Met a bloke on my hols recently. Nice bloke, some sort of doctor type. At the time we were at the pool and there were quite a few kids there. In particular there were two orphaned German kids (parents had been killed in a motorcycle accident) in a very depressed mode. Lots of crying, followed by a lot of sadness. They were 8ish and 12ish, had a total lack of interest in life and needed lots of reassurance between bursts of activity. Now the doctor bloke got very upset at the site of these sad kids and was highly critical of their deceased parents. He was of the firm opinion that the parents participating in an inherently dangerous activity such as riding a motorcycle constituted abuse and also voiced the opinion that in the near future it *would* be classed as abuse and steps taken by social workers and the like. He cited the imminent mental health problems and probable social problems these kids would suffer as the reason for claiming they were being abused. After some pondering I decided that I didn't know if he was right or not. It seems excessive to describe it as abuse but at the same time they were *really* fucked up mentally and you did have to wonder about their long term prospects. If they had become similarly mentally disturbed because the parents had simply left the kids I guess it would be regarded as abuse. So, what do the FOAK think?
