> If you think it is more important to answer a phone than to watch over your children you should not be a parent.
I have to confess that I laughed out loud when I read this. No parent I know has the following internal debate: \”Phone is ringing…I\’m watching my toddler…phone, my child\’s safety…phone, my child\’s safety…\” Parents, like teachers and construction workers and management consultants and everyone else living, make decisions every minute based on assessments of risk. You can answer the phone AND watch your toddler. Otherwise parents, nannies, childcare professionals and others would be incommunicado eight to ten hours a day. (Or, more accurately, parents would be permanently barred from answering a phone until their children had moved out. Appealing some days but impractical in the long run.)
Most sensible people would agree that the pool-fence law is a stupid law.
What if the law instead required that all water-filled inflatable pools had to be supervised at all times?
Two benefits of a law like this:
* \”Sorry, honey, I can\’t come back in. I\’m hard at work out here with a gin and tonic supervising the pool.\”
* When people weren\’t using their pools, THEY WOULD DRAIN THEM. No water, no drownings. (As well as no mosquitos breeding, another major benefit.)
But yes…a fence around each child might also work.
Clearly, I\’ve failed to communicate the message I was trying to get across. I, too, think the fence law for wading pools is over reactive. I was trying to point out that the law may have been passed in an attempt to solve a real problem. I never meant to imply that people should put answering a phone ahead of watching their children. But the fact is, they often do. We read about it every day in the papers. Usually with tragic results.
Incred…I like your suggestion of a law saying a wading pool should be drained when not in use. It\’s logical. It would help reduce the problem. Sure, some people would still disobey the law. But at least they would be more aware of the potential danger associated with their wading pool.
Again, I apologize for failing to communicating clearly. I was simply trying to use the absured to illustrate a point and to prompt an intelligent discussion. It appears that all I did was to prompt a tirade.
Yes you can watch children and answer a phone. But how does someone not watching their children force me to build a fence. Even more ludicrous is the number of new laws we all discussed to address this. (I understand many were in fun) YOU DO NOT NEED THE GOVERNMENT TO TELL YOU HOW TO BE RESPONSIBLE! It is real simple…be diligent, train YOUR children. IF ONE WOULD HAVE TO EMPTY A WADING POOL DOES ONE ALSO HAVE TO PUMP OUT PUDDLES IN THEIR YARD FROM RAIN THESE HAVE TO BE JUST AS DANGEROUS! MAYBE WE SHOULD ALSO EMPTY THE GREAT LAKES AND ALL RIVERS…YOU NEVER KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok so you have the wandering little 5 year old trotting through the neighborhood alone. Here comes the big bad unfenced attractive nuisance kiddie pool. Lucky for them they managed to dodge the cars on the road, rot wielders and pit bulls also wandering, pedophiles, clotheslines, ditches, drain pipes, and pond or lake, before they found that pool. Isn\’t this much like the closing the barn door after the horse gets out. You just cannot remove every potentional risk in life by legislating it. Maybe instead of handing out condoms we could teach kids to not have sex, maybe instead of giving drug addicts clean needles, we could help get them off the drugs. Our society has become enablers. Look how well the public assistance system works. I just love a third of my paycheck going to help others enlarge their families. People need to be responsible for themselves and their actions and know that those actions have consequences, some tragic. Heres a novel thought, how about better childcare training in high school. Let\’s take some lessons from our grandparents. We all managed to survive without the car seats, perfectly spaced crib bars, triple reinforced strollers. Let\’s get back to making parenting a treasured privilege and not a test to see how stupid you are.
The reason we are seeing more and more of these types of idiotic lawsuits and laws is because we have legislated out the basic tenets of Darwin\’theory. By making the world a safer place, the dumb people manage not to kill or maim themselves and therefore reproduce. Sharp metal objects, unwatched pools & motorcycles exist to weed the idiots out of society. This law will only produce more idiots that we will have to protect down the road!
I have a 2 yr old, and I have 2 different kiddie pools, one is inflatable, one is a rather large plastic (the kind with the molded in slide). When not being used, the inflatable one is drained, deflated, and put up (after being hund for a short period to dry). The plastic one has the drain plug removed and it secured standing on it\’s side with the plug removed. Sure, it\’s a little trouble to set them up and fill them, but my son is not replacable, and neither are my neighbors kids.
There are enough things for my little guy to hurt himself on without me leaving a pool of water around filled with water.
Regarding the earlier post about the abilities of anyone drowning in 24 inches of water, all it takes is a slip in the pool and a bumped head, and just a few inches of water would do the trick.
I do agree that it\’s ridiculous that this has to be legislated. That parent should already have had the pool protected without having to be told by Johnny Law.
I have an inflatable pool that requires by law to be fenced, Am I allowed by law to build a box style enclosure that the pool is put in and has a lid that is locked when the pool is not in use. It would have hinges on one side and a padlock on the other.
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On July 11, 2006, 3:03 pm CDT, MUD wrote:
> If you think it is more important to answer a phone than to watch over your children you should not be a parent.
