Monday, Feb. 06, 2012 6:06 p.m.
rant about car seats
I have to post this here, because anywhere else I could post (or say outloud) would make it seem like I'm starting a debate, not just venting...it'd probably also make me sound like an evil parent who doesn't care about my child.
Supposedly we're now supposed to keep kids in booster car seats until 8 years old.
And apparently also, girls are entering puberty earlier and earlier and some are now getting their periods starting at age 8.
Uh...so while these two things might not overlap very often - still, it could now be considered "normal and possible" for a menstruating girl(woman?) to be legally forced to ride in a car seat??
Am I the only person who sees something really wrong here? Yes, I don't like that something is causing earlier puberty in girls - but I also don't really like that we are so constantly focused on the worst-case-senario of a deadly car wreck that we're caging kids up like babies practically until they come of reproductive age.
I love my baby a super crazy amount and don't want anything to ever happen to her, just as I love my husband a super crazy amount and don't want anything to happen to him - but there are risks with living and there are risks with driving in a car (and with walking down the street and with turning on the stove and with going swimming in the pool, etc.) and I can't protect any of us from every little thing that can go wrong. I don't refuse to ride in a car for fear of a wreck, nor do I refuse to let my husband commute to work on the crazy Los Angeles freeways. But could we die from it? Yes, there is a chance. I just don't let this fear rule my life or go crazy trying to overprotect myself from it. Because the freedom to transport myself around in a car (even if it means risking death each time) is an important part of what it means to be alive and it is worth it to me.
Pictures like this: http://www.fortworthinjurylawyerblog.com/booster%20seat.jpg make me feel a little sad for this generation of kids...and makes me a little annoyed that I'm supposed to do this to my own daughter for another 7.5 YEARS!
If it's the worry about the way that car seat belts fit on a child's body - then why hasn't someone come up with some much simpler way to adjust JUST the seat belts then? That way you could easily re-set it to properly fit a child, teen, or adult and you wouldn't have to lug around the huge car seat contraption every time your child needed to switch cars or someone else needed to ride in your car and needed the seat.
Ugh. I'm sure this makes me seem like a really horrid parent. Oh well. Just needed to vent...
Thursday, Aug. 03, 2017 - hello?Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 - strange dream
Monday, Oct. 06, 2014 - catholic and friends
Thursday, Sept. 04, 2014 - changing. and I need to go to bed.
Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014 - dreams of dying
Chapters of My Life
Motherhood
Sept. 2011 - now Being a mother.
Isolation&Infertility (&pregnancy)
Aug. 2009 - Sept. 2011 Working from home in a job that I love...that comes with a loneliness I hate. A husband who works too much, and continued failure to start a family. Slowly spiraling, forgotten, into social invisibility. Accepting and experiencing the potential of pregnancy.
First-Year Teacher
Aug. 2008 - Aug. 2009. pretty much the hardest job I hope I ever have. and all the while trying not to admit my secret turmoil over longings for/attempts at/failure to produce what's supposedly supposed to come after love and then marriage...
Optimism
Aug. 2007 - Aug. 2008. finally accepting that becoming a normal grown up is not just inevitable, but preferable. better job situations for both of us. working freelance as a studio teacher, and becoming an egg donor.
Fading Dreams...
Dec. 2006 - July 2007. student teaching, being poor, consistent job rejections, trying to save face while feeling hopeless.
To Live a Life Worth Death...
July 2006 - Nov. 2006. thinking about death a lot, accepting life and my eventual end. career and passions - beginning the path of contribution to what I will leave behind...
Identity Crisis/Marriage
Oct. 2005 - Apr. 2006. new job. new career. new last name. new husband. new life. who was I and what was I becoming?
The Official End to Childhood? II
June 2005 - Sept. 2005. preparing for a life that still felt like pretend. was I really a 'grown-up' already? weird.
The Official End to Childhood? I
Feb. 2005 - June 2005. losing my virginity, getting engaged, changing my career, selling our childhood home...slowly losing everything that held me as a child... (Meet Mr. Mom 4/05 - 5/05. working/travelling on production of my 4th & LAST reality show ever.)
Quarter-Life Crisis/Unemployment
Sept. 2004 - Feb 2005. no steady job for 5 months - definitely not a good place to be. oh, and I fell in love - which is a good place to be, but it kind of only adds to the confusion.
Postlude to the Prelude
Apr. 2004 - May 2004. I had no clue what things were being set in motion...but everything has changed from there.
The Simple Life 2
Mar. 2004-Apr. 2004. not the deepest thinking period of my life, but I learned a heck of a lot about production of a reality tv show.
L.A. #2 - The Real World
Aug. 2003-Feb. 2004.the big move. transplanting my life. ironically not only working in the "real world", but also AT the company that makes The Real World.
That Weird, Here Nor There, Summer
May 2003-Aug. 2003. a college graduate, but not yet in the grown-up world. just existing. and waiting. and thinking.
Goodbye College
Jan. 2003-May 2003. it's a weird thing, the last semester of college. lots of thinking about what lies beyond.
The Semester From Hell
Aug. 2002-Dec. 2002. it was kind of like I tried to cram 4 yrs. of growing-up experiences into one semester.
I've Changed?
Apr. 2002-Aug. 2002. after L.A. and stuck right in-between the two most intense "finding-myself" semesters of my life!
L.A. #1 - Interning/Discovering
Jan. 2002 - Apr. 2002. I finally stepped WAY outside my comfort zone and went where I had no freakin idea what I was doing. Living outside your bubble for awhile really makes you see differently.
Beginnings/Depression
Aug. 2001-Jan. 2002. who I was, and sometimes who I still am. how it started and how it was before.