Child Restraints?? Really???

[Son of Wobble]

I was all set to use the hair dryer while I was still in the shower, so I could save a couple of minutes, but then I read the warning label on the cord

I had a five year old nephew plug in and turn on a hair dryer then throw it in the toilet to study the result. Point being, those labels need to be chipped so they emit aural warnings and disclaimers as well. Can't be too safe.

 

[fdeck]

In the People's Republic of California, bicycle riders under the age of 16 are required by law to wear helmets.

I'm of two minds about that. On the one hand, I'm certainly no enemy of safety regulations per se, and I wear a helmet myself except under fairly tame conditions such as a quick trip to the store. I favor motorcycle helmet laws. On the other hand, the actual safety benefits of helmets are a matter of debate, and there seems to be some evidence out there, that bike helmet laws discourage people from riding bikes altogether. There are better ways of promoting bike safety, such as traffic infrastructure improvements, and simply getting more people on bikes. Bike safety tends to improve in any given locale, as cycling becomes more popular. In most places in the US, there just aren't enough people on bikes to worry about their safety from a public health perspective.

 

[Son of Wobble]

When I was seven years old, my mother was taking me to guitar lessons. A car ran a red light in front of her and she slammed on the breaks. I was not wearing a seatbelt and my head smashed the windshield.

Yes, our parents didn't use seatbelts and chain smoked in the car with the windows rolled up, but we've come a long way from that.

Painful post to read, because the unspoken part is that going through the windshield and the resultant injury no doubt ended your chances to be a proper six string player. I imagine the doctor unwrapping your head bandage, looking grimly to your mom and shaking his head, then putting a Precision in your hands...

 

[Mvilmany]

Painful post to read, because the unspoken part is that going through the windshield and the resultant injury no doubt ended your chances to be a proper six string player. I imagine the doctor unwrapping your head bandage, looking grimly to your mom and shaking his head, then putting a Precision in your hands...

Fortunately, I was not injured at all, but my mother was screaming in horror after my head shattered the windshield. I guess the physics of the impact worked perfectly in my favor. I was fascinated and amused. Mom was not. After having me checked out at the ER, I was informed that I would no longer be going to guitar lessons ever again. I didn't pick up guitar again until age 15. The bass came later, in my early 20's.

 

[Aberdumbie]

Fortunately, I was not injured at all, but my mother was screaming in horror after my head shattered the windshield. I guess the physics of the impact worked perfectly in my favor. I was fascinated and amused. Mom was not. After having me checked out at the ER, I was informed that I would no longer be going to guitar lessons ever again. I didn't pick up guitar again until age 15. The bass came later, in my early 20's.

I read your post just prior to church today and I have to say I was horrified. You had an angel on your shoulder that day! Very glad your outcome was that positive.

 

[Aberdumbie]

Yeah, I'm off the stuff too. Diabolical, it is. Too good.

Regarding coffee, my best friend at school had a coffee 'stain' on his upper torso that looked a lot like a topographic map of Italy. He suffered for years, those tender years of childhood, with shame and embarrassment. Awful. But I loved him anyway. He got used to it eventually.

The ones who raised him cared more about themselves than they cared about his welfare. That's a gross understatement and I can say that because I was in the fold and witnessed their true nature. His mother was a real bully. The coffee spill was accidental, I hope. The same kind of accident we see time and time again, even today. These horrendous, completely avoidable burns suffered by toddlers are not at all uncommon.

Hot things and kids don't mix. Crims and kids don't mix either yet we see these situations like the one in my post, and much much worse, wherever we care to look. This is all coming to a head and that's a good thing. I see this rubbish all the time, sometimes even from my lounge room window, and it breaks my heart every time. Spend some time in Casualty and you'll get the drift, as a visitor though. Stay upright.

Those at your coffee shop may care more about their bottom-line than they do about your welfare, but I wouldn't make that judgement on a hunch. Desperate people are prepared sometimes to hurt themselves just so they can pocket some compensation but accidents do happen. And those crappy paper-cups they dole out are a real deathtrap. I'd just be thankful that we've been warned - try and look on the bright side.

