As parents, we value safety and I'm the first to yoink a toy away from my kids if I don't think it is safe. Case in point, the nails from the Little Tikes Work Bench. Let's just say, Junior didn't have those long. I felt like an overprotective parent, but in retrospect, it must have been safety consciousness driving my decision to take them away. When the Little Tikes folks recalled their Work Bench, I felt vindicated and perhaps a little bit guilty. Though my son never had an incident with the toy in question, I wonder if I shouldn't have dropped the company a line saying, "What were you thinking?"
And now, I have a preschooler set to go to school next fall and a distinct feeling that my family just may be complete. All of these years, I've held onto some baby furniture "just in case". Just in case we were surprised with another child on the way... just in case my sister ever got married and started a family of her own... just in case someone might happen to need a crib, changing table and pack and play.
In researching an article about the recent Graco/LaJobi crib recall, I began to wonder just what I had hiding in the deep recesses of my attic. Though I'm pretty good at remembering brand names and such, I'm not all that sure that I'd want to take the chance of passing on faulty baby furniture onto someone. At this time, I don't think anything I have is under recall, but the onslaught of recalls in the past year for everything baby really has me concerned.
What I learned in researching that article was that the CPSC has recalled 7 million (give or take) cribs in recent years. 6 million of them have been drop side cribs... very similar to the one crammed up in my attic. Is it the design that is flawed? I don't know. Is it worth the chance of passing it to someone else to use? No. The same goes for the pack and play we have. It isn't recalled, but similar models from different companies were. It makes you really wonder if you're next?
What to do with our baby stuff?
I asked hubby what we could do, then, with all this baby stuff? It seems like such a huge waste to throw them out and if we did discard them, we would have to either smash them to pieces or throw them out piece by piece in stages so someone wouldn't think they hit the baby furniture lottery. So we got to thinking, how could we repurpose our baby crib? Our pack and play?
Would a drop side crib be easily repurposed into a hanging pot rack? What can you do with the cushion on the bottom of the pack and play? If you have any ideas, please share!
If you made it this far to read my ramblings and wonder just what the whole point of this blog post is, here it is: It is one thing to be frugal, it is another to be unsafe. No child's life is worth the risk, ever. Parents, take a look at what you have left over from having babies over the years, and then take a very hard look with safety in mind, imagining the worst case scenario. It could save a life.
No comments:
Post a Comment