards under the story were abuzz with talk of child abuse, over-zealous parenting and child exploitation.

Given the recent discussions on PowderRoomGraffiti of government involvement in the parenting of obese children and shared thoughts on what constitutes child abuse, I thought this an interesting juxtaposition to that. Here you have a parent who is clearly focusing heaps of attention on his children and who says all of the right things when interviewed, like ‘he is never allowed to practice on his own, he is only a child and if he gets tired, we go and play,’ yet there is something extreme about the boy, and consequently, the father.

In my opinion, I’d take this situation 10 out of 10 times with a parent that is present and active in his child’s life over the ones who turn away and allow their children to consume enough food that the government faces an intervention dilemma. Just one gal’s opinion. What’s yours?