“These worries that we have are so rare,” says Christie Barnes, mother of four and author of The Paranoid Parents Guide. “It’s like packing a snow shovel in case it snows in Las Vegas.” Based on surveys Barnes collected, the top five worries of parents are, in order:

• Kidnapping
• School snipers
• Terrorists
• Dangerous strangers
• Drugs

But how do children really get hurt or killed?

• Car accidents
• Homicide (usually committed by a person who knows the child, not a stranger)
• Abuse
• Suicide
• Drowning

Why such a big discrepancy between worries and reality? Barnes says parents fixate on rare events because they internalize horrific stories they hear on the news or from a friend without stopping to think about the odds the same thing could happen to their children.

link: 5 Worries Parents Should Drop, And 5 They Shouldn’t : Shots – Health News Blog : NPR

Honestly, I don’t think I have anything to add to this article. They hit the nail right on the head, parents are freaking out about shit that will probably never happen to their children.

In addition to the questionably safe items I did as a child, and mentioned yesterday, I spent most of my mouth wandering the streets of my home town until the street lights came on. There was no fear of being abducted or any absurd garbage of that nature, there was trust between my parents and me.

Get this, when I was in kindergarten, at the age of 5, I would walk from school to the bowling alley where my mother worked. Google says 1.1mi driving, but with the cut across we can drop maybe .2mi. And that was at 5!

Admittedly, I do not live in a large metropolitan area, but that doesn’t mean people around here are not afraid of the same things.

That is only addressing the one issue, stranger danger, but with the current thoughts most people in this country seem to have about terrorism, they almost seem to think that anyone with brown skin is one. Hell, just look at the fight over the community center they want to build close to ground zero. Guess what, folks, when you fight asinine shit like that, the terrorists have won, but I digress.

Parents, learn what is really dangerous for your kids, and stop thinking that Carlos the Jackal is going to bomb your kids school while a disgruntled white supremacist climbs the clock tower with his M40A3 and starts taking aim at the parking lot where the big van is parked while your kid is in the locker room shooting up heroin.

¹

“We know what shape, sizes and consistencies pose the greatest risk for choking in children and whenever possible food manufacturers should design foods to avoid those characteristics, or redesign existing foods when possible, to change those characteristics to reduce the choking risk,” said Dr. Gary Smith, immediate-past chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention and lead author of the organization’s new policy statement on preventing choking.”

link: Pediatricians Want Redesign of Hot Dogs, Candy to Curb Kids’ Choking – BusinessWeek

You have got to be shitting me!

Sure, small objects in children’s mouths are bad, but what about the costs involved in R&D to redesign all of these objects? Where is that cost going to be offset? Us, the consumer.
Never mind the fact that parents should be mindful of what their children are shoving into their mouths, not mommy and daddy government.

I am curious, of those pediatricians who want government regulation to change the shape of food items that may cause choking, how many of them ate the same items when they were kids? I think back to what I was allowed to do as a child: riding around in the bed of a pick up truck, sitting in the front seat of a car at the age of 6, putting the shoulder strap from my seat belt behind me, and probably too many others to name, and think that, according to what seems a majority of the population, I should probably be dead already.

Guess what, I am not dead, and I have even made it to the age of 32 without breaking any bones.

My parents must have been doing something right.

Thanks for the link on Twitter, Distroia.

Recently, as in on Christmas Eve, my wife’s 19 year old step-sister told her mother that she was, “later than she had ever been.”  This prompted a Christmas day trip to Walgreens, the purchase of a pregnancy test, a positive result from that, trip to the doctor, blood test, and another positive result.  Yay!  Another pregnant teen.

What to do about all of this?  Well, I have not voiced my opinion, because I know how it will go over, but in my opinion?  Get rid of it.  She is still early in the pregnancy, due August 20th, she works at a grocery store working less than 20 hours a week, when I asked her mother what the father thought she said, “Well, he doesn’t take care of the two he has,” and the living area of the house they all (being father-in-law, his wife, her daughter) live in is no bigger than the conference room where I work.  Not a single room of the house, mind you, but the entire living area of the house: 2 bedrooms, living room, and kitchen.  The girl needs to go get some of this:

or go visit Mr. Doctor with the “rusty coat hanger,” as it were.

Of course, when my step-mother-in-law was talking to my mother-in-law, she commented that this is all god’s will, or some sort of crazy crap like that.  Personally?  I blame it on abject stupidity, but we will get to that in a minute.  Ok, so, I am an atheist.  I make no bones about it.  God (gods) does (do) not exist, is (are) a man made construct, and in my opinion is (are) an antiquated idea that is no longer needed in today’s society and promotes poor ideas of morality while not allowing people to think freely.  I could say more, but we will save that for later.  So, with this whole idea that it is god’s will, does that mean that her daughter did not have the ability to not have sex with worthless loser boy with no job because it was pre-ordained by god?  Does that mean that, even though they did have sex, because of god’s will they would not use any form of protection?  If, like she seems to think, god willed her daughter to not think about the consequences of her actions and maybe try to prevent it, then couldn’t it also be seen that god willed man to create methods of abortion and therefore it is god’s will that we perform them?  Yeah, I know, a crazy thought.  It’s a test, right?  The devil created abortion and god is punishing you when you don’t listen to what he has to say about abstinence only and therefore you must totally fuck up your life in every way possible.

Of course, one of the big problems we have in this country are the abstinence only sex education policies in a lot of the schools, which is the result of the religious people trying to run the country (don’t think we are moving towards an oligarchy?  Faith Based Initiatives).  When we have policies like abstinence only, we end up with people like the kids in Florida who think that a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy. What kind of insanity is that, exactly?  Yes, I will admit that the only sure fire way to prevent pregnancy is to not have sex (or just do anal).  But you know what?  People are going to do it, so you should at least practice safer sex.  Sometimes, even when you take all possible precaution, it can still happen, like with my wife’s cousin.  She is on the pill, they use condoms, that leaves a .1% chance of getting pregnant.  Guess what?  That girl needs to go buy some Powerball tickets, because she is pregnant.  Luckily, though, she is with a great guy who is going to be a wonderful dad, they both have decent jobs, so all is well for her.  Still, though, if you are going to have sex, and teens are going to have sex – it is a fact of life, then please, practice it the safest way you can with condoms and other contraceptives.  We don’t need more children becoming burdens on me.  I don’t want to support their screw ups.

Personally, I see this as my wife’s step-sister’s mulligan.  A do over, if you will.  A chance to correct what she did wrong for awhile, get her head on straight, and start leading a more productive life, instead of a way for her to ruin it completely with a child she is both too immature to raise and unable to financially support.

This picture is now almost a week old, but who really cares. The facts are these: Kieran is not quite 7 months old, Kieran is crawling everywhere, and Kieran is pulling himself into a standing position. Phenemonal! Scary! Scarenemonal!

Two nights ago, he figured it all out.  Now, he is mobile, and on a true path of destruction.