Ibu-ibu yang suka mengajak bayinya main di mall, harap jangan tertipu dengan gosip
mandi bola. Berikut adalah cerita aslinya, dan perlu dicatat bahwa kesimpulan
akhirnya: cerita mandi bola adalah palsu. Artikel asli dapat dilihat di
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/ballpit.htm
Mudah-mudahan ini membuat lega kita semua. Namun seperti ditulis di bagian akhir
artikel ini, hikmah dari cerita bohong ini adalah: orang tua harus tetap menjaga anak,
dimana saja berada. Sebelum anak diperbolehkan main (mandi bola atau apapun), lihat
dulu apakah tempat bermain bersih, tidak jorok dll dll.
Kalau melihat ada perbedaan sedikit antara bhs Inggris dan terjemahan, saya
berkesimpulan si penterjemah sengaja menakut-nakuti.
Saya heran koq ada ya yang senang melihat orang lain susah. Apa untungnya sih? Atau
orang ini sakit jiwa ya?
Buat yang sudah terlanjur bermaksud baik memberitahu teman tentang mandi bola ini,
mungkin perlu dikirimi bantahan ini.
Buat yang sempat berantem gara-gara mandi bola, ayo baikan... :-)
Wassalam,
Marsel
(tidak punya hubungan dg pengusaha mandi bola dan mandi-mandi yang lain)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/ballpit.htm
The Culprit in the Ball Pit
Claim: Venomous snakes lurk in the ball pits of fast food restaurants.
Status: False.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1998]
About a week or so ago, a mother took her eager 3 year old son to Burger King for
lunch. After they ate their lunch the mother said that the son could go and play on
the playground for awhile since he ate all his lunch.
She watched as the boy played in the tunnels, slide and in the ball-pit. The boy
played for about 10 minutes when he started to whimper slightly.
The mother asked the boy what had happened and he mearly replied, "Hurt mommy." The
mother assumed that the little boy had banged his elbow or something while playing.
They left to return home. A half and hour after they were home, the mother noticed
some big red welts on the little boys arms and legs. Not being able to figure out what
they were, the mother started to look at them closer. Could be red ant bites . . . she
did not know.
An hour later, the little boy died. Come to find out, when returning to Burger King to
see if there were red ants in the play area, in case the little boy had an allergic
reaction. Burger King employees and herself discovered that there was a family of baby
rattlesnakes living underneath the balls in the ball-pit area. She has since found out
that this happens more frequently than not. The snakes will crawl into the ball pit
because it is dark and warm in there. She knows for a fact that another death has
occurred because of this in South Carolina. Please use caution when letting any
children play in an outside play area of a fast food resturant, this could happen
anywhere. Burger Kings are now building their play area's inside the buildings for
more safe environment.
Variations:
McDonalds and Burger King are named as places where this tragedy occurred, with the
nod going to McDonalds as the one most frequently cited.
The fatal fanging is said to have taken place in Arlington and Dallas, Texas; Baton
Rouge, Louisiana; Arizona; and Alabama.
Although the rattlesnake is the most common critter mentioned, water mocassins and
"vipers" also stand accused.
Origins: Despite their benign appearance, children's indoor plastic ball pits have
their health and safety problems. Those who clean the ball pits report finding
everything from used syringes to dirty diapers. Before letting your child loose in
one, make sure the play area's maintenance staff spot clean the pit once a day and
wash all the balls every week. Diapers come off in ball pits, and half-eaten candy is
routinely found in there. More disturbingly, syringes and knives have turned up in
ball pits as well.
Yes, ball pits have their dangers. But snakes aren't one of them. That part is pure
lore.
People have been reporting hearing this tale since at least the mid-1990s. It's a
horrific tale of a parental nightmare -- one wants to believe there are at least some
places a child would be safe in. If not a supervised play area, then where?
Though this legend has gotten around, there are no real life incidents which match up
with it. No children have been bitten by snakes lurking in a ball pit, fatally or
otherwise. Though injuries and one death have occurred in ball pits, none of them were
snake-related.
It's no wonder: a ball pit is one of the last places an animal such as a rattlesnake
would choose for a residence. Just as we dislike snakes, they don't much care for us,
either. A rattler will avoid people and inhabited areas whenever possible. As well,
snakes are cold-blooded and depend upon their environment to regulate their
temperature. Therefore, they seek out places that will keep them warm when the weather
is cool, and vice-versa. Snakes tend to burrow under things like rocks and sheets of
metal that provide shade when the weather is hot and offer surfaces for basking in
absorbed or reflected heat when the weather is cooler. The bottom of a ball pit
doesn't see the light of day, and thus is much too cold and damp an evironment for a
rattlesnake.
Also, snakes do not live in "families." The female rattlesnake gives birth in a nest
and continues on her way -- she doesn't wait around to make sure the young ones are
all right, nor does she attempt to care for her young in any way. With no parents to
take care of them, the newborn snakes have no reason to remain together as a family
unit. Their number one priority is to scatter in search of food, not huddle with one
another.
Analysis: This legend of a child fatally encountering a venomous snake in an
amusement area is closely related to a similar tale about a wooden carousel horse. A
little girl rides the merry-go-round to her death as her mother discovers all too late
the painted hollow steed is home to a nest of vipers who bite at her daughter all
through the ride. Similar tales abound of snakes nesting in roller coaster cars just
unhoused from winter storage and bad-tempered venomous vipers fanging any hand
carelessly trailed in the water of an amusement park's Tunnel of Love.
The message is clear -- danger lurks amidst the gaiety, and a wise parent never takes
his eyes off his kid. The juxtaposition of venomous snakes and amusement areas makes
an even stronger statement than if these selfsame snakes were putting the chomp on
youngsters in less carnival-like settings -- say, a schoolyard or a department store.
Such legends work to caution parents to not relax parental vigilance even in presumed
safe settings.
Barbara "bawl pit" Mikkelson
Additional Information:
Information from Burger King web site
Last updated: 4 November 1998
Untuk melihat diskusi milis ini sebelumnya, klik:
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