September 30, 2010

Important Recalls? Really?

I don't wish to make light of the recalls that have been happening across the toy and baby care world lately. Ok, maybe I do wish to make light of it. It's just that when I read them, sometimes I have to laugh a bit. If it were my child, hurt by a faulty product (and truly the product's fault), I would definitely be upset. But aren't some of these recalls going a bit over the top?

I saw one today for a child's trike bike type thing. It said that the ignition key sticks out and can cause harm to a child if they fall into it or onto it, potentially causing genital bleeding. Can't the same thing be said of handle-bars or cross bars on bikes? One time when I was in college, I was riding my bike home from work. I decided to jump up the curb instead of getting off and placing my bike on the curb. What happened next was brutal and made me realize that crotch-shots, no matter if on a girl or a boy, are ridiculously painful. I slammed down onto the cross bar of my mountain bike and into a bush. It wasn't pretty. I couldn't sit right for a good week. Should my bike have been recalled? No, I was a naive idiot with an ego-inflated Lance Armstrong complex. Who did I think I was, trying to jump that curb on a busy Pittsburgh street? Is it really necessary to recall a bike with an ignition key that sticks out? I mean, hand a kid a Nerf ball and he's going to find a way to hurt himself with it. What if he tries to eat the thing and chokes on it? Should the Nerf ball be recalled? It's called childhood and that's what happens.

I don't know. To me, some of these recalls just seem silly. It would be like recalling toothpaste because it shouldn't be used as an eye make-up remover; screwdrivers because they fit into electric sockets; or Boppy pillows because they could be tripping hazards if left on the floor.

Personally, I think a lot of these recalls are brought about because of fly-off-the-handle parents who don't watch their kids well enough and they end up getting hurt because of a lack of parental supervision. We live in the blame-it-on-everyone-else society and these toy recalls are really no different. If my child had fallen into a protruding ignition key on a bike, I doubt I would be contacting the company and reporting a faulty product. I'd be chalking it up to childhood. Injuries and accidents are just a natural part of that world.

If you're looking for something to recall, how about that screw that broke into four pieces while in my tibia? Now that would be legit.