Safety Bug

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When did the safety bug bite you?  I’m guessing you’re here reading the blog because somewhere along the line you became interested in seat belts or vehicle safety or your child’s safety.  But have you always been a safety-minded individual or did something happen to make you that way?

I’ve always been a rule-follower.  Sure, there were the typical childhood transgressions.  I fondly remember sneaking off from the rest of the group with my friend as we were walking back to daycare from Kindergarten.  We had gotten into a “my mom can make better chicken noodle soup”/”no my grandmother can make better chicken noodle soup” standoff and we set off to my house many miles away to really make sure my grandmother could make the better soup (from a Campbell’s can, lol!).  We managed to elude police cars and frantic parents’ cars until we were almost to my house before we were caught.  Not bad for two 5 year olds!  Um, chicken noodle soup was *not* on the menu that evening.

Then there was that time I refused to come inside after my grandmother requested my presence (my mom and I lived with my grandmother so my mom could work the 3p-11p shift as a nurse).  She just locked the door so I couldn’t come in the house.  Haha!  Lesson learned and a good parenting trick up my sleeve.

The next time I remember not following the rules was 6 weeks to the day after I received my driver’s license.  I called my best friend and we agreed to meet at her house.  Oh, but I had a gut feeling about something.  Trust your gut feelings folks!  When I got to her house, we decided to go to the store to buy . . . toilet paper!  Yeah, ’cause two 16 year old girls need loads of toilet paper, right?  We picked up another girl and drove by the infamous Matt’s house (Remember him? He wrote the 2 Guest Wednesday blogs.) where he was with some of his friends.  Thrown toilet paper and a crashed car later, I’ve vowed to walk the straight and narrow.  It just doesn’t pay to break the rules.  I always get caught :D.  Plus, we played with a car and lost.  Even though we were going pretty slow (the cop thought we were going under 15 mph, but I was accelerating), my best friend, who was in the process of buckling her belt, slammed into the dashboard and pushed the glovebox so far in, we couldn’t open it.  She also sprained her wrist.  The girl in the back seat had a nice concussion, probably from hitting the front seat head restraint or B pillar.  She was not restrained.  I was restrained, but felt like crap from the other two being injured and having to tell my mother her ride was out of commission.

I look back at decisions I’ve made in my life and I’ve always been the cautious one.  When I first learned that seat belts were there for our safety (no one in my family ever used them), I started wearing them and pestered my mom to wear hers as well.  Aha!  We need to go after the kids to get to their parents, don’t we???  I’ve never wanted to touch the hot pot on the stove, cross a busy street, etc.  My 8 yr old ds is the same way.  He’s always gone to Safe Kids meetings with me when he wasn’t in school and I call him my “Safe Kid.”  He always wears a bike helmet, uses a booster seat without a fuss, and comments about other kids when they should be in car seats (“She’s not safe!  She should use a booster.”).  It’ll be interesting to watch the choices he makes as he grows.

So, have you always been the “safe kid” or is it just since your “safe kid” was born?

7 Comments

  1. Nancy S September 8, 2008
  2. Kat September 7, 2008
  3. murphydog77 September 5, 2008
  4. Kat September 5, 2008
  5. CPSDarren September 5, 2008
  6. Anne/kq September 4, 2008
  7. Danielle September 4, 2008