Parents face backlash after 6-year-old allowed to run full marathon: 'He was struggling physically'

[IcyPeas]

https://abc7.com/6-year-old-runs-marathon-flying-pig-rainier-crawford-boy/11823149/

I am not a doctor or a parent even, but this seems wrong to me. The family are "youtubers" and instagrammers. Some are saying they did this for clicks and views.

Rainier Crawford, 6, ran the 26.2-mile course with his five siblings and parents, finishing in 8 hours and 35 minutes.
...
"He was struggling physically and wanted to take a break and sit every three minutes," Crawford wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday. "After 7 hours, we finally got to mile 20 and only to find an abandoned table and empty boxes. He was crying and we were moving slow so I told him I'd buy him two sleeves [of potato chips] if he kept moving."
...
Organizers of the Flying Pig Marathon defended their decision to let every member of the Crawford family participate in the 2022 marathon.
...
"The intent was to try to offer protection and support if they were on our course (Medical, Fluid and Replenishment)," Iris Simpson Bush, the president and CEO of the marathon's parent organization Pig Works, wrote in an open letter posted to the organization's website.

The nonprofit also told "GMA" they knew the Crawfords would run the Flying Pig race despite the marathon's age limitation, which usually only lets runners 18 and older participate, a factor that played into the decision to let the Crawfords run.

Experts say a child's growth plates, the tissue near long bones, isn't fully developed at age 6 and an extreme activity like running a marathon could be dangerous for children.

[PoliticAverse]

1. Someone probably needed to pull a Fred Lebow move. n/t

[Tree-Hugger]

2. Let me tell you...

.....in the coming years we are going to see an intense backlash from kids who were paraded out for youtube/insta/Tik tok content. These parents get so obsessed with click$ and view$$$ that they begin to neglect the well-being of their children. In the YouTube/Instagram/Tik Tok content creator world there aren't any regulations or laws that protect children. There's no Coogan law equivalent for content creators. The family vlog world is often very exploitative.

This poor baby. I can't imagine what a run like that does to a little body.

[Dorian Gray]

9. 100% right

It's gross.

[JI7]

14. Just in that last few days a girl that was on Toddlers and Tiaras committed Suicide

I think she was 16 .

[hlthe2b]

3. Children's bones do not fully ossify until somewhere between 13 and 18....

The stress of high impact running this distance could readily have resulted in trauma, damage, compression/stress fractures, not to mention ligamentous damage.

This is insane. This is child endangerment, even if they are too ignorant to know.

[CincyDem]

4. A little local perspective.

These parents have been running the Pig for years and bringing the kids along as “bandit” runners. This year, the Pig knew they were going to run the kids and short of arresting them, nothing was going to stop ‘em. So instead, this year the Pig decided to book em in so they would have tracking chips and access to food, hydration, medical tents along the route…thing they would not have a bandits.

So the story that the Pig let this kid run is Mia labeled. The story is that the parents were going run this kid come hell or high water and the Pig doesn’t really have the authority or the enforcement vapidity to stop them…so at least let us track the kids.

Also…the parents are nuts. I’ve got a lot of friends who run it…some more that 15 years. They say it’s like any other marathon…you’ve always got folks, including kids, running the course as bandits without bib numbers.

[SoCalDavidS]

10. STUPID Organizers

Guess who would have been subject to a lawsuit, had something happened to that kid?

Guess what the parents would have said? "Well, we figured it was o.k., since the marathon allowed him to participate."

Maybe, and I know it's cruel, but maybe, let the parents deal with any consequences, if they chose to violate the rules by letting their kid run, after being denied by the marathon organizers.

ZERO CONSEQUENCES, yet again. The hallmark of America, apparently.

Having not learned ANY lesson, these cretins will be back to break rules again and again, until one day, their luck runs out.

[Ms. Toad]

19. The Pig's reasoning only works if they actually provide access to food, hydration, etc.

along the way. The food, hydration, tables were apparently not staffed at mile 20, when the child wanted to stop and dad had to bribe him with buying chips later in order to get him to continue.

[BlackSkimmer]

21. Yeah, that's the weak story the organizers are selling.

Bullshit, child abuse can be prevented, especially when it’s happening in front of you.

I’m a lifelong runner. These people are horrible.

[SoCalDavidS]

5. The Marathon Organizers Are F'ng Cowards

Oh well, the nonprofit KNEW the Crawfords would run despite the age requirement, so they just decided to grant them permission to do so.

[BlackSkimmer]

22. Thank you.

+1

[TreasonousBastard]

6. These are the parents who know better than schools and..

medical personnel who should be making the decisions?

[70sEraVet]

7. The Guiness World Records has had the 'youngest to have .....' categories for years

I always thought that they should get rid of those catagories, and simply have an appropriate age limit to be included in those records. 13 year olds have NO business climbing Mt. Everest!
Maybe have that kind of age limit on these social media companies. And yes, that WOULD be censuring.

[Dorian Gray]

8. Whoa

there is something seriously wrong with those parents. That's abusive.

[Deuxcents]

11. If little kids want and are physically able..

Why not have a marathon for them? Give the kids a place to shine..the adult sphere is not for them. Instead of squawking about it, make some changes for the kids.

[LisaL]

12. Did you even read the OP?

The kid is described as crying and not wanting to go on. And that's by the father. Father had to bribe him by promising him potato to chips to make him continue.

[Deuxcents]

15. I stand by my post..

There are kids who may want to .. this way parents have an out. Not with adults but with kids just like them. Maybe this was too intimidating to this little kid..having said that. This particular father needs to be more in touch with his child. Jmo

[Phoenix61]

17. Little kids want to do lots of things

That doesn’t mean they are safe to do. I didn’t want to wear a life jacket because I was a good swimmer. My folks didn’t care because they understood that a person who believes in Santa Clause, and I did, isn’t capable of making rational decisions.

[milestogo]

13. Seems like something you would want to run past your pediatrician.

My vet said not to run with my dog or let him jump till he was a year old - or it could cause harm. Not that he wouldn't do it if given the chance, but that it was her advice that he shouldn't do it.

You'd think a parent would do the same for their child.

[BlueTsunami2018]

16. Running a marathon is grueling for anyone.

It’s torture for a child of that age. This is criminal abuse in my opinion.

[Kali]

18. what? nobody ever followed a 6 year old around all day?

or do ya'll only know screen addicted couch kids?

[Demovictory9]

20. cruel

[Hekate]

23. Child abuse