I have to confess that I laughed out loud when I read this. No parent I know has the following internal debate: \”Phone is ringing…I\’m watching my toddler…phone, my child\’s safety…phone, my child\’s safety…\” Parents, like teachers and construction workers and management consultants and everyone else living, make decisions every minute based on assessments of risk. You can answer the phone AND watch your toddler. Otherwise parents, nannies, childcare professionals and others would be incommunicado eight to ten hours a day. (Or, more accurately, parents would be permanently barred from answering a phone until their children had moved out. Appealing some days but impractical in the long run.)
Most sensible people would agree that the pool-fence law is a stupid law.
What if the law instead required that all water-filled inflatable pools had to be supervised at all times?
Two benefits of a law like this:
* \”Sorry, honey, I can\’t come back in. I\’m hard at work out here with a gin and tonic supervising the pool.\”
* When people weren\’t using their pools, THEY WOULD DRAIN THEM. No water, no drownings. (As well as no mosquitos breeding, another major benefit.)
But yes…a fence around each child might also work.
Dear Incred and MUD,
Clearly, I\’ve failed to communicate the message I was trying to get across. I, too, think the fence law for wading pools is over reactive. I was trying to point out that the law may have been passed in an attempt to solve a real problem. I never meant to imply that people should put answering a phone ahead of watching their children. But the fact is, they often do. We read about it every day in the papers. Usually with tragic results.
Incred…I like your suggestion of a law saying a wading pool should be drained when not in use. It\’s logical. It would help reduce the problem. Sure, some people would still disobey the law. But at least they would be more aware of the potential danger associated with their wading pool.
Again, I apologize for failing to communicating clearly. I was simply trying to use the absured to illustrate a point and to prompt an intelligent discussion. It appears that all I did was to prompt a tirade.
Yes you can watch children and answer a phone. But how does someone not watching their children force me to build a fence. Even more ludicrous is the number of new laws we all discussed to address this. (I understand many were in fun) YOU DO NOT NEED THE GOVERNMENT TO TELL YOU HOW TO BE RESPONSIBLE! It is real simple…be diligent, train YOUR children. IF ONE WOULD HAVE TO EMPTY A WADING POOL DOES ONE ALSO HAVE TO PUMP OUT PUDDLES IN THEIR YARD FROM RAIN THESE HAVE TO BE JUST AS DANGEROUS! MAYBE WE SHOULD ALSO EMPTY THE GREAT LAKES AND ALL RIVERS…YOU NEVER KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok so you have the wandering little 5 year old trotting through the neighborhood alone. Here comes the big bad unfenced attractive nuisance kiddie pool. Lucky for them they managed to dodge the cars on the road, rot wielders and pit bulls also wandering, pedophiles, clotheslines, ditches, drain pipes, and pond or lake, before they found that pool. Isn\’t this much like the closing the barn door after the horse gets out. You just cannot remove every potentional risk in life by legislating it. Maybe instead of handing out condoms we could teach kids to not have sex, maybe instead of giving drug addicts clean needles, we could help get them off the drugs. Our society has become enablers. Look how well the public assistance system works. I just love a third of my paycheck going to help others enlarge their families. People need to be responsible for themselves and their actions and know that those actions have consequences, some tragic. Heres a novel thought, how about better childcare training in high school. Let\’s take some lessons from our grandparents. We all managed to survive without the car seats, perfectly spaced crib bars, triple reinforced strollers. Let\’s get back to making parenting a treasured privilege and not a test to see how stupid you are.
Brilliant simply brilliant!!!
A life without risks is not worth living!!
Give me LIBERTY or give me DEATH, but don\’t give me more stupid people rules!
The reason we are seeing more and more of these types of idiotic lawsuits and laws is because we have legislated out the basic tenets of Darwin\’theory. By making the world a safer place, the dumb people manage not to kill or maim themselves and therefore reproduce. Sharp metal objects, unwatched pools & motorcycles exist to weed the idiots out of society. This law will only produce more idiots that we will have to protect down the road!
I have a 2 yr old, and I have 2 different kiddie pools, one is inflatable, one is a rather large plastic (the kind with the molded in slide). When not being used, the inflatable one is drained, deflated, and put up (after being hund for a short period to dry). The plastic one has the drain plug removed and it secured standing on it\’s side with the plug removed. Sure, it\’s a little trouble to set them up and fill them, but my son is not replacable, and neither are my neighbors kids.
There are enough things for my little guy to hurt himself on without me leaving a pool of water around filled with water.
Regarding the earlier post about the abilities of anyone drowning in 24 inches of water, all it takes is a slip in the pool and a bumped head, and just a few inches of water would do the trick.
I do agree that it\’s ridiculous that this has to be legislated. That parent should already have had the pool protected without having to be told by Johnny Law.
I put up a fence around by buckets.
People who think the kiddy pool in the front yard is ugly may have pushed this as a deterant to people who cant afford the fence.
I have an inflatable pool that requires by law to be fenced, Am I allowed by law to build a box style enclosure that the pool is put in and has a lid that is locked when the pool is not in use. It would have hinges on one side and a padlock on the other.