Recalls, killer toddlers and more bad news

It seems like we are complicating the hell out of this whole parenting thing. We buy a bunch of things we don’t need and then we express incredulity when these objects A. are useless or worse, B. harm our children. I have seen recalls of toys that got stuck in a child’s hair. Really? You need something that gets stuck in your kid’s hair, like a spinning wheel, and then you’re outraged when it actually gets stuck?

We should have reasonable safety standards put in place, for sure. But sometimes we also need to use some common sense.

Did you know, for example, that this year more Americans were killed by toddlers than terrorists? There are preschoolers ages 3 to 6 who find their parents’ guns and shoot and kill people with them. One of these children was the child of a cop. You know how the argument everyone loves regarding universal healthcare is, “But I don’t trust the government to manage healthcare!” Yeah, that’s the one I have about people with guns. I don’t trust them to keep them out of reach of children, among other things—and obviously with good reason.

Then there were five deaths recently associated with a baby recliner. Um, why do we need baby recliners? Baby bassinets or beds and Mom and Dad are pretty much all you need. Plus a sling—I would love a sling. Now this thing—which some folks had recommended to me and I politely declined, by the way—has been recalled. To avoid situations like these, maybe we should all make a parent pact to say we’ll never buy any more crap we don’t actually need—and we’ll actually hold our children.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia