Topics of Discussion Today

I was thinking of the changing world that we are living in, and is it ever changing.  There are so many new rules, laws, expectations that did not exist in mass amounts when I was growing up.  I then started contemplating why these changes have been occurring.  What is society is moving the pendulum so far from what I used to know.  I could only come up with one answer, stupidity and laziness.  I know that's two words but for arguments sake I believe in this topic they are one in the same.

When I grew up we were lucky to be in car seats.  I definitely did not ride in one after I was a year and a half and neither did my brother six years later or my sister in between us.  Our car seats did not have expiration dates either, my mother used the same car seat for all us kids.  It was a car seat made with metal reinforcement poles and a plastic seat, brown in colour.  I remember when seat belts became the law and not just a safety suggestion. My sister and I used to play house in the back of my mother's car while we went on drives from Wakaw to Saskatoon or Prince Albert. I remember crying when she traded in her car for the big Ford LTD and we lost our play area.  I also remember cramming my family and the McStay family (that was a family of 4 boys and their parents) minus their dad into that Ford LTD to go to the lake or Saskatoon to shop for groceries once a month at the Superstore.  We didn't all have seat belts that's for sure.  Or we would go in the McStay's van and us kids would play in the back.  It wasn't one of those mini vans it was more like a camping van.

Now my children are not allowed to sit in the front seat until they are 12.  This I believe comes from the invention of airbags mostly, but it is also a safety consideration.  My youngest is in a rear facing car seat until his first birthday, a car seat that will expire in 2012.  He will then ride in a car seat that is front facing but anchored in three different spots so that it is more securely in the car.  My children do not know what it is to not have to wear a seat belt, it's always been part of their life.

Do you remember the 'lights on for life' campaign?  It ran in the late eighties so that people would start turning on their headlights during the daytime so they could be more easily seen.  Before that people only turned on their headlights at night when they couldn't see where they were driving because of the darkness. 

Now most cars come with Daytime running lights.  Or we have lights that come on automatically when a sensor is activated by the degree of light in the sky.  It's just another change we have made with our vehicles to be safe.

I am not saying that these changes aren't good, they have saved countless lives.  However, I am wondering how many more reckless people have come out because they have all these safety features keeping them from killing themselves.  We have airbags coming out because people were driving under stupid conditions; drunk, tired, recklessly.  We have seat belt laws for the same reason.  If all people did not act stupidly behind the wheel how many of these safety features would become obsolete.  What will happen when a car company develops a sensor on the car to detect the speed limit in an area because the government starts using radars to shoot out speed limits instead of reading the speed of cars?  Will we still need all the safety features or as people become accustomed to these changes what other changes will happen?

Do not even get me started on kids toys today.  I cannot even begin to count the types of toys I had so much fun playing with as a kid that are now deemed inappropriate or unsafe for children because of injuries.  Most of the injuries I have heard of from these toys are preventable if the parents of these children had not been stupid or too lazy to take precautions.  Many of the recent recalls are because toys pose a choking hazard but if you are not using your toys as babysitters you should be able to watch your children and prevent any danger.

This is mostly why I think these changes are coming about.... we are trying to protect stupidity.  Anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that a baby walker does not give carte blanche safety to your child.  They can tip over, they are on wheels they can go down stairs so set up precautions so this does not happen.  Should I file a complaint with Jolly Jumper because I put my son in it one day and he was able to lean far enough forward to fall out of it?  I don't think so because it was my own fault I hadn't paid close enough attention when I put him in it and there were toys underneath that gave him leverage to get higher in order to lean far enough forward to fall out.  But because your child falls down the stairs in a walker doesn't mean there is something wrong with the walker, there is something wrong with your supervision.

Even with the issues today with child predators.  They are not a new phenomena they were around when we were growing up, but we had to watch for them on the street.  We had to learn to tell our parents about awkward situations not hide them from our parents.  Now we as parents have to teach our children to be cautious of the faceless stranger on the Internet that is pretending to be a child.  We as parents have to continue to take an active role in our children's lives and not fall under the false pretense that our children are safe because they are in our homes and are not 'meeting strangers'.  We as parents can't take a lazy stance we have to be involved.

I could go on and on, and I do have one more topic of discussion but it will take it's own blog because it's a topic I know a lot about.  Let me know if you have opposing views or agree... I just go through times when I need to vent about the status of society because by venting maybe I can find a solution in my ramblings or with my friends to help improve this world!!!

Comments

  1. Greg and I discuss this all of the time. He remembers making fun of kids with booster seats. I also remember playing barbies in the backseat of the car while driving from Calgary to Prince Albert.

    I don't understand why carseats expire - why is something that is safe in 2008 not safe in 2012? It makes no sense to me at all!!

    It's all a money making industry that unfortunately we as consumers fall for even though we try our hardest not to....

    ReplyDelete

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