So what do we DO?
If you’re on Facebook I’m sure you’ve seen many of your friends share the video made by Ellen Degeneres regarding the rise in teenage bullying and suicides. I agreed with her message and clicked the “Share” button with no hesitation. Looking through my newsfeed, many of my friends did as well.
But now what?? As much as I’d like to think it will, sharing a video on Facebook isn’t going to halt this vicious cycle. What tangible actions do we take to keep more precious kids protected? To keep more kids from having so little self-respect that they have to break down others to make themselves feel good about themselves? What resources are out there to help these kids?
It would be easy for me to shrug and say “My daughter’s 2. I don’t have to worry about this yet.” But I am worried. If nothing changes, what will the schoolyard be like in 10-12 years? Will bullies find another vessel to spew their hate? I don’t want to sit by and find out then.
The easy answer is everyone parent their kids. Teach them to respect others. Make them feel supported and that they can come to you if they are being bullied. But that message must be falling on deaf ears if children are still dying. Somebody is not holding up their end of the bargain and I’m not waitng for my kid to be picked on to the point they see no point in living to do something about it.
So again I ask…now that we’ve “shared” Ellen’s video, what are we going to do now?
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National Child Passenger Safety Week Tip # 1 – Get the Most from a Car Seat Check!!
This week marks National Child Passenger Safety Week and Saturday is National Seat Check Day and there will be many Seat Check events across the country. I’m very passionate about keeping kids safe in and around cars – that’s why I become Certified as a CPST. In honor of this week, I’ll be sharing some information that I personally feel is important for parents to know or information that doesn’t seem to get out there as much as it should. Today, I want to talk about how to get the most out of a car seat inspection.
1. Make sure the person checking your seat is a certified CPST. They should have either a certificate or wallet card with them that lists their techinican # or you can search for one online. I hear many people talk about just stopping at a fire station. While I’m sure firefighters are happy to help, they are not necessarily qualified to give you advice on car seat safety. If you want to find check up events, go to SafeKids.org or SeatCheck.org
2. Have the manuals to both your vehicle and your child restraint. Every car and restraint has their own guidelines and as knowledgable as CPSTs are, we can’t know everything about every car & seat out there. Plus, a good CPST will want to show you where to look up info if you have questions later.
3. Make sure when you leave you feel confident that you can repeat the installation. Ideally, the CPST would have talked you through the install and possibly never even touch your car or child restraint. They are not there to install your child restraint but educate and inform parents of the best practices in using them. If you have questions, please ask!!
That is today’s tip. Tomorrow I’m going to talk about the benefits of Extending Rear Facing.