Really, it's an insane amount of toys and kid products. The screwy thing is, many of these toys AREN'T DANGEROUS. No kidding.
Turbo's trike is on recall.
The "key" mind you is a small yellow piece that is permanently attached to the front of the trike right below the handlebars. It doesn't poke out very much, in fact it's shaped like a cresent, so in effect it feels more like a little smooth bump when you run your hand from the body of the bike over the key to the handlebars.
The only way that key is "dangerous" is if the kid is jumping into the bike with all he's got, or if the child is standing on the trike and falls onto it (the bike itself is dangerous to fall on!). In both cases, it's a matter of the kid doing things that they should know are going to hurt them. If you know your kid is likely to do something like that... maybe you should keep a good eye on your kid? NOT sue the company for you or your kids stupidity.
Now, honestly, I don't think parents are suing companies over things like that. I think LAWYWERS are suing companies on behalf of the parents. ie class action lawsuits. And who is benefitting? Lawyers. Because with class action lawsuits the people hurt don't actually get much. But at least companies are held responsible when they do something wrong... especially when there is no way for an individual to have enough to funds to even get the companies attention... right?
Yeah, so what happens when the lawyers get greedy and start throwing leagal threats around like it's a free meal ticket?
Ya, the companies start recalling everything simply to try to keep their names clean... dangerous or no. Parents start ignoring many of the recalls because many of them are only there because people are blatantly using the product WRONG! Companies start refusing to make toys for certain age groups and the hardship of finding toys for a 2 year old becomes that much HARDER.
And what happens when a recall is actually done because the product really is dangerous? How much of a red flag is that recall going to elicit?
Grrrr.
3 comments:
You're right - it's like the boy who cried wolf. Parents will be so used to ignoring ridiculous recalls that, when they really should send a toy back or whatever, they won't. And it's true - there aren't very many toys out there for two-year-olds. I just realized that! Micah is two, and he plays with Sadie's Polly Pockets and Littlest Pet Shops - teeny tiny parts that he's not supposed to play with. But I let him, because I know he doesn't put stuff in his mouth anymore. I watch him. That is the parent's job, just like you said!
I think some recalls are completely stupid...it is like we want to take no responsibility as a society when we hurt ourselves because WE were being stupid. Other ones, I agree with...I don't want to eat something contaminated with salmonella!
Every day at work, I search about 10 different websites looking for different recall information and I send it out to all our employees. It is amazing to see just how many things are recalled every day!
I do what you've done. I read the recall and then decide for myself whether or not I think the recalled item is actually dangerous to my child. So far, I haven't found any of the recalls to be valid enough to worry about.
The risk of injury from most of the recalled toys is usually the result of some freak accident that 99% of children won't have.
Still, recalls are necessary and in a small percentage of cases, they save lots of lives. But I agree with you, there are a whole lot of unnecessary lawsuits happening out there.
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