East River Hero

alg_ship_rescueIn a city where firefighters are the Bravest and cops are the Finest, there’s no shortage of hyperbole. So I shouldn’t be surprised to find out that the Hero Dad of the East River might be something a little, um, less amazing.

I mean, yes, it was sort of miraculous. The dude jumped 20 feet into the frigid East River and saved his 2-year-old daughter. But it was his daughter. A hero is someone who jumps in after someone else’s kid (like the Frenchman who helped both dad and daughter get out of the river). Going after your own kid is called just being a dad. Also filed under just being a dad: turning your back on a toddler while walking up a gangplank. I’ve done equally careless things with my kids, though fortunately they didn’t actually fall into any rivers.

So, I’m just saying: this is not the East River Hero. He’s the East River Dad. Like the Hero of that Other River, Chesley Sullenberger, this guy was actually just doing his job. And he was fortunate he was able to pull it off.

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About Nathan

Nathan Thornburgh is a contributing writer and former senior editor at TIME Magazine who has also written for the New York Times, newyorker.com and, of course, the Phnom Penh Post. He suspects that he is messing up his kids, but just isn’t sure exactly how.

2 thoughts on “East River Hero

  1. Pingback: parenting-news-miscarriage-breastfeeding-parenting-styles-and-birth-weight | 06 | 04 | 2010 | blog

  2. I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw this and heard him called a “hero.”

    Hey, I stopped my daughter from jumping off the top of the jungle-gym yesterday (she’s way too small to do that yet), if only someone had caught my heroic feat on video….

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