Safety First? Not So Fast.

Recently I spoke on a Safety Panel as part of Baby Celebration L.A. I was invited there by Jill Starishevsy, founder of HowsMyNanny.com, which is an incredible idea/product/website and I urge you all to not only take a look, but sign up! Jill's work extends now beyond this initiative and she is in the process of publishing a book for parents and children that will no doubt become an essential part of any home library. Hopefully, Jill will blog about it here in the coming weeks. Jill has blogged before and generated lots of interest.

Meanwhile, back to L.A.! The Safety Panel was featured by the people who produced the event, Penny Domschot, Patrice Meluskey, and their team from Seascape Productions. It was a wonderful, extremely well attended two days and people literally lined up for an hour before the doors opened to get the first peak at the latest products and services available for new parents. The place was teeming with adorable children in strollers and snugglies and every form of baby transport! There were fashion shows, sing-alongs, and much more. Kudos to Penny, Patrice and everyone involved in making this a smooth and successful event. And for trying so hard to promote safety as part of any baby celebration.

But it brought to light again, the issue of safety and where that issue exists on the list of priorities for young parents. Judging from the attendance at our Safety Panel, it's not very high on the list. And this is of great concern to me and my colleagues on the panel. One of my fellow panelists, Pattie Fitzgerald of SafelyEverAfter.com was similarly struck by the apparent lack of interest about safety among the parents in attendance. And we've all tried to figure it out since L.A.

--Was it just that parents wanted a wonderful outing that was more fun and fashion than serious safety information?

--Do parents feel they already know about safety and don't want to hear people recount scary statistics?

--Are parents afraid of hearing about the real dangers that lurk in their children's everyday lives?

I've tried and tried but I can't answer these questions? More people showed up for the fashion shows than the seating could contain. Of course, many of them had kids modeling the fashions, and that's reason enough to show up! But I was struck by the decided lack of interest in safety.

I'm not going to list the scary statistics here--we have them all over our blog here and on our website at Safety4Kids.com. But the real question is: what do we do now, to get parents to pay attention and understand that prevention is the ONLY way to secure any child's safety. And without the information, there is no hope of eliminating those scary statistics.

Look for more about this in the coming weeks. We are determined to keep kids safe. Won't you join us?

(c) Photo of SeeMore the Safety Seal courtesy of Safety4Kids LLC.