When I think about all of the semi-dangerous games my friends and I used to play when we were little, it's amazing I'm alive. But sometimes games kids play can be deadly. A 7-year-old reportedly died after his 5-year-old brother buried him alive in a big sand pile that was on their family's horse farm. What kids haven't buried their pals in the sand for fun? How could this have happened?
Police believe that Wyatt McDaniel, 7, and his brother, Logan, 5, were playing in the big pile of sand on the family farm when Wyatt somehow got buried alive -- possibly by his brother. After Logan ran and alerted their father, Charlie, the dad rushed out to try and save Wyatt, but he couldn't. The boy was unconscious and soon went into cardiac arrest.
No one saw the incident, and while it appeared that the boy had suffocated, that conclusion won't be reached until there's an autopsy report. The family lives on a large rural farm in Texas. At the time of the tragedy, the father was giving a horse lesson while the kids played.
I grew up on a small farm -- and also with lax supervision. It's amazing the things kids can get up to that might be dangerous. My friends and I used to routinely climb on a crumbling one-inch-wide wall that surrounded a waterfall. If we'd fallen, we surely would have been severly injured. Possibly we could have died. But we did it over and over and over.
And who doesn't remember playing in the sand as a kid? Especially on the beach. Perhaps that is less dangerous because it is packed sand and will wash away with the incoming tide. This, on the other hand, was a giant sandbox.
As farm kids, I'm sure they were accustomed to having the run of the place with little supervision. Who would think something like this could happen? Though perhaps letting your kids get near a big loose sand pile isn't the best idea ... hindsight is 20/20. If it wasn't the sandpile, it could have been something else. Most kids are able to get though their rough and tumble childhoods without lasting damage. And a certain amount of freedom at that age can really help a child's development. It's the rare tragedies like this that make parents so uptight and nervous about everything!
Did you used to play dangerous games as a kid? What kind of games do you let your kid play?
Image via Eden Pictures/Flickr
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Comments 16
This is tragic but I think we all know the brother is going to be scarred for life thinking he killed his brother.
It's really sad, especially for the 5 year old, who wouldn't have known better but will grow up probably feeling guilty. I get so nervous watching kids digging deeply on the beaches here. The parents are usually sitting under an umbrella, not paying attention and talking to other grown-ups and drinking.
I think the most dangerous thing I did as a kid was ride my bike farther than I was supposed to, going across a busy road.
! My step sisters and I would get a horse and chase the longhorns around the fields lol....uhhh fun times .
The beach can be deadly too: http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/140715/child_dies_digging_sand_tunnel
My kids r ruff and tumble thay climb trees/fences, jump on beds. there only 3&5 I wounder what thay get in to later???
That is so sad. The stuff my brother and I use to do was crazy. We played chicken with the train, shot each other with BB guns, shot fire works at each other. And that was on good days.
That's so sad :( that poor little boy. Hmmm, what DIDN'T I do...we lived next to a busy state highway, and we would always ride our bikes down it on the sides, run across it. We would walk 3 miles by ourselves one way to the local store (we were in a rural country setting) we would get in the pens with the bulls and cows, walk across unsteady branches over a creek in the dead of winter, and even swim in it. Go on hikes all over the country side. Ventured out on a blow up boat to the middle of Shasta Lake in Northern CA. (Huge lake, very deep) and disappear in stores to go look at kid stuff, back when you could do that. These days doing those things would certainly end up badly.
My brother and I did dangerous things as kids. I remember my brother closing me in the pull out coach which we did often, we also took rides down the stairs in a plastic sled, and one of the most dangerous things we did was hiding in the dryer and once or twice we even turned it on while one of us was inside of the dryer!!! I think of how crazy we were and im surprised we survived!