Drawstrings and Kids Fashions Don't Mix

When you are choosing clothing for your child, be aware that fashion and safety are sometimes at odds.  Ask anyone who has tried to run in stiletto heels.  Jackets, sweatshirts and pants should not have drawstrings at the neck or waistline.  This is a hidden hazard that can be fatal.   CPSC is cracking down quite hard on this clothing no-no, in an attempt to decrease the number of injuries and deaths caused by  drawstrings in youth clothing.  The latest slap on the hand was delivered to Ms. Bubbles, Inc., a Los Angeles-based clothing manufacturer.  Not only did the company have to recall over 55,000 jackets in 2009, but they now are fined for not reporting the issue to CPSC earlier.

     

Photo:  CPSC

     CPSC announced that Ms. Bubbles, Inc. agreed to pay $40,000 as a civil penalty to settle CPSC claims that the firm “knowingly failed to report the strangulation hazard on a girls’ denim jacket sold through T.J. Maxx, J.C. Penney, and Forman Mills stores across the US from August 2006 through December 2007. 

    
     The jacket hood had a drawstring that was in violation of CPSC drawstring guidelines for clothing sized 2T-16.  Drawstrings in the hoods and waistbands of children and youth jackets and sweatshirts have been blamed for the strangulation death of over 20 children since 1985 when they became tangled in playground equipment, cribs or doors.

   
     United States federal law requires manufacturers, distributors and retailers or report, within 24 hours, products that contain a significant product hazard, or knowingly violates an established CPSC safety regulation. Ms. Bubbles, Inc. denies that they knowingly violated the law.

Wonderfully Made: The Four Stages of Baby’s Development

photo: http://www.snegidhi.com 

You planned everything during those first nine months of your baby’s life.  What you ate, the music you listened to, how much you exercised, which child birth method you’d use, whose advise you’d follow and whose you thought was a little too wacky.  Now your precious little treasure has arrived and the reality of all you have to teach that little person makes you break out in a cold sweat.  Out there in the harsh, cruel world, your child will take the tools you have given him or her, and begin to impact the world around them.

Think about that.  The experiences in a child’s first five years will have a critical impact on their sense of self-esteem, their view of where they fit in the world, and their ability to trust and even feel empathy.  In their first year alone, babies go through significant mental, social and physical growth.  It’s true that a new baby only has a range of visual focus up to about 8 inches, but that doesn’t mean that child is not learning.  In fact, infants are using most of their senses to learn about the world around them.  For example, at birth, a child’s sense of smell, taste, touch and hearing are almost fully developed. As you hold baby, he is learning about your smell, the sound of your voice, and even your touch.

Long before they are ready to utter their first words, they understand a lot about communicating.  They know that when you shake your head, they better stop throwing that rattle off the high chair.  They know when you open your arms and bend down, they can run up for a hug.  The silly sound daddy makes with his voice makes them giggle.  When they are hurt or scared, you sing softly to them, and they are comforted.

As a parent you have been given this precious gift to train and care for for only a short time.  Getting to know your child’s developing personality will be important as you guide them during the next few years of their life.  Over the next few weeks we’ll explore the various development stages your child will be growing through.  We’ll share ideas for helping them learn and develop new awareness.  But a note of caution:  All children develop at different rates and on different timelines. Be careful not to hold any one child up against another.  Your child may get to one stage quickly and to the next stage much more slowly.  It’s really quite amazing to watch a young person develop through each stage.  One of the most loved Psalms in the bible reminds us that we are “wonderfully made,” and indeed we might all agree to this as we watch our children growing, thinking, being creative and using all those wonderfully made parts to grow into a very special and unique person.

Children’s development involves four basic areas:

  Physical:   

• Large muscles; Small muscles; Coordination; Timing & Rhythm

  Cognitive

• Creativity; Discovery; language Skills; Judgment & Reason; Ability to focus & control impulses

  Emotional

• Feelings of happiness; Feeling of power in their surroundings; Aware of how they feel; Sensitivity to others; Emotional strength and stability; Sense of humor; Feelings about self

  Social

• Occurs in group activities; learning appropriate behaviors in different situations

It’s important to watch for a child’s development in all four areas to best help them prepare for school and life.  Any preschool, Kindergarten and beyond that you eventually choose should include training for all these four areas during your child’s daily routines and lessons.

Next month:  Ten Activities to Stimulate Baby’s Senses: Birth to 3 months.

When does home decor became a children's product?

Sometimes I am truly amazed that I am still alive!  Growing up, I played on fallen trees in the forest behind our Pennsylvania home; I was carted around the county fair on a flimsy folding stroller; My favorite game included marbles; I drank out of plastic baby bottles probably laden with BPA; I know I chewed on the lead paint in my brothers die cast cars; and as a teenager, my bedroom door was decorated with a hippie–inspired pink and purple bead curtain.  Any one of those things alone would send CPSC, Consumer Reports and many Prop 65 prosecutors into a feeding frenzy!

Today the Consumer Product Safety Commission essentially told Target stores that they can’t market bead door curtains to children under 12 years of age. 

The strands of beads can be unintentionally manipulated during normal use to form a loop that could entangle or strangle a child.  There have been no deaths, but Target has received three customer reports of endangerment. The youngsters were 6, 9 and an unknown age, and all three suffered scratches and cuts from the beads grabbing onto their necks as they walked through the curtains.

