L. Anne Carrington  

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  Date / Time: 2/25/2009 8:44 PM UTC

  "The Wrestling Babe" 2/25/09: Why Does Wrestling Always Get Blamed?
  

  The Wrestling Babe
  February 25, 2009
  
  
  This past week, I had been racking my brain to come up with a good topic for this week, and for some reason while reading injury reports, this week’s subject came to mind, especially recalling times wrestling had been blamed for injuries/deaths of children.
  
  In 2008, Child Rights groups in South Africa were calling for a ban on WWE programming in that country following the death of a two year old child. The teenager charged in the child’s death had stated he had been—of all things—copying what he had seen on WWE wrestling.
  
  In a prior report out of E. St. Louis, IL (also in 2008), wrestling was also the fall guy of sorts when another two year old had died at the hands of his four year old brother while their mother had been taking a shower, and once again, the blame was placed on wrestling when the older boy allegedly stated he was pretending to be WWE professional wrestler.
  
  When I read about this two incidents, it reminded me of the 1998 Lionel Tate case, where he had been the youngest US citizen ever sentenced to life without parole(which was later overturned). This case also stressed that Tate had also been imitating wrestling moves he had seen on television in the beating death of six year old Tiffany Eunick ; hence, the defense counsel had taken this and ran with it.
  
  Taking all the above into consideration, along with lesser-known incidents that could be going on as we speak, why does wrestling always get blamed?
  
  The “Don’t try this at home” ads get aired for a reason, and people need to start paying closer attention. At that point, Mom and Dad should be teaching their children what is real and what is not, what can hurt them and what cannot.
  
  Though I was at the age one is “old enough to know better”, kids should be taught at very early age that TV and wrestling weren't real, and that smashing one’s baby brother over the head with a chair would do some damage, for example.
  
  Parents need to take the time to be parents and not leave it up to TV networks and producers to parent their children. Granted, families are busier these days, but nevertheless, taking some time every evening to explain reality from what kids see on TV (and not just in the case of wrestling, despite it being an easy scapegoat) is not how things are done in “real life.”
  
  WWE and the stations that carry their programming should not be the ones held responsible when an accident or a death happens as a result of children copying what they are seeing on a particular show.
  
  Adults of very young children need to sit down with them and explain to them that the wrestlers their children see on TV every week go through years of training and practice to do the moves that they do and they can be dangerous and even deadly despite of all that training and practice and is indeed not something that should be done at home.
  
  This is why the WWE has disclaimers and those "Don't try this at home" ads aired before their programming now again (from my perspective, it should happen more often, such as every week), for the purpose of kids NOT imitating what they see. And if they aren’t showing them on some stations, they should be.
  
  Some have even called for banning of WWE programming in some areas, but think about it: do people honestly think if shows like this are taken off the air or banned in a specific country or region, things like this will cease from happening ever again?
  
  Not likely.
  
  In conclusion, it doesn‘t matter if you live in the United States, South Africa, or whatever other part of this world, know what your child is watching, know what inspires them, and most of all, know THEM.
  
  WWE is not a day care center, and the best thing one can do for their child is use common sense and NOT blame sports organizations for parenting mistakes.
  
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  "The Wrestling Babe" will be coming soon to BlogTalkRadio! There will be some good things in store and an official announcement will be made when the show will debut. Stay tuned!
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