Parents who have installed child car seats need to know that there are changes to child car restraint laws which will be in effect in Perth and the rest of Western Australia from 1st October 2010.
Changes in child car seat laws are in line with other states who have these policies already in place. The new laws seek to reduce the risk of injury from matching incorrect restraints to your child’s age and size needs.
For information on laws pertaining to child car seats and free downloadable brochures, visit the following websites:
http://www.sdera.wa.edu.au
http://www.kidsafewa.com.au
http://www.childcarrestraints.com.au
A Summary of New Laws on Child Car Seats
Children under 6 months, from birth up to 9kg/12kg: must not travel in the front seat of a vehicle which has a back row or rows of seats (see Kids Banned from Front Seats); must use an approved rearward facing child car seat adjusted to the child’s body and fitted correctly to the vehicle.
Children 6 months to under 4 years: must not travel in the front seat of a vehicle that has a back row or rows of seats; must use an approved rearward facing child car seat or forward facing child car sear with inbuilt harness properly fitted to the vehicle and adjusted to the child. Forward facing child car seats fit children up to 18kg in weight.
Children aged 4 years to under 7 years: must not travel in the front seat of a vehicle that has a back row or rows of seats unless all the other back seats are occupied by children who are also under 7 years old. Must use either a forward facing approved child car seat with an inbuilt harness (max 18kg) or an approved child booster seat secured with a properly fastened seatbelt or seperately purchased child harness. Booster seats are suitable for children up to 26kg in weight.
Two Safety Tips: 1) The front seat of your car is too dangerous for your child. An air bag, even in a minor accident, is lethal enough to kill a small woman or child. 2) The seat belt MUST NOT go over your child’s neck. A booster seat raises the child and the seat belt then goes over their chest.
Frankly, I have seen many school parents who allow there children to ride in the front seat of their car. Aside from the danger represented to children by air bags inflating even in minor accidents, regular safety belts are in no way fitted appropriately for children. Seat belts need to go across from shoulder to hip, as opposed to across the child’s neck.
I was looking to refresh some old posts and Children Playground Safety reminded me of a one-off bullying incident I encountered a long time ago in primary school.
The story occurred when I was in grade 3. I was 9 years old. Essentially, I came to loggerheads with a schoolyard bully. A brute who was two years older and just huge – mainly really fat. He liked bullying and pushing the other kids around and was just a nasty piece of work. Of course, he also just happened to have to collide into me while I was going up the staircase.
Some pushing occurred. I didn’t back down and told him he was an idiot, or used some other equivalent fighting words. He then challenged me to a fight, telling me to meet him in the cafeteria after school. I wasn’t too happy about that, of course. In reality, I was s*** scared and knew I was heading to a beating.
But I wasn’t going to back down. The day was long, but when school was out I dutifully went to the cafeteria, faced him off and just before he was going to beat on me … my hide was saved by one of the older prefects.
Surprisingly, the bully didn’t bother me after that. I suppose he could have continued to pick on me and could have tried to beat me up again … but he didn’t. I, on the other hand, have been overcompensating since. While I think I’ll be wiser and step away this time, if the fight comes to me, I won’t be quite so scared like I was then.
Of course you can say I was really dumb then. I was. As a parent, how do you think you could have prevented this? What would you say to your child? What can the school do to prevent this type of bullying or fighting from occurring?
I just recently posted a long comment regarding women self defence in my perspective as a self defence instructor at How the Past Came and Bit Me in the Arse. The post by TraceyMMM is a frank discussion of a sexual assault she has personally experienced.
I’ve been researching the subject of women self defence since the early 1990s, and launched a course offering that has had some acclaim from international martial art and self defence instructors. A web-based version of my selfdefence notes means that I entertain inquiries from martial artists and law enforcement personnel from time to time who want to ’borrow’ my approach or who are interested in asking me to help them develop their own offering.