The real problem was with how the door curtains were marketed.  The packaging demonstrated that there clearly was a known hazard.  The label reads: "Not for use in areas with children under 5 years of age. Plastic ornaments may pose strangulation or entanglement hazard. Not for use near cribs or playpens." The assembly guide also warned customers not to tie the bottom of the beaded curtains into loops.  The artwork on the packaging shows the curtains being used on a doorway that obviously was decorated like a young girl’s bedroom.

There is a lesson to be learned here.  If the beaded curtains had been clearly marketed for adults, and it was the parent who decided to put the beads over their child’s door – would a recall have been required in the event that scrapes and cuts had occurred on the children?  It was the manufacturer’s presentation of intended use in a child’s doorway that was at issue here.

Now personally I would never have considered door curtains as a children’s product, but the CPSC has been broadening their definition of what constitutes a children’s product since publishing their final interpretive rule for defining a children’s product.  These guidelines were created as a result of the total confusion caused by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). They were meant to clear the gray haze left by the CPSIA, in which a children’s product was defined broadly as “a consumer product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger.”  In fact it created more questions than providing answers.  

What do you think?  

• When does home decor become a "children's product?'  
• What totally unsafe, but completely carefree activity did you participate in as a child, and live to tell about? 

The journey toward happiness

"My life passes more swiftly than a runner.  It flees away without a glimpse of happiness.”  - Job 9:25 –

photo by dreamstimecomp

The Big Business and Technology Expo was held February 24-25th at Utah Valley University.  Hundreds of businesses were represented and many keynote speakers shared ideas and success stories.  Robert Richman, Insight product manager of the highly successful online shoe and clothing store, Zappos, spoke on Thursday night.  During his 60-minute presentation, he shared the company’s key to their success, and summed it up in one word - “happiness.”  At one point Richman indicated that if a new employee is not happy in the Zappos environment, the company actually pays them to quit – to the tune of about $4000.  The hope is that the employee (now an ex-employee) will use that income to “find a job they really want; one that will make them happy.” He adds, in conclusion that, “It all comes down to happiness."

Zappos Insights is a division of the company that teaches other companies how to create exceptional service and a solid company culture.While the principles Richman delivered seem to have great impact on running a successful business, one might question how these principles can really deliver “happiness.” 

That’s an interesting concept; that a job can actually make you happy.  If ten people were asked what makes them “happy,” it’s unlikely that “my job” would top the list.  It seems that today’s attitude about work is more something that has to be done, not enjoyed. Many have lost the happy factor in their 9 to 5 routine.  Dan Miller, in his book 48 Days to the Work You Love, asks this question: “Is work that necessary evil that consumes the time between our brief periods of enjoyment on the weekends?”  Clearly the Zappos Insight group has asked the same question, and have put great effort into creating a work environment where enjoyment is not only encouraged, it is expected.

For those who have lost their jobs, there is an almost frantic need for employment to support their families, of course, but also to instill in them a sense of purpose, or in some cases their own personal identity. In his bestselling story, Who Moved My Cheese?” Dr. Spencer Johnson’s four tiny characters “ran through a Maze looking for cheese to nourish them and make them happy.”  Seeking and finding happiness at work and in life seems to be an ever-elusive pursuit.

So it’s important to enjoy our work and to work in an environment where we feel we are respected and appreciated, but can that employment itself actually create happiness? Consider those who worked in a job that they enjoyed, but their hard work was not particularly appreciated?  Perhaps some have been highly praised at their job and treated fairly, but disliked the type of work in general.  Or how about those who spent years and years enjoying their job, being recognized, and quite content, only to come to work one day with their personal belongings packed up in a box with a pink slip taped on top?  Today the sudden loss of employment is not an uncommon event, highlighting the importance of understanding that you are not your career.

Employment or company culture as a source of happiness is a misnomer.  Employment is fleeting, and therefore happiness based on such will also be fleeting.  Rather begin a journey toward understanding yourself better.  What are the God-given gifts and talents that make you unique, and how can you utilize them more fully to improve your life, and the lives of those you come in contact with?  You may have the perfect job to maximize those gifts, or you may come to realize that you are the round peg trying to squeeze in the square hole that everyone has claimed you are supposed to fit into. 

Stehen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People defines happiness in this way: “Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.”

H. Jackson Brown Jr., author of Life’s little Instruction Book, defines happiness like this: “Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.”

The unknown author of Psalm 119, recognizing that the Creator himself had designed happiness into our lives, puts it this way: “Give me understanding and I will obey Your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart. Make me walk along the path of Your commands, for that is where my happiness is found.”  (Psalm 119:34-35)

However you define it, happiness can’t be formulated in a business plan, or detailed in a Powerpoint.  Instead it comes as the result of pursuing truth, integrity and a life focused outward and not inward.   H. Jackson Brown puts this so aptly, “Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” 

This week, try finding ways to inject happiness and joy into the workplace, instead of expecting the workplace to somehow infuse happiness into you.

• What will you do today to begin pursuing an outward focused life?
• How will you use the next 24 hours to make the best use of the one, ever so brief life you have been given?
• Use the comment field below to respond. I’d love to hear about your journey toward happiness.