New choker? 4-year-old boy in China fastens bicycle lock around mum's neck

During playtime, a boy in Jiangsu, China, discovered how bicycle locks worked, but he used it in the wrong way.

The four-year-old put it around his mum's neck and accidentally changed the number code on Oct 7.

Unable to free herself, the woman had to visit the fire station to ask for help, Chinese media reported.

"I was cleaning the toilet at that time, my son was playing with the bicycle lock next to me. He suddenly put it around me and locked it," she told the firefighters.

"I couldn't unlock it with the code I had set and I had no idea know how many times he changed it, so I panicked." 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLql8SoZw5k[/embed]

In order to remove the "choker", the firefighters slipped a towel in between the bicycle lock and her neck, and began carefully cutting the cord with a pair of shears, and finished the job with pliers.

As she sighed in relief, one of them told her: "You should bring your son here, we'll help educate him." 

The exasperated woman chuckled, saying that she already gave the boy a beating and that her child was sleeping at home. 

While some people were amused by the boy's antics, other netizens suggested there might be a greater issue at hand that should be addressed. 

A Weibo user stressed the need for parents to set boundaries for their children as well as teach them to tell right from wrong.

She wrote: "A typical example of failure to teach children about boundaries, I did not laugh at all after watching this.

"Even if it's between parent and child, boundaries have to be set for all actions and words, children cannot cross these boundaries.

"Things that should not be done, things that cannot be said, have to be taught from young. The same also applies to how parents treat their children."

Speaking to CCTV News, an education sciences researcher commented on the incident, concurring that parents should educate their kids about boundaries, and said violence should not be used while disciplining children.

Well, that's definitely some food for thought. 

claudiatan@asiaone.com