Continued…
Parental awareness can fall into three simple categories. These follow, with descriptions:
- Lack of or Insufficient Level of Awareness
In this attitude, parents are preoccupied with themselves or their work, sports, television, or other more self-defeating distractions such as drugs and alcohol. These parents are likely to be too dismissive of child safety issues and have few or no safety devices in their homes. - Adequately Protective
In this attitude, the parent is rational about threats to child safety. As part of their protection against these threats, they are likely to purchase a number of relevant child safety products to supplement their own regular attention to their children. - Over-protective
In this attitude, parents are overly motivated by fear or insecurity. They purchase every new product on the market and instill fear into their children. The children are likely to mimic their parents’ fear and insecurity.
Ideally, you want to find yourself in the second category. As you consider child safety products, consider the reasonable chances of your child falling victim to the accident protected against. Ask both yourself and your children questions like:
- Does my child need this or is my child too old for this product?
- Do we live in area where this product is necessary?
- Is the security created by this product out of line with the nuisance of it?
As a rule, it may be better to be over-protective of your children, but you need to be aware that this attitude can also have long-term negative effects.