There’s a different sound in the neighbourhood these days: it’s getting close to summer so the kids who were probably looking for something to do inside during the winter months have now headed outside. The sounds of playing outside are ramping up.
As I watched the neighbourhood kids this past weekend, I noticed that many parents send their kids out with bike helmets, elbow and knee pads for the skateboards and sunscreen for the hot days that were upon us this past weekend. As I opened the newspaper, I read an article that reads that more children are being injured by falling TVs and furniture than ever before. In fact, the number of incidents of kids being injured by falling furniture has increased 41 percent over the past eighteen years.
From the Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, researchers identified that 264,200 injuries – about 21 cases for every 100,000 children – are caused by furniture and TVs falling on them. More than 24 percent of the children injured had inadvertently pulled furniture onto themselves and another 11 percent were found to be climbing on furniture when the incidents occurred. Remember, this is only from the actual numbers of cases reported. Kids who may have hurt themselves but not badly enough to require medical attention are likely not included in this report. But here’s the big number, over half of the tip-overs were from televisions falling on the kids. In every single instance, large pieces of furniture and appliances were not anchored to the wall.
You send your kids outside to play with all of the requisite safety gear yet fail to protect them in their own homes. So what’s the problem? The problem is that you don’t want to “appear” as a bad parent so anything that happens in plain view of other parents; you make sure the kids have the appearance that you are looking after their safety. That’s simply a safety-tolerance attitude: if your neighbours can see our kids, then you’re probably making sure you have the appearance of safety. You don’t want to look like bad parents by letting your kids go into the street without helmets and elbow pads. But it turns out, that the kids are actually safer outside the house than inside.
It may be OK for kids to climb trees but not OK for them to climb bookshelves. Just because it’s not OK, doesn’t mean they don’t do it.
SAFETY ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Safety Attitude means thinking about safety whether the neighbours are watching or not. If you go to work and adhere to the safety procedures, think for just a second about whether your kids would be safer at your place of work or in your own home. You see, someone has already set the rules for safety at work. Technically speaking, it would be safer for the kids, in many instances, to play in the workplace than it would be for them at home.
If you’ve got one of those big-screen TVs, anchor it. Anchor bookshelves, cabinets and anything else that might tip over when you can’t possibly be watching the kids’ every move. So go home and get a screwdriver, anchor straps or L-brackets and anchor your big stuff so the kids don’t hurt themselves. You’re a parent – a leader in your children’s’ lives – set the example for leadership and keep your kids out of the hospital. Show them that you have a Safety Attitude. It’s a small thing like this that will equip your kids when they themselves get ready to enter the workforce.
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