Safety

I don’t consider myself a safety nut as far as my daughter is concerned, but I guess in comparison to how I was raised, to how many of us were raised I am certainly more nutty about safety.

A few examples:

• I’m pretty sure I was never in a car seat. Ever! They wouldn’t let me bring my daughter home from the hospital without a car seat.
• I didn’t wear a helmet on my bike until I was in my 30′s. Now they make helmets for your kids to just wear around the house (that seems a little excessive).
• Honey and peanut butter were given to me in the first year of my life and somehow I survived. My poor mother tried to give my daughter honey when she was less than a year old and you should have heard me (I know the neighbors did); it wasn’t pretty.
• Once, I wouldn’t stop crying and my mom said that if I didn’t stop she would make me get out of the car. I didn’t stop. She made me get out of the car and I stood stunned on the sidewalk as she drove away. Don’t worry, she just drove around the block and picked me up. Would I ever leave my daughter on the side of the road now? Hell, NO!
• I ate all kinds of candy from Mexico that apparently had lead on the packaging. I still eat that candy and apparently the packaging still has lead on it. I won’t let my daughter eat it, though.
• My mother would diligently make me a health shake with a shot of “vitamin liquid” and a raw egg in it every morning and send me to school. Turns out that “vitamin liquid” was just a shot of booze and raw eggs, I think nowadays Child Protective Services would be called if you give a child raw eggs.

A lot of these safety concerns seem like common sense nowadays, but that’s the thing about “common sense” it’s not really common until it is. I try not to overdo it with the safety concerns. My house isn’t “child-proof”, except for the cabinet under the sink. I know there will be bumps and bruises along the way.  I do my best to keep my child safe, but I don’t want to be neurotic about it.

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