I know where you're coming from - I really do - and you have my utmost respect. Raising kids ain't easy. Childhood should be fun and hassle-free. Your childhood experiences are a lot like mine I imagine, in some ways. I was a real thrill-seeker too, often on the razor's edge, and sports obsessed.

However, one of my most vivid memories is of the sound my head made when it hit the concrete in a local park. It echoed for such a distance people 150 + yards away turned immediately towards me to see what all the commotion was about. It was like a gunshot or a thunderclap.

I'd come off the top of an eight-foot ramp, that should never have been built, at speed - a stupid, badly engineered, virtually unridable steel Council sponsored skateboard ramp, one of many that were consequently torn down not long after my undoing. This was in the latish eighties.

I determined that I'd sit up all night, bought two longnecks of beer, one for the googie egg bursting like an alien outta my skull. I was fearful that, if I went to sleep, I may never wake up again. We treat concussion differently these days - maybe we're making some progress, praise be to grog. Sleep, it is a blessed thing, especially when you've been hammered by the planet.

If it occurred today, I'd have been wearing a stack hat, without doubt - eminently sensible, trust me. And there'd be no worries, there would've been no lump whatsoever on this ol' noggin of mine, the beer would still be in the ridgy didge waiting for better daze, and nobody would be the wiser

I get shivers down my back thinking of your head hitting that hard... yeah, I get it......... Your mention of your freinds scarred body and the questionable circumstances make me think of the girl we are adopting. She has been with us more than a year now and is about to turn five. She was the product of the worse side of our society. A fifteen year old mom who was traded for drugs. She is permanently scarred with nine cigarette burns up and down her spine. It is the most difficult thing for my mind to wrap itself around and often brings me to tears at bath or swim time. I don't know how any adult could be responsible for scarring a young body and be able to lie their heads down at night.... Glad your freind came out ok.

 

[Son of Wobble]

Fortunately, I was not injured at all, but my mother was screaming in horror after my head shattered the windshield. I guess the physics of the impact worked perfectly in my favor. I was fascinated and amused. Mom was not. After having me checked out at the ER, I was informed that I would no longer be going to guitar lessons ever again. I didn't pick up guitar again until age 15. The bass came later, in my early 20's.

I got a bloody nose on the dashboard at six years old when my dad failed to brake in time due to an abundance of alcohol in his blood stream. Neither of us were wearing seatbelts, which was typical in the late sixties. The event of the crash plays dimly in my memory like some particularly noir episode of Mad Men.

 

[Tom Bomb]

You're a good man, Aberdumbie. We need more like you.

 

[Aberdumbie]

You're a good man, Aberdumbie. We need more like you.

No not at all. I appreciate that. It's entirely selfish. My personal plan to battle old age..

 

[hbarcat]

I have mixed feelings about safety regulations. I consider most laws of this type to be reactionary and sort of cobbled together by people who just want to "do something" while not considering potentially negative consequences.

Yet many or most of these laws are necessary, or at least appropriate. They do improve public safety while having little or no impact on personal liberty or individual cost. Bicycle helmet laws fall under this category. They cost very little and are hardly an inconvenience. And because of them, countless thousands of head injuries and many deaths are prevented every year.

I don't think it's too controversial to say that it's irresponsible for any parent in 2016 to allow their children to ride a bike without a helmet. I say this with some embarrassment because I let my own daughter ride her bike around the streets of our city without a helmet when she was a kid. Frankly, it never occurred to me or my wife to get her a helmet because we grew up the same way.

In fact, my parents let us kids do the most reckless stuff imaginable for the very reason that they believed letting children push the limits built character and t b at getting hurt just made you stronger. I actually agree with this as I believe that I've benefitted from the painful lessons learned as a result of taking chances and sometimes losing that bet. Several times I've broken bones falling off a bike. I almost drowned twice bease i never wear a pfd. And I once fell from an 80 ft height in a tree but managed to catch myself on a lower branch.

