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I heard they cancelled the whole climbing season on Everest.


Me too. Fate might have stepped in and this kid has benefitted.

This is definitely a case of parents looking for their 15 minutes. They will certainly spin as hard as possible to legitimize this, but the root of the motivation is their desire to be noticed.

It really doesn't matter if the kid is a skilled climber. Hell, I had a higher IQ than Richard Nixon when I was 13 but I wasn't ready to run the country and my mom would've never let me.

Anyway... if this were not motivated by parental vanity than, like my mom, they'd tell the kid to wait, and would supply a strong list of reasons why, the final being it's not his decision to make.

Pondering the notion that parents actually sit and think up these schemes does make me wonder though. They must go something like this:

"What if we put little Johnny in a specially made diving bell and drop him to the bottom of the Mariana Trench."

(google, google, google)

"Wow dear, that's brilliant! He'll only be 6 months old by then. The records our's for the taking. I'll call the travel agent, you call CNN and tell them it's on for next Summer!".

That can't be far off, and we can all safely bet our asses CNN is going to feature it too. crazy
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