Mom Is Teaching

After all, is that too bad?  I mean, is it a bad thing to learn from other adults?  Nah, I think not.  I can teach one thing, mono is no joke and just because your doctor says, you should be feeling better by Halloween, she might have really mean Thanksgiving and let’s hope to God she didn’t mean Christmas.

And, so with that, I’m going to give you some tips I found about keeping kids safer at Christmas.  I know we all think about how dangerous it is for kids to be out and about on Halloween with all the meanness in the world, but, for some reason, it doesn’t end there.

One year, I guess my youngest was almost 1 and in a stroller, by other son, pushing 3 when we were walking through a mall.  There had been a table of elderly folks playing cards in the center of the mall (which is normal during the week) and as we passed, they all turned their attention toward my children (no really, they did, I’m not making that up.  And, while no one was looking, this kid grabbed one of the elderly ladies purses and took off running.

He was gone, he lady was screaming and people were in shock.  We live in such a small town, stuff like that just doesn’t happen much, but that could have just as easily been one of my kids some lunatic grabbed. 

So, I give you, keeping your kids safe during the Holidays.  Little things that I think most of us already know but in the hustle and bustle and people calling and stopping by, it becomes easy to forget.  And, we have a wedding to deal with this year as well. 

Anyway, the tips are so simple:

• If you have a live tree (we don’t), remember to check for fresh green needles often and keep the tree watered and away from heat sources.  It amazes me every year how many tragedies I hear from this simple task.
• One of the tips that many follow is keeping breakable or sharp objects out of the child’s reach.  In my house, the old doggone tree is out of their reach.  We put a little picket fence around it because we also have trains that circle the tree and they would demolish them otherwise.  Maybe when they are 25 I might let them play with them.
• We always reuse ornaments from one year to the next but obviously they need to be inspected
• Of course the use of candles make the holidays all the more special but we rarely use them at all and I really don’t like having to deal with the safety issue.  But, if you do, just be careful.

And, this final tip is the one that I knew the least about.  Apparently the holographic UL Mark on light strings and electrical decorations.  This mark means that the engineers have tested samples of the product for safety hazards.  The green holographic UL marks indoor lights and red holographic UL Mark is for indoor and outdoor use.