Self defence issues are often muddied by the myths that bad people are out there in the streets or dark alleyways. They are ready to pounce on you. Not only that, you also might be fed the idea that with some simple martial arts training, you might have a chance against this sort of risk, and might be able to launch a counterattack in order to deal with such violence. (more…)
Fire: Play ‘Simon Says’ but before you start prepare them for the two phrases ‘The House is On Fire’ and ‘You’re on Fire’. If the house is on fire, the child has to get down on all fours and crawl to the nearest exit. If they’re on fire, they drop to the ground and roll. All other Simon Says type instructions are scattered liberally. (see HRGB Hosts Its First and Last Birthday Party)
Abduction Prevention: ‘Simon Says’ can be extended to cover ‘Someone’s Trying to Lift You Up’ where the child drops to the ground and wraps himself or herself around an immovable object like the assailant’s leg or a park bench
Head Injury: I had two young boys in high school train with me for a year, and at the end of the year claimed that our basic combat pose was the best training to help with soccer or basketball injuries. All children have got to know is that whenever anything comes their way, they should drop their chin to their chest instead of pulling their head away. Copping any blow directly to the forehead this way eases the force down the skeletal structure rather than letting it get absorbed by the neck and brain. (see Children Playground Safety)
Road Safety: Look left right and left again? Cars on roads are typically going to look out for pedestrains. Carparks on the other hand is where danger lies. Drivers typically don’t look around carefully and pedestrains don’t stop to give way. Train your child to look out for the white reverse lights, and to stop before they get run over. (see Child Safety in Carparks for Parents)
Falls into Break Falls: Getting punched in the face is not what’s going to kill you. What’s not good is when your head hits the floor. Despite most fights going to the ground, many children and people just don’t know how to fall properly. Teach your child to bend the knees and drop his butt to the floor as soon as possible. Never stop the fall with your hands – a sure way to break your elbows! Keep your back round and roll backwards.
Falls into Forward Rolls: I famously performed a forward roll and saved my life in what could have been a horrific cycling accident. To do a forward roll to the right simply look at your belly button, place your right palm on your head, and send your right shoulder forward to the ground. (see Black Belt Learning Skills)
Drowning: A child can drown in a swimming pool even with 5 adults around and in the pool. In a social setting no one will think to look out for a young child’s safety. Make sure you establish a life guard role for a parent and make sure they look at the pool only – irrespective of the conversation. All young swimmers buddy up with an adult.
Scaldings: It is too easy to drop something hot liquid on a child – you can’t see them, they’re always an obstacle and they’re just at the right height. Make sure children:
Sit at the far end of tables away from kitchen at restaurants,
Stay out of the kitchen when they’re at home, and
Stay in the car when you’re refueling at petrol stations.
Emergency Contact: As part of a little game, I always ask young children what their mummy’s telephone number is. Or house address. They should be made to remember your telephone number in any emergency and be taught to approach a staff member or another female parent (with child) if they’re lost and need assistance.
Martial Arts for Children: Listen closely to me, I am a 5th Dan instructor with 26+ years of experience … martial arts for children does not teach your child anything adequate or useful in a real fight. If anything breaks out, you get your child to run away and shout for help. They should make their way to a defensible location like a 24 hour service station, police station or to any location where the aggressor cannot get to them easily.
Child safety in the car starts from when the child leaves your front door and approaches the car. Child safety in the car is mainly about keeping the child in their car seats. A child safety seat for a toddler is typically strapped to the back of the chair and supplemented by seat belt. A front facing child safety seat has a five-point harness that provides equal left right pressure on the child in case of accident.
Child Car Seat Problems
A problem with most kids placed in child car seats are that straps are placed into clasps but many times are not securely clicked in. Most belt clasps in child safety seats are tight on the locking and unlocking; a feature which may be to prevent children from unclipping or clipping themselves into the child car seat.
Another problem with the child car seat is linked with the main three-point seat belt that buckles the seat to the car. Adult or child passengers trying to put on their on seat belt may fumble around with any and all seat belt locks. You don’t know how many times I’ve found people have inadvertently unbuckled the seat belt securing the child car seat.
