What Were They Thinking? Family-Friendly Event Exposes Kids to Something Unbelievable

Photo on JumpStory

 

Today’s parents are well-aware that there are all sorts of inappropriate behaviors, images, and messages out there in the world from which we need to shield our young children.

Most of the time, these dangers come from online sources like social media, television programming, or film content – platforms that are typically easy for us to monitor to keep our children from being exposed to the things we don’t want them to see or hear.

But one community was recently shocked when their children were exposed to adult-only inappropriate images – in person, no less – when they attended what was billed as a family-friendly event.

It was a typical summer evening in Clay, Alabama as families were out bidding goodbye to the last few official days of summer.  And what better way to do this than attend the local carnival with the kids?

C&M Southern Midways was running the community event, with all the rides and games and food you’d expect from a small-town summer carnival.

But as they walked along the midway with their children, some parents came face to face with something unbelievable…

They found women scantily-clad in lingerie posing provocatively for photos on various rides, including the popular carousel.

It was hard to believe, to say the least, and parents immediately brought their concerns to carnival staff members.  Eventually, the news reached the Mayor and City Manager, who had the photoshoot shut down.

So, how could C&M Midways or local city officials have ever approved such a photoshoot from taking place during an event marketed toward families with children?

And how could the production company running the shoot think that it was acceptable to hold their shoot during a busy night with families crowding the grounds?

Well, in typical fashion when mistakes happen, the involved parties are playing the blame-game – calling the lack of communication a “freak accident.”

The production company conducting the photoshoot claims they were well within their contract with the carnival owners to hold their shoot at the agreed-upon time.

C&M Midways claims the production company “misled” them about the subject matter of the photoshoot that proved to be completely inappropriate for such a venue.

And city officials believe they acted quickly to both have the photoshoot shut down and to make sure the appropriate contacts were notified so that these risqué images didn’t spread all over social media and tarnish the city’s reputation.  (They did make the rounds on Facebook, but were promptly removed.)

It’s still hard to fathom, however, how such a mistake could have happened – but it may be par for the course these days as our values seem to further erode each day.

And the tragic part is, the children who saw these scantily-clad women being sexualized in the context of a carefree family event will probably only remember those provocative images – instead of memories of the rides and games and quality time with family that should be a cherished part of childhood.

There’s really no undoing the damage caused to the innocent children caught in the crosshairs of this adult “mistake.”

While it may not have been intentional, and merely a lack of communication, it’s not something any parent would want their child to be exposed to.

For C&M Southern Midway’s part, they posted a full apology on social media explaining the very regrettable error and vowing to be more careful about third-party use of their events in the future.

They also invited everyone in the community to come back to the carnival the next day free of charge.

Comments on social media were overwhelmingly positive and accepting of the claim that this all really was just an accident.

While many carnival attendees appeared unfazed by the photoshoot, we’re sure there are many parents out there doing “damage control” by having to sit their kids down for a long discussion about this unfortunate incident.

And for some of us, it’s just another reminder that our culture has become one with no respect for modesty or traditional values, full of rampant sexualization of women in every form of media, and one in which this incident could even happen in the first place.

While it may appear no one is really claiming fault here, it’s most certainly a symptom of the disease of how our society’s values have completely crumbled.