Anyway. The reason why I thought of this particular blog on this particular day is because of toys. Figures... Seeing as these toys are an everyday part of my life I thought I would bring this story to your minds....
It was called to my attention today that Health Canda has recalled the very popular toy, "Little People". Now, this news headline would not usually grab at my attention, however. It was not a recent batch of said "Little People" that was recalled, no, it was the version that was made in 1991! 1991! And just for dramatic effect I'm going to type it out just one more time. 1-9-9-1!!!! Who in the heck has toys left from 1991?!
The reason why Health Canada has recalled said toys is because...
"The size and shape of the older Fisher-Price "Little People" figures are such that the toys can become lodged in a child's throat, causing a complete block of airflow which can result in serious injury or death."
and
"Recently, Health Canada has become aware of the death of a 10-month-old child resulting from the use of one of these older products. The death occurred after an older "Little People" figure became lodged in the child's throat."(http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/)
OK,
A) This is just ONE death of ONE child in ONE household while there have been MILLIONS of children playing with these toys for over NINETEEN years?. After all weren't 1991 kids throats about the same size as 2010 kids throats? Why are they only recalling them twenty years later?
B) Where were the late child's parents while he/she was playing with these toys. I'm not sure but I think that all or at least most toys say, "DO NOT LEAVE CHILD UNATTENDED". Or is this just they way I think about children playing unattended?
Please don't think that I am one sided on this. I do feel for the child's parents, it's a very heartbreaking thing to loose a child. I get that and I definitely don't wish that on anyone, ever.
The point that I want to make at the end of this post is that when I was a kid, there was really no such thing as a "recall". My opinion is that I played with these toys, I had every one in the picture below in fact and I turned out alright. So now the question I pose to you: Is today's society just trying to guard our children from everything that could sort of be maybe potentially dangerous? Or does it make sense to recall a toy that probably not many people have and still use?
A picture of the recalled 1991 Little People compared to Little People that are still made today just in case you want to do a "Little" searching through your toy box....