Parents need to be most vigilant to the tightness of the straps holding their child down. The strap needs to be tight in order for the child not to be thrown forward violently or worse still thrown out of the straps and into the cabin of the car. The five-point seat harness needs to be fitting and should be tightened on the child every time they go for their car ride. This ensures that the child car seat fits the child and the clothes they’re wearing on the day.
Is it true that you secure your front door against petty criminals but forget to lock your back door against paedophiles?
With online safety it certainly looks that way. The fact is it is too simple to start your child with Internet access and let him run with it. At first it starts off with online educational sites, some entertaining children-oriented videos, and maybe some free gaming resources. Eventually, as your child quickly matures, access rights will be relaxed and he might then acquire a personal web based email account and perhaps access to social networking sites.
At this point, your child has entered a new and unfortunately very dangerous world. While access could expose your child to sexual predators, other risks like cyber-bullying are real and very prevalent.
Such danger cannot be stopped by most of the common software used to protect a computer. Your firewalls, antivirus software, spam filters, adware, or pop-up blockers will not keep out cyber-bullies.
Keeping Your Child Safe Online Means Guidance
Your Cheeky Monkey’s post on Basic Internet Safety for Pre-Schoolers brings up the first major point for parents wanting to guide their child through the online pitfalls. It is that parental supervision is the number one priority. Guiding your child when they are young, ensuring that internet access is part of family time, and in the end, always making sure that you remain interested and involved in your child’s online activities.
Keeping Your Child Safe Online Means Setting Boundaries
Another possible way to help manage your child’s exposure to the internet is to use a tool which may help your child apply some self control. The MoDiscipline’s Children’s Internet Acceptable Use Policy while over the top, is such a tool that sends a clear message to your child. The message is that his online activities warrant formal attention. Typically used in corporations it clarifies what is acceptable and outlines the consequences of your child not complying with the way you want the Internet used in your house.
Keeping Your Child Safe Online Means Directed Use
Lastly, any undirected activity means trouble. Direct your child to accomplish goals online (see Primary School Mathematics, Mathaletics, and Excel). Integrate project work with research on wikipedia. Use email to interview trusted contacts. Establish a private Google group to collaborate amongst approved peers, and output work on Google Docs. All these take some planning, but parents should research options and constructive processes a child can follow to accomplish a tangible goal.
How do you seek to keep internet activities appropriate for your children?
Following my post Online Safety: Free Internet Filters and Software which lists a range of software available for families, I was recently contacted by Symantec Corporation about their free Norton family safety service.
OnlineFamily.Norton is a free service that provides effective online protection, helping protect families and kids online and helping to foster dialog between parents and children about their online activities. Unlike programs that secretly ’spy’ on your kids, OnlineFamily.Norton involves your kids in the process by encouraging them to talk with you about Internet safety. It provides you with the perfect opportunity to teach your kids safe online habits and rules, and because your kids have a voice in setting the rules, they’ll be more likely to follow them. The product is available through free download OnlineFamily.Norton and is suitable for both Mac and PC.
The OnlineFamily.Norton was awarded the iParenting Media Award in the Best Software category. According to Symantec’s press release, Online Family.Norton is the only web-based service to give parents the tools they need to connect with their children’s online lives and start an ongoing dialogue about what their kids see, learn and do on the computer. The iParenting award write-up highlights OnlineFamily.Norton’s unique approach to keeping kids safe online. According to iParenting, “Unlike many parental control products, [OnlineFamilyl.Norton] aims to create dialog between parents and kids, not assert draconian control.”
The iParenting Media Award is an annual honour that recognises the most outstanding software products in the industry. Winners are selected after real-world testing by a diverse set of parents, experts, licenses child care centres and schools nationwide in the United States.
The following are links to a variety of free software available for parents to improve the online safety for your children. I recommend parents should get acquainted with either Downloads.com or Nonags.com for software you might need to help your child when they’re starting to explore the internet. I have not gone through an in depth appraisal of how each software may be used or configured to help protect your child online – I will do so in time. Keep safe.