I'll refrain from giving further anecdotes, but the bottom line is my parents, despite their love and devotion to us, we're irresponsible (by today's standards) with our safety and my wife and I were equally irresponsible with our daughter.

Fortunately, no one was ever seriously hurt - but that's only because we were lucky. Some kids are not so lucky and they spin the wheel and lose the game.

When it comes to adults, though, I'm much less sympathetic to safety regulations. Adults should have the right to take chances, even stupid ones.

 

[ChrisB2]

I thought the "dumb" comment was rude and that's my opinion.

The other day I was driving in the country and saw a boy of maybe 4 years old driving a utility vehicle around a yard fronting a major highway. The same day I saw another boy of about 7 or 8 riding a four wheeler through a rolling field at maybe 45 mph with no helmet or protective gear. He was flying. I was really scared for him for about 10 seconds....

 

[Photobassist]

I was waiting in the car for my wife and daughter to finish their "Mommy and me" class, and watched as four different mothers got into their cars with their babies still strapped to their chests and drove away. Completely irresponsible and stupid!

But they did have their seat-belts on so I guess that made it alright.

 

[mellowinman]

It's a result of litigation. Check out a McDonald's coffee cup sometime.

Just about every warning label out there can usually be traced back to some moron that sued some company for not expressly stating "Don't do this".

Invalid Link Removed

 

[mellowinman]

Invalid Link Removed

The irony is, McDonald's coffee tastes horrible.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

It seems very popular to put helmets on toddlers today even around the house. I shake my head. I think it has gotten out of hand.
When I was a kid, we played with knifes, we all had BB guns, we drank from the hose outside, we rode bikes and skated without any pads or helmets. Sure, there were some casualties, but most of us survived quite well. Our parents didn't hover over us constantly. We had to learn to live life and make smarter decisions on our own.

 

[Marial]

No helmets around the house for our toddler, but in general I have no problem with safety regulations. The fact I got through childhood (and the years after) relatively unscathed has a lot more to do with luck than anything that was inherently special about the late seventies and early eighties or me, for that matter. I also grew up in the countryside and so my childhood will necessarily be different from my son's, who is growing up in a much more urban environment. Pine needles are a lot softer than concrete.

 

[SteveC]

A helmet when you are on wheels is the rule at our house. It's a minimal expectation for the protection it provides. Other pads are optional. My daughter likes them, my son does to a lesser degree. My wife and I also wear helmets.

Car seats are a no brainer. Until your kids are 5 feet and 100+ pounds they should be in some kind of booster/seat. Our daughter is 10, 100+ and we are just letting her sit without anything. Our 6 year old is still in a 5 point. He'll move to a booster this summer. They'll have plenty of time to wear regular seat belts. When they'r e18 they can do what they want. Until then, we will do these simple and minimal things to make sure they reach age 18.

Is some of it a pain? Absolutely. That doesn't mean you don't do it.

 

[loveandbass]

helmet? sure. (although its hard to get my 5yo to keep it on)
other pads? nah (thats a byproduct of helicopter parents)

 

[Aberdumbie]

A helmet when you are on wheels is the rule at our house. It's a minimal expectation for the protection it provides. Other pads are optional. My daughter likes them, my son does to a lesser degree. My wife and I also wear helmets.

Car seats are a no brainer. Until your kids are 5 feet and 100+ pounds they should be in some kind of booster/seat. Our daughter is 10, 100+ and we are just letting her sit without anything. Our 6 year old is still in a 5 point. He'll move to a booster this summer. They'll have plenty of time to wear regular seat belts. When they'r e18 they can do what they want. Until then, we will do these simple and minimal things to make sure they reach age 18.

Is some of it a pain? Absolutely. That doesn't mean you don't do it.

My home safety rules are set in stone as well..... But they are your rules in your house. That was my beef when I made the post. As parents it is our job to keep them safe. Not anybody else's role.

 

[JMacBass65]

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I never tire of this. She makes me tingle in a special place.......