Paging Gisele Bundchen, Scott Disick may need your shoulder to cry on in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Kourtney Kardashian's baby daddy was just caught on camera by paparazzi taking son Mason out on a four-wheeler. And yup, this was an ATV ride without a helmet ... for both papa and son.
Oh my, oh my, can you believe a celebrity just had the audacity to do what hundreds (heck, maybe even thousands) of parents do every day? Yup, I'm coming out on Scott Disick's side (please, mark your calendars, it doesn't happen often).
From the looks of the pictures, Scott took Mason out for a leisurely ride on a quad on the beach in Mexico during their family vacation. The terrain looks flat, and they don't seem to be going super fast.
So was he a terrible parent?
Not necessarily. It seems more like he was a celebrity parent who made the mistake of doing something within the range of a zoom lens.
If he were anyone else -- besides Gisele or P!nk's hubby Carey Hart, of course -- no one would bat an eyelash. At least, none of the millions of parents who know to use these vehicles with a lick of common sense.
I say this as someone who grew up in the country where four-wheelers and other all terrain vehicles are extremely common, where many of my classmates were "driving" off-road on some sort of machinery as much as a decade before they could legally get behind the wheel of a car. Kids on machinery, sans helmet, are common where I grew up. Once yearly we even have a town tractor parade (told you it was the country!), and one of my favorite sights is the line of mostly dads, uncles, and grandpas with children on laps, making their way down the street.
No one ever wears a helmet. But then, no one drives like a bat out of hell with their kids on the vehicle either.
We take it easy. We drive them around the backyard. We teach them to respect the machine and to be careful.
What folks who don't spend a lot of time around quads, tractors, and other off-road vehicles don't seem to understand is that there are right and wrong ways to operate these machines. You don't open up the throttle and go nuts. You take it easy. You pay attention to the terrain. You are mindful of your riders. That's just as important -- if not more so -- than helmet usage.
What folks who don't spend time around these vehicles don't seem to grasp is that not every ride requires top speeds. A gentle 5 mph ride down the beach is not a wild spin around a track!
Is it dangerous to go slow with a child on your lap on a quad or a riding lawnmower? Sure. There's an iota of danger to just about everything we do. Heck, I once tripped over a toddler who I was babysitting for (he ran in front of me) while holding my infant daughter in my arms. There is still a dent in my wall from where my body hit the wall as I wrenched myself to keep from hitting her head against it. WALKING is dangerous, folks. It's not going to stop me from doing it.
The point is: you use precautions. You're careful. You go slow. You take risks ... but calculated ones.
We can't lock our kids in bubbles and refuse to let them ever have any fun ... not even if you're a celebrity like Scott Disick who has paparazzi watching everything he does with his toddler.
Be honest -- if this weren't Scott Disick, would anyone be up in arms here? Would YOU?
Image via Instagram