Stupidity…when parents are their own worst enemy

Can a company sue a parent for being stupid and improperly using their products? Not likely…and that is a shame.

Not long ago I wrote about a group of parents who tried to sue MySpace because their kids became involved in one way or another with a sex predator. My favorite quote in that story from MySpace amounted to “if the child had been contacted by the predator by phone, would you be suing the phone company?”

Then, this past weekend, one of my wife’s girlfriends forwarded an article from CNN about Bumbo recalling a million of their seats due to infants falling out and sustaining head injuries. After reading through the article I was disgusted to figure out that Bumbo was voluntarily recalling all of these seats because of user error. Ignorant parents were placing their kids in a Bumbo that was up on a counter or table-top (and then – I can only guess – leaving them unattended). To this I say, shame on the stupid parents and not shame on the product. Having purchased one and having used it like crazy, it is still one of my favorite products! I had my daughter in it all the time, and I too placed it on elevated surfaces (though I know for a fact that it is written on the box that you should not do this). The difference is that I was right next to her and/or watching over her every second she was in the Bumbo, and the moment it looked as though she was unstable or might fall over or out of the seat, I either took her out of it, or placed it back down on the floor.

If she HAD fallen out and gotten hurt, then double dumb-ass on me for not paying closer attention. In no way shape or form should Bumbo be held accountable for my ignorance. And yet here they are voluntarily recalling a million seats until they can more clearly mark the packaging and product itself with clear and explicit warnings about placing the Bumbo on elevated surfaces.

And do you know what? It won’t matter, because some dumbass is going to do it anyway, their kid is going to get hurt, and they’re going to sue Bumbo for their own ignorance, and they’ll probably win…

When oh when are people going to learn (probably never) that these types of products are not a substitute for actual parenting??? <link>

Toys of old

You know you’re “getting old” when you look at all the toys available to kids today and suddenly become disgusted by how advanced everything is. I mean seriously, the toys today almost play with themselves. Oh sure, there’s lots of flashing lights and buttons and switches and all that, but they really don’t require a great deal of interaction. “Back in my day…ok amost not even my day because toys were starting to take that route even when I was a kid, but I still remember some of the older toys too. Point of the story is there’s a great toy maker out there called Schylling and they are bringing “Old School” toys back to the forefront. I’m talking “REALLY” old school toys. Foot powered fire engines, actual WOODEN blocks, chalkboards, kaleidoscopes. These are toys not only require (and help build) motor skills, but also imagination (something I think is starting to escape the kids of today). Here’s one review I recently read:

Schylling is one of the leading toy makers in the USA and has been reviving some of the favorite toys from the past with their retro toys.  Some of the toys were originally popular in the 1950s and some date back to the turn of the 20th century.  Other toys are completely new inventions.  Here are some of our favorites which are sure to delight young children of the 21st century! (Schylling)

Check out all of their cool toys and happy shopping <Link>

A parent…er…sucker born every minute

Time for another look at baby products and the sucker parents who buy them.

Do you remember the first time you walked into Babies R Us and picked up one of those “here are all the things you need to buy before your baby is born” lists? I dont’ know about you by my eyes about popped out of my head. After looking the list over more carefully and consulting with a few friends who already had kids, we realized that half the list is filled with bullshit products that only a new parent could buy. Bottle warmer? Wet wipe warmer? 900mhz audio AND video monitor? Sunggle nest sleep positioner? None of these things is in any way shape or form “necessary.” But by far one of my favorites, for the newly potty-trained, is the Neat Solutions Potty Topper. This, of course, is designed to protect your children from coming into contact with dangerous germs in public restrooms.

The truth? The toilet seat is probably one of the CLEANEST things your child will come into contact with in a public restroom. A quick, somewhat scientific, test performed on Penn & Teller’s Bullshit! (Safety Hysteria: Season 2) showed that people’s hands were FAR more germ ridden than their backsides after sitting on a public toilet.

A couple studies by ABC News showed that your desk at work is probably 400 times dirtier than a toilet seat. Here’s some more findings from the study:

“…He <Charles Gerba> says most of the germs you and your children pick up in the bathroom are on your hands, so make sure to wash them well but skip the so-called sanitary hand dryer.

“You actually end up with more bacteria with the hand blower because they’re taking the air in the restroom and blowing it onto your hands with the bacteria on it,” said Gerba.

But once your hands are clean there’s no need to worry about the door handle.

“Really the cleanest areas in the bathroom are actually the door handle and the toilet seat,” said Gerba. <Link>

Car description a stretch (well…not really)

The wife and I have started doing some initial car searching for a new “Family Truckster” (that’s a station wagon for those of you who never saw National Lampoon’s Vacation). So here’s my question. When did the hatchback suddenly become the compact wagon??? A wagon? really? Let’s just compare a couple of current one’s on the market shall we? Take the VW Rabbit Hatchback (yes, VW does still refer to it as a hatchback) and the Suzuki SX4 Compact Wagon.

The VW has the same amount of front headroom and MORE rear headroom. The XS4 is shorter in length than the VW and has a slimmer wheel base than the VW, yet somehow it’s a “compact wagon”? Somehow, the XS4 claims a (questionable) 38 cubic inches or trunk space to the VWs 15. This annoys me for no other reason than it requires me to sift through all of the faux-wagons in search of an actual wagon wagon that is still cool enough to not make me look like a tool while driving it. Though that’s a pretty tall order for any car company…

papa-razzi

Pictures. As a new father, or just as a new parent for that matter, you are probably taking close to a frillion pictures a week. Chances are that some if not most of these photos are being snapped with a digital camera, and then downloaded to your computer.

I have two pieces of advice for all the papa-razzis out there.

Number one – Back up all of your photos to disk. A few months ago my computer died and I had to wipe it and re-install all of the system software. Needless to say we lost everything that had been on the computer. Documents, emails, music files, and of course photos. It was a little sad, though luckily we didn’t lose any of Nora because we had everything uploaded to Shutterfly.

Which brings me to point number two – I highly recommend one of those online photo sharing/printing websites. They are all very similar in price, quality, and so on. Which one you pick will probably end up being a personal preference. You can check out a CNet review of most of them at this link.

Another nice feature of these sites (at least of shutterfly) is having access to all of your pictures from anywhere (anywhere you have web access that is). And you can create a personal web page to store all of your online photo albums where family and friends can go to see any and every picture you take (very nice feature for the grandparents!).

You’ll also marvel at house fast that little rug rat is growing up. I love techmology!