Behind the cut is some stuff about breastfeeding, of a semipersonal nature.  Avoid if you'd prefer not to read about... well... breastfeeding.  Yeah.

I'll bitch & rant here!  Hey, it's my blog.

So I check out Slashfood.com pretty regularly.  There was a post about a family suing a local Starbuck's for serving their child a kid-sized hot cocoa hot that caused massive, hospital-treated burns when the child spilled it on herself while in her car seat.  Naturally, this posting spawned over 1,500 (yes, that's right, 4-digits-worth) of comments about how evil-nasty-wrong-stupid-negligent-etc. the mother must be to give her child hot cocoa while in a car seat.  Some people even suggested that the mother is abusive and is looking to make some quick money by purposely causing this injury for the lawsuit.

Okay, look people, how evil-nasty-wrong-stupid-negligent-etc. this parent may be has JACK FOR SHIT to do with the lawsuit.  It doesn't matter at all if the child had the cocoa in her car seat, or sitting in the Starbuck's cafe, or walking down the sidewalk, or while hanging upside-down from the jungle gym.  The only thing that matters is determining if Starbuck's has been serving kid drinks that can cause 2ND-3RD DEGREE BURNS--which is (a) against corporate policy, which specifies that all kid drinks must be under 120 degrees; and (b) deserves to be punished.  Was the mother a dumbass for giving hot cocoa to her child while in a car seat?  Maybe.  I don't know.  How old was the kid?  Some kids are still in car seats as old as 8-10.  How adept is the child at managing drinks while in a car seat?  The post didn't specify.  Should the mother be investigated for negligence?  Maybe, how should I, or anyone else, know?  There wasn't nearly enough info in the post to make those sorts of leaps of logic.  And frankly, I get real sick of people who, in all likelihood, do not have children themselves, getting all high-n-mighty about how bad a job other people do at raising their children.  Damnit people, raising children is HARD.  Sometimes we make bad decisions.  Sometimes our bad decisions have bad consequences.  But that parent's (possibly) bad decision to give his/her child a hot cocoa in a moving car should've resulted in a ruined outfit--not a visit to a hospital and regular plastic surgery to repair the damage.

*grumble*