Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Good-natured story provokes hateful comments

I spoke to a freelance reporter not too long ago about how I bike with my girls in our Cristiania trike. The article came out yesterday (with big inaccuracies, including where I live and the number of kids I have!). Here's the article. I read it yesterday and was more or less pleased, apart from the errors.

Then today, I had a look at the comments. Here's a sampling:
  • Any parent who drives through traffic with a child in one of those little, flimsy trailers ought to have his / her head examined.
  • I would suggest parents use and encourage their children to use this path rather than putting their safety at risk riding busy streets.
  • Biking on busy streets, intersections, with children is not a great idea.
  • Boy, you should have seen the Mom who rode against the light and all kinds of traffic with her adorable 2-ish little girl in the back today. I wanted to pull her over and smack her in the face
  • $4500 for a big tricycle? L-O-L! Rule #1 for parents riding with their kids should be that the parents are required to know how to balance a bike themselves....
  • If you want to be frugal, walk! This is so dangerous- I've even had to deal with one of these kooks traveling during a snow storm, kiddie cart swerving side by side the whole way
  • These parents are selfish people. They don't want to give up their own enjoyment of riding a bike so they strap their kids in some little 2 wheel contraption behind the bike and tell everyone how great it is for the kid. You see that's the problem with these stupid green tree huggers. It's all about their needs and how they don't want to miss out on their enjoyment. When you raise children, their needs and safety come before your own.
This last one is my favorite. Geez. There were a few supportive comments there as well, but the narrow-mindedness of these people really horrifies me.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't take it personally Andrew, I would say 99% of the people who comment on Boston.com articles are complete cuckoo pants!

MamaVee said...

It's true Andrew- the globe commenters are really wack.

So you are not in Newton... I skimmed your blog but I was wondering where your third kid was....

Julian said...

Sheesh. I just left a comment up there to even things out a bit, but it's generally a losing battle on news site comment threads. Keep fighting the good fight in my old hometown!

Anonymous said...

men that just sucks. we used to ride around with a christiana bike here in Brooklyn as well but people really didn’t seem to get it. it is really to bad

She Rides a Bike said...

Wow, very harsh. I wonder how many of the people who posted comments could even pedal down to the corner, much less bike commute to work or to the store? Just yesterday I saw a terribly overweight little girl who could not have been older than three years old. Unfortunately, we all know this has become all too an uncommon sight. Perhaps too much time playing it safe tucking children into a car for the trip down to the mailbox corale. Honestly, I don't know how I made it out of childhood alive what with all the bicycling and playing kickball in the street at dusk.

Robyn said...

Pay no mind. You are doing the right thing and inspiring others who care about their children's health, values, spending quality time with them, and the environment. I have fond memories of biking with my parents and I want to give that to my kids as well. I just purchased a family bike system. Wish me luck!

Oliver said...

Same thing happens for news articles here in bike-friendly Portland, OR. I agree with the other posters here - ignore the nitnars and keep up the good work!

Camilla said...

I'd like to echo the comments here, and add that it is a well known fact of the internet that good-natured news stories (well, most news stories, as well as most videos on youtube) will attract hateful and idiotic comments. The onion sums it up nicely here:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/local-idiot-to-post-comment-on-internet,2500/

Keep cycling with your kids, don't worry about the fools and haters. Also, let them climb trees for good measure!

DrMekon said...

The very first time we tried a cargobike (a Gazelle Cabby), a chap was walking past and felt the need to say to my wife "what a great idea, make sure your kids die before you do". My wife was really upset. It's nonsense, of course, but that someone would feel free to say something so hurtful to our faces was astonishing. Strange thing is, we've not had another negative comment in more than 2 1/2 years.