That's what happens when you are a father of a three-year-old child at the age of 19. The procreative act generating the child was almost certainly the result of an illegal union.
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Does it say he is the father?
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Does it say he is the father?
Does she even know?
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The procreative act generating the child was almost certainly the result of an illegal union. >>
What are you on about, Mapmaker? That statement is probably actionable in law.
Watch it guys.
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The kid's name anagrams neatly to HANDY YEAH?
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Quite right Optimist. It's a non-story and people's apoplexy about the social background seems entirely unjustified.
'Micra gets slightly damp shock horror!'
Honestly chaps, I'm ashamed of you.
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Had someone been injured, or even worse, killed; what would the outcry have been like?
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The phrase 'his mother's boyfriend' in the story tells us the 19-year-old is not the child's father.
I imagine he is still at school. :)
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It's a total NON-STORY. The car wasn't damaged. The nipper wasn't hurt.
Three-year-old children must do things at least as dangerous as that hundreds of times a day nationally. It's what the little carphounds suddenly do, even if they're as good as gold normally. It's what gives their parents and carers that ratty, hunted, anxious look.
There is nothing remotely shocking or unusual in a 19-year-old man having a girlfriend with a child of 3.
Why did the story get into a newspaper? Probably because the parents rang up and gave it to them, or someone nearby did. That too is commonplace these days. Scraping the bottom of the current events barrel.
Edited by Lud on 09/09/2008 at 18:13
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Someone I knew left their child in the car while they 'popped' into the house.
The child burnt to death!
It's not known if matches were in the car, or if the cigarette lighter could have been the source of ignition.
It makes my blood run cold whenever I see a child unattended in a car.
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It makes my blood run cold whenever I see a child unattended in a car.
>>
That?s a horrible story, BT, but read the article. This child was not unattended. The gentleman in question was responsibly fixing a problem with the nipper?s car seat. Sounds like a decent man helping to bring up an absent father?s child in any case.
In response to others in this thread, I do despair when people see fit to turn on and mock others simply due to a perception about their class.
Victorian nonsense and deeply offensive to those of us who were brought up perfectly well and safely by young parents.
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It makes my blood run cold whenever I see a child unattended in a car.
Tragic episode but very rare. Often used to leave ours asleep in the car, strapped in their baby seats and monitored by open door/window or baby alarm.
Reluctant to leave them there between toddling and pre teen for fear of mischief but at 14 and 16 I leave them the keys so they can listen to radio or wind down a window.
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>>It's a total NON-STORY. The car wasn't damaged. The nipper wasn't hurt.
>>
I thought it was a good story. Three year old learns that that a "dead" car can be moved using the starter motor.
Now we need to educate 19 year olds and many others.;-)
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"illegal union"
I have a feeling that that's one of those laws that is more honoured in the breach than the observance.
From what I can remember of being 19, the exact age of the object of one's affections was not always uppermost in the mind! Robin Williams has a great quote about this, but I don't think it will get past the swear filter...
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It's not outside the bounds of possibility that that the father drove the car into the pond and then blamed it on the child!
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Yet another one:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7608413.stm
Don't they teach the basics these days... like when you park on a hill point the wheels so if the brakes fail it will roll into the kerb (or hedge or whatever) and leave in gear?!
And why didn't he use the handbrake to stop it? Or are we talking poor maintenance as well?
Edited by b308 on 11/09/2008 at 06:19
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Excuses, excuses. He'd probably left the handbrake off.
Edited by L'escargot on 11/09/2008 at 08:07
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Judging by the picture I think the mother was wearing the father's sweatshirt!
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No. I think they don't teach about leaving a car in gear. When I was growing up, our house had a very steep drive, so my father always left the cars in gear. As I have always had elderly cars, leaving them in gear makes perfect sense.
But most people my age or younger have never even heard of it. In fact an ex of mine used to complain bitterly about my dangerously leaving the car in gear as it would jolt forward every time she started it.....
The other benefit is, a car parked on the street for a week or two with the handbrake on - it will seize. I never use the handbrake.
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Even on a hill??
Edited by b308 on 11/09/2008 at 11:11
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If the car in the first story hadn't been in gear, it wouldn't have gone into the pond. If the car in the second story had been in gear it wouldn't have gone down the hill.
eeny meeny ----------
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>>I managed to put my right hand on the brake pedal and my other hand was on the steering wheel just trying to steer it away from the house.
So steering lock not activated.
Engine running ???
Perhaps that's why it's not in gear.
Edited by bathtub tom on 11/09/2008 at 12:23
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I notice more and more completely pointless non-stories like this even in the Telegraph, between all the photos of the boring (though symmetrical) Keira Knightley. I am forced to conclude that there are so few journalists working for the daily press these days that the few semi-literate teenage sub-editors running the news desk eagerly lap up these bits of rubbish phoned in by exhibitionist proles or their exhibitionist pals.
If newspapers were not one of my many addictions I would have abandoned them by now. Even the good ones are shadows of their former selves.
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I never use the handbrake. >>
IIRC use of the handbrake when parking is a must according to the Highway Code.
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>> I never use the handbrake. >> IIRC use of the handbrake when parking is a must according to the Highway Code.
You are apparently correct, thank you. I'll pop out and rectify that now.
www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycod...0
>>Even on a hill
It's so flat around here... yes, of course I would use it on a hill, else you're putting all sorts of strains on the gearbox.
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I recall a friend trying to start an automatic Cortina, which was in gear and without the handbrake. He ran a live straight from the battery to the starter, which had the desired effect but as the car was in gear when it started (no safety locks on ATs in those days) it chased him up the drive and across the garden and only stalled when it a brick wall which its hapless owner had managed to vault
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