Sunday, February 6, 2011

Good Eyes

The State of California requires me to put my child in a safety seat when in a motor vehicle until they are 6 years old and 60 pounds.  The State also requires that I put my child in a safety helmet until they are 18, if they are riding a bike.  As an adoptive parent, I am required to have First Aid and CPR training for adults, children, and infants (CPR needs to be renewed every year, First Aid every 3 years).  Also as an adoptive parent, I am also required to have 8 hours of parenting courses each year.

As a parent who occasionally watches the news and has some common sense, I close the gates in the front yard to slow down adults who want to enter and prevent (slow down) my child entering the street.  I sit and feed the baby where I can hear and see my older child.  I've taught my child a few safety tricks.

None of this --- State law, parenting classes, CPR courses, or common sense --- replace parental instinct and a good set of eyes and ears.  And being a genetically-related parent or not, has no connection whatsoever to parental instinct.

In the last couple of weeks, I have looked up from watching the road in front of me into the rear-view mirror, and noticed two arms that are a little more free than they should be.  And told someone under no uncertain terms that they were to put their seatbelt back on.  And kept yelling until he did, because there was nowhere safe to pull over.

And yes, after I put the safety helmet and elbow guards on the child, closed the gates, and sat within hearing/seeing distance as he rode his bike ... I looked up and realized that the helmet-and-pad-wearing-child was scaling the front gate and swinging a leg over.  At which point, he was told that if he ever wanted to see that bike again, he would get down and stay off of the front wall and gate!

Laws only make it easier to prosecute parents for not doing what they should have naturally/instinctively done anyway.  But laws don't replace a good set of eyes and ears ... eyes that catch a glimpse of something not right and ears that know when its too quiet.

2 comments:

  1. That's exactly right. Gut instinct is often all you have to go by.

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  2. Motherhood never came naturally to me. I had to work at it. Even with all your classes, and watchful eyes, and listening ears, kids just do things you don't expect them to. They will get hurt, bruised, and scraped, and most of the time, it isn't your fault.

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