Keeping Your Kids Safe Online Video
A little irritating, but highlights some good points.
Just when I thought I was done looking for more video to put on the Child Safety on Escalators post, I found myself staring at a parent who was going up the escalators with her child on her shoulders. And was it true? YES, she wasn’t holding on to the handrails! It was a perfect opportunity for some covert video capture. I couldn’t help but reach for my phone.
In this first video, you see a side on view of said parent going up the escalators balancing child on her shoulders, unaware that she was being busted by a member of The League of SuperParents.
In this next video, you see a view from the back of said parent, and while it isn’t very clear, she is not holding on to the handrails. Tsk, tsk tsk. The Orignal SuperParent sees you!
What chance does child have if the escalator jerks forward or stops altogether? Child safety at an altitude of 5 feet on unsteady feet makes me just want to shake my head and wag my finger! Do you think this parent can recover fast enough, grab on to the handrail and then grab on to her child? I doubt it.
Personally, I’ve never seen an example of this before, and don’t think it’s a very big problem. But it made for some light entertainment on a Sunday morning.
How would you like to tumble several body lengths down a slope covered with sharp jagged metal ridges and teeth? Your head collides with the ground, your skin is punctured, your world is literally turned upside down, and the worst is, when you eventually stop, a massive weight several times heavier than yourself lands on you. Welcome to Perth, bro!
I was on an overseas trip to Singapore last week, and took the opportunity of catching an example of What-Not-To-Do-For-Child-Safety Extreme Parenting (TM) on video. I drew a few stares, but braved it for the sake of this blog!
Take a look at the clip, it shows a parent holding on to a pram and riding down the escalator. While she’s backed up all the way on her step, she’s bending forward to balance the pram which has its back wheel on the next lower step. Her child is playing with the side of the escalator, and you can see that the pram has been literally stacked to the hilt with additional shopping.
Have you been on an escalator which has suddenly stopped? Your knees bend so you can naturally take a step and stop yourself. You grab onto the side rail. And you lean back to brace yourself from the forward momentum. It’s scary!
This woman however, has her centre of gravity in front of her feet rather than centred between her feet if she was standing up. Her knees are no longer responsive as she’s flexing them back whilst balancing the pram. Her hands, busied with holding the pram will never meet the side rail in time. If the escalator stops, the weighted pram will lurch forward and she will try to press down, step forward and brace herself from falling forward. If she’s not successful, she’s going to keep clutching the pram whilst falling flat on her hands/face. This means she’s going to bring the pram backwards, slamming the baby back into the steps. If the baby is lucky, the pram will roll down the escalator steps in this manner. If the baby is unlucky, the pram hits the steps backward and bounces forward, sending the baby face first, tumbling down the stairs.
The worst thing is that I’ve seen many examples of parents going down escalators with prams all over the world. This is not only in Singapore, where the video was taken, it’s definitely occurring here in Perth too. Don’t parents in Perth see that the front wheel of that pram is literally dangling one foot in the air???? Holy crap.
If you are vaguely interested in Child Safety whilst on an escalator with a pram in tow, and you are insisting on using the escalator rather than the lift, repeat after me …
CHILD SAFETY REQUIRES YOU TO
GO DOWN THE ESCALATOR BACKWARDS
Going down backwards requires you to hold the pram up but allows you to push the front wheel of the pram into the crevice of the escalator step. This means your centre of gravity is firmly between the pram and the fall. This is as opposed to the escalator surfing parent above who had her COG behind the pram, potentially accelerating the baby into sudden death.
Going down backwards also allows you to stand on two escalator stairs, making your stance wide and more stable in a linear direction. Congratulations – you’ve just learned a white belt lesson in Karate, and your baby will appreciate you more for it.
Anyone would like to provide any comment on child safety on escalators? Who wants to start with Crocs? Want to hear my story of falling and gashing my shin on the escalator as a young boy? Go check out Child Safety on Escalators Part 2.
