Mamacita says:  The gorilla was minding his own business.  The child was being a child – mommy looks down and then up and he was gone, like a bullet from a gun.

The actual bullet from a gun came a few minutes later.

Who was to blame?  It could have happened to any parent at any time, with an energetic little boy who disregarded his mom’s order to “stay here.”  Four-year-olds are impulsive.  He saw where he wanted to go and he went there.  That he then plummeted down into the home of the gorilla was unexpected.  It isn’t as if the child plotted and planned to murder the gorilla.

I’m really sorry for the mom, who is being upheld online as the worst mom ever.  I’m sorry for the child, who will forever after be branded as the kid who murdered the beloved gorilla.

But mostly. . . .

Mostly, well, this.

I know, I know.  Children are unpredictable.  Children do awful things.  Children get away from us and only the Flash could catch them.  They’re fast.  They’re wily.  They’re little geniuses who love to run.  They can be found in the most absurd tight-fitting places.  They crawl up vending machine slots and their moms find them on the other side of the glass, just like Dudley in the reptile house.  They pick the neighbors’ flowers.  They drag home dogs and cats with collars and beg to keep them.  They devour scrambled eggs on Tuesday and scream with fury if you serve scrambled eggs on Friday.

And they run.  They run away.  They run from us in grocery stores and malls.  They run from us in parks and pools and parking lots.  We spend a good part of our lives chasing them.

Wise parents leash their excitable, running-away toddlers in public places.  This prevents them from dashing away like a bullet from a gun.

That way, there wouldn’t have to be a real bullet from a real gun.

Convince me otherwise.  I want you to.  Please.

I don’t want anything bad to happen to your child. I don’t want your child to make something bad happen to anyone else, either.

The zoo made the right decision.  A child is more valuable than an animal, definitely.  I love children.  That’s why I want them to be safe in a large, crowded public place.

I’m sure the internet will continue to label this mother and this child, but it will eventually forget and the furor will die down.  In the meantime, let us try to remember that children do childish things.  They’re supposed to do childish things – they’re CHILDREN.  Moms do not have a sixth sense, nor do they really have eyes in the backs of their heads – that’s Mary Tyler Moore and the walnuts you’re thinking of.

I seeeeee you. . . . . .

Shit Bad things happen. They happen to all of us. I’m so desperately sorry for everyone and everything involved here.

Don’t beat yourself up, mom. Help your child not to feel too badly. Badly enough not to do it again, but not too badly.

And buy a leash.