Weighty beer

Should a baby climb a mountain unassisted?

For the parents of a 9-month-old baby boy seen in a viral video crawling up the steps of a mountain tourist site in Hubei, China, the answer is “yes.”

The clip ignited a debate about proper parenting in the 17,000 comments it garnered, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

The over 200,000 likes it got, however, indicated approval or amusement over what the parents and their baby were doing.

The video showed the baby named Wenwen wearing kneepads for protection as his mother walked up beside him.

“We took him to climb the mountain, not to train him but to help him expend energy,” explained Wenwen’s father, surnamed Huang.

The couple was confident about Wenwen’s ability to climb the mountain after seeing him adeptly tackle staircases in their neighborhood, SCMP reported.

Meanwhile, the 38-year-old father and 32-year-old mother of an 11-year-old girl were arrested by police in Hong Kong on Wednesday after concerned citizens reported that she was made to carry a heavy load.

The arrest was sparked by a Facebook video posted on 6 October showing the girl struggling to carry two plastic bags, each containing a dozen cans of beer, Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reported.

Passersby offered to help the girl, but she declined, saying her father would scold her. They then criticized the father when he appeared with two other children, according to HKFP.

After being criticized by passersby, he called the girl a “useless person” and took one of the bags from her.

The New Territories North Child Abuse Investigation Unit launched a probe and referred the case to the Social Welfare Department, HKFP reported.

The parents denied abusing their daughter, saying that carrying the beer was training for her motor skills to improve her physical coordination. The girl seemed to confirm this, telling HKFP that she first carried eight cans of beer and later 16, before attempting to carry 24 cans on Tuesday.