Common Sense...vehicle edition

Continuing on with the Common Sense series. Previous version can be found here.

How often do you, as an adult, ride in the backseat of a car?
How often do your children ride in the backseat of your car?

Hmmmm...adults obviously can ride in the backseat and may often do that in a big city carpool, but if they have the choice, they ride in the front seat, right?
Children have no choice, they must ride in the backseat.

So why, oh why, do car makers set up the backseats for adults and make parents modify the set up for kids? (by using carseats and boosters to make sure children get up high enough so that the seat belts don't hurt them)

Doesn't it make sense to think a little differently. What if car makers actually made the backseats for children who are under 4 feet tall by moving the seat belts accordingly, moving the belt mechanisms so they can easily be clipped by little hands, and making sure that there is actually enough room in the backseat for things like rear-facing carseats.

I've said it before on this blog, but the most difficult part of having 4 kids so young in age is getting them all in and out of the car. Several years ago I got rid of my fun little BMW and bought a minivan. With kids, it's the best transportation decision I could have made and already has literally saved me thousands of dollars in insurance money from the kids opening doors into other people's cars.

But I'm flabbergasted by the fact that my rear-facing baby carseats are too big for a minivan. Isn't that what minivans are designed to carry? Henry's seat can only go behind the front passenger seat because if it were behind the driver's side I would have to be hugging the steering wheel to drive. As it is, whenever we all go out, my husband has to sit with his knees in the dash, or he has to drive because there is just not enough room for that baby seat.

And you would really laugh if you witnessed the acrobatics it takes to get the girls in their seats. I've tried several different configurations and only found one that works - but it involves me getting inside the car almost completely to buckle them while wrenching my back to lift them up and scoot them sideways into their seats. Ridiculous!

Here's what it looks like when they're all in. If I had one more child we would have to get a much bigger vehicle because you can't even fit 3 car seats next to each other!

I'd happily buy an adult seat belt extender for backseats instead of buying all the apparatus for my kids to fit. So let's go car makers...a new project for your innovation teams. I know you can do it!

Common Sense

This is the first in what will be a small series of thoughts about areas in which product manufacturers could use a little more common sense about who uses their products...especially when it comes to children. Today's topic: the refrigerator.

Dear Refrigerator Manufacturer,

I don't have any statistics on this - but I would be willing to bet that 100% of households will have a child living in it or visiting it during the life of a given refrigerator. Right? So WHY would refrigerators not come with a built-in child lock automatically?

We stress over medicine caps but I bet more kids are injured or die after choking on food than ever did with medicine bottles before child-proofing became the norm. Why? Because medicine is usually up high in a medicine cabinet - but food is at kid level. (don't get me wrong - of course I'm a fan of child-proof caps on medicine)

When it comes to food, I have had to stop buying grapes because my kids go help themselves and grapes are a choking hazard...especially when left out for my smallest child. If the kids want to sneak a snack they can go in the fridge quietly and get out cheese or yogurt, etc. and hide it somewhere until they think they won't be seen eating it. Hello yucky, moldy, nasty food that has been hidden and then eaten! Ick!

I accept some responsibility that I need to consistently discipline my kids to stay out of the fridge...however...when it comes to safety issues and choking I want to ensure I am keeping them safe. I can discipline kids like crazy to stay out of the place where I keep household cleaners but I also have to keep those things locked up. In my opinion, food can be just as dangerous to children as those cleaners. They don't have common sense so we have to have it for them!

Please build child locks into your refrigerators. The after-market child locks don't work on most models and it can't cost that much to help a mom out by just adding a built-in lock!

Sincerely,
A mom who is sick of spoiled food, fridge doors left open, and being nervous about what my kids will find to choke on!

Here's my little girl who constantly tries to sneak food out of the fridge. I've even caught her trying to eat a raw egg that she got from the fridge...thinking it would be a good snack. Ewwwww!

Stay tuned for a future 'common sense' post to car manufacturers.