■ Monkey bars are meant for the arms, but some kids hang upside down, hooking their legs on to the bars. A miscalculation can break their neck.
■ Guard rails at the top of the slide are sometimes too wide that they defeat the purpose of preventing falls. Sometimes, they are wide enough to insert a kid’s head but not wide enough to get it out.
■ Blind spots in the play centers of fast-food joints and malls prevent adequate adult supervision. Add to that the fact that most establishments that provide them do not assign a permanent person to watch over the kids.
■ Finally, some kids bully their playmates by pushing them out of the swings, getting ahead in the line to the slide, or doing all sorts of pranks.
Of course, we can’t be in a panic all the time. We must let our children be children and let them fall so they can learn how to get up. With all moms, what should you do to prevent serious or fatal accidents?
■ … tell the children about these dangers in a language that they can understand well. Tell them the consequences of certain behaviors. Nannies are told of the same dangers so they would know what to watch out for.
■ … buy children’s books which tell of these dangers.
■ … make sure that there’s always adequate adult supervision.
Posted by paripl110707 
