Matt and Melissa Graves tragically lost their 2-year-old son when he was attacked by an alligator while playing on a Disney Resort beach.
@cnn matthew and melissa graves #ripLANE pic.twitter.com/rgOBgb3Bea
— Fight Scammers (@FightScammers) June 15, 2016
While spending some time at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, the Graves not only witnessed their son being dragged into the lagoon by an alligator, but physically fought the reptile for their childs life.
Some people have been quick to criticize their parenting.
Police should be investigating Nebraska parents for negligence and neglect. Their irresponsible parenting caused death of their son.
— Lou Thomas (@Rivco12survivor) June 16, 2016
Police should be investigating Nebraska parents for negligence and neglect. Their irresponsible parenting caused death of their son.
— Lou Thomas (@Rivco12survivor) June 16, 2016
But then, a very beautiful thing happened.
Parents started rallying behind the Graves family. By posting pictures of their own children playing at that very spot, they show just how easily it could have happened to anyone.
Writer Kristen Howerton shared the above photo of her young children (and many others) playing on the beach. She wrote on her Facebook page:
Its easy to throw other parents under the bus when something terrible happens because we want to believe ourselves better. We want to comfort ourselves with the idea that our superior parenting could prevent a tragedy; that bad things could only befall an incompetent parent. But the truth is, bad things happen to good parents, and they deserve our empathy, not our judgement.
Florida resident Jeannette Kaplun posted this photo of her children.
My heart breaks for the Graves family. It could have happened to any of us.
Janice Croze, who visited the beach as part of a Disney-hosted event in 2012, shared a photo of her daughter, Olivia, wading in the lagoon.
If anyone wants to judge those parents for letting their toddler play near the water at Disney World, here is Olivia playing on that beach. There were tons of children and adults wading at the waters edge. Never did any of us think there was any danger at all! This is a bizarre, horrific accident, Croze shared on Facebook.
Melissa Mitchell did the same on on her blog, Sippy Cup Mom, writing, It could have been me, because Im not a perfect parent.
We stayed at The Grand Floridian Resortand [my son] played on that very beach, Mitchell wrote. Yes, there are no swimming signs and he didnt go into the water. He COULD have hes a toddler and we all know how fast toddlers are. But he was right at the waters edge like Im sure hundreds if not thousands of people do at Walt Disney World each year.
Jennifer Venditti, who was a guest at the resort when the tragedy took place, shared this image of her son playing on the same beach just hours before the incident.
And Melissa Fenton, a mother of four, wrote a passionate plea for fellow parents to stop judging the grieving Graves family.
Share in solidarity with the Graves family and parents around the globe.
Wanna jump off the bandwagon? Then keep reading!
U/lit3rallyuseless asked: What doesn't deserve the hate it gets?
Film and media are probably the biggest contender for being hated on randomly. It may seem harmless, but not always deserved.
Actors are people too!
Actors who played characters that people didn't like.
Really if you hated the character then the actor did a good job (assuming that was the role).
The best cartoons.
nice day summer GIF by PBS KIDSGiphyChild cartoons. Some are actually really good, even as an adult.
I feel like watching cartoons aimed at generally a younger audience allows for you to be reminded of some life lessons, I know I forget some things, or didn't realise others, or it at least partially renews my awareness of something I should still like or appreciate
This doesn't deserve awards, it's just my opinion that is apparently shared by many.
This man did nothing wrong.
Guy Fieri, he literally is the nicest person in the world but since he looks like he was electrocuted by mountain dew people want to saw his head off.
Even before that, I was witness to his other charitable work. A few years back, Santa Rosa was hit by some terrible fires and he showed up at a few shelters and personally cooked up and served some killer buffet food. No cameras, no massive team of PR, just a dude with an assistant to keep him on schedule to hit up other shelters in the area. Guy Fieri legit earned a lot of respect in my book for that.
You know who DEFINITELY doesn’t deserve hate? Animals. They’re just living their best lives, and need to be left alone.
The best cats.
Black cats.
We got a black cat for the first time last year. I've since formulated the theory that black cats might get some of their reputation from the fact that people can't see them well in the dark and so they seemingly appear out of nowhere and they might be instinctually cautious because they know people have a tendency to kick them while walking in the dark. Our black cat is the sweetest cat I've ever known.
They get a bad rep.
Discovery Sharks GIF by Shark WeekGiphySharks. They are beautiful, complex creatures, deserving of respect and, like any wild animal should be left alone in their natural habitat, but they get this reputation as vicious bloodthirsty monsters. This is only because every shark attack is news, and only then because they are so rare. More people are killed EVERY DAY by mosquitoes than sharks kill in a year.
Any apex predator that has remained evolutionarily unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, whose existance predates TREES, is deserving or our respect and admiration. Shine on, you crazy cartlaginous fish, shine on.
So cute too!
Opossums. They're neat little critters. They eat tons of ticks that carry Lyme disease, (mostly) don't carry rabies because their body temp is too low, and they're the only marsupial native to North America! They get a bad rap because their first defense is to hiss and bare teeth, but failing that, they just play dead.
If you don't have the predisposition to hate them, you'll find they're pretty cute too.
E: this is about /opossums/, the north American species.
Kiwis, I feel for you, but this comment isn't about your possums.
Hating on other people for just living their lives also seems to be a big contender for things that don’t deserve to be hated on.
This is so true.
Unemployed people. A lot of people genuinely are looking for work and did not want to lose their last job/it was beyond their control (like a layoff) but they get so much hate and called lazy by most people. I know too many unemployed people that are actually really trying hard. They definitely aren't lazy. (Not saying lazy unemployed people don't exist, but to be fair, so do lazy employed people too lol)
Leave the weather man alone!
Fox Raining GIF by Family GuyGiphyMeteorologists. They try their best to predict the weather based on patterns, models, and data. They're not perfect because predicting the weather is insanely difficult. When they get it wrong, I think we should go easy on them. It was probably an outlier result almost no one could have foreseen.
I've seen people get angry over the meteorologists for getting it right. Like they control the weather - it is their fault we are having rain, that kind of BS. Never made sense to me, but hey, I have plenty of relatives I clashed with growing up.
Please stop being d*cks to these people.
Customer service associates.
I hate when customers think that I, the minimum wage person forced to sit there and listen to them yell, am personally responsible for every policy they disagree with. Like, ma'am, if I had that much power and influence, I wouldn't be sitting here on a Saturday evening serving you.
Wholesome and necessary.
People don't deserve hate they give themselves when they are not doing too good at the moment.
I'm in a weird place and I didn't know I needed to read this. Thanks buddy.
If you haven't heard it from anyone else today, I'm proud of you.
It seems like people hate on things simply because they think they're meant to hate them. But you can always be the change and make an effort to stop being an a**hole about certain things.
No matter what though, sometimes haters gonna hate