What do you think of this hue and cry to make shopping carts "safer"?

[Rabrrrrrr]

It's been on the news this morning. 24,000 children injured every year by shopping carts.

Now, I've spent my lifetime with shopping carts, and never been injured, as a child or as an adult. But then, I had a mom who watched over me, who made sure I didn't do anything stupid, and who didn't leave me alone when I was sitting in the cart, and who never assumed that the cart or the bag boys or the stockers were responsible for being my babysitter.

I think that instead of wasting a lot of time trying to make carts "safer", we spend our time making parents more diligent and less negligent and less lazy. How about we start a giant campaign that tells parents that if they let their kids climb on the carts, they're negligent assholes; or that if they just assume that because the kid is sitting in the front seat that he/she is utterly and perfectly safe, so they can be ignored and left there while the parent goes into another aisle.

Why don't we tell the parents to show some more respect for the frailty of every other person in the world to ensure their child's safety, and ask them to take some goddamn due diligence of their own.

This hue and cry to make carts "safer" is a fucking waste of time, that's only going to drive our grocery prices up as stores are forced to buy the "new, safer" carts, and that probably still won't reduce the injuries to the negligent and ignorant.

[matcom]

1. my $.02

ban children from public places

[laheina]

2. That wouldn't make life hard

for mom. ;)

[matcom]

3. one step further

ban mom's from public places :P

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Unless they're 18-30 and cute, in which case they can shop

if they shop naked.

[matcom]

6. you forgot bi-sexual

and only if they bring a "friend"

[Midlodemocrat]

8. 18? Whew. Little Midlo is only 16.

But, damned cute. :P

[matcom]

9. those are HIS standards

NOT mine ;)

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. That's only because you have no standards.

I mean, seriously, look at the people you hang out with in the Lounge. Buncha no-standard hooligans and raccoon-coat wearing ivy league anuses.

[LostinVA]

36. No, just from restaurants

giggle

[Rabrrrrrr]

38. Especially Chuck E. Cheese!

I hate it when Chuck E. Cheese is overrun with kids!

[LostinVA]

41. Me too -- I mean, come on!

How the hell am I supposed to watch the singing bears which all those freakin' KIDS flailing about?!

[ComerPerro]

5. Can't blame shopping carts for being violent. After all (wait for it)

...



...



...


they get pushed around all day

[auntAgonist]

11. oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh

:rofl:

good one!!!


aA

[jobycom]

13. Yeah, that's definitely a

:rofl:

[Midlodemocrat]

7. I'm the mom of three and never had a problem with shopping carts.

However, I did 'grab' one little boy as he was about to pitch headfirst to the floor because he was standing up in the back of the cart. :eyes:

Parents can be stupid and negligent. Just look at Britney Spears with the baby's carseat facing the wrong way. I can tell you from experience, she isn't the only one who has done this. Just the most public.

[Zomby Woof]

10. Next thing you know

They'll make those racing car shopping carts with airbags.


Sponsored by Glad or Hefty. x(




:hide:

[jobycom]

12. Being a parent is hard, make them safer, make life a little easier

As a parent your mind has to focus 100% of the time on your child. If you have two children, you focus 100% on both of them. A moment of inattention, due to a migraine headache, a confusion over a price label, slipping on a grape, or having to stop your other child from doing something stupid, and an accident can happen. My daughter once fell on her head when she inexplicably jumped up in her high chair and jumped onto the edge of it. My spouse was standing right beside her, putting food in front of her, and it happened anyway. Kids aren't objects that sit where you put them, and they have clever little minds that dream of all sorts of fun and dangerous escapes at all times, and they are smart enough to know that their best chance is when a parent is momentarily distracted.

Make them safer. 24,000 is a high number--too many to blame on the parents. Surely some of the accidents were due to negligence. But so what--make carts safer and make that number go down, no matter whose fault it is. At worst, a child shouldn't be injured because he or she has a tired or overworked or just plain stupid parent.

And thank the divinity or natural force of your choice you had a good parent.

[ikojo]

27. Um...I know this could start a serious flame fest

but how many kids are killed by guns in this country?

How many die by other means?

You know what...I grew up in a time when kids sat in the front seat WITHOUT SEATBELTS or AIRBAGS...THE HORROR!!!

I rode my BIKE WITHOUT a HELMET and live to tell the story today!!! I was a wild one on a bike too.

When my mom left us in the car (at age 8) if she went in for a quick errand, I KNEW not to get out of the car and I ROLLED DOWN THE WINDOW. I KNEW to stay in the car and NOT DO A THING.

Oh but setting LIMITS for TODAY'S kids will hurt their pwecious widdle self esteem and we CANNOT have that, now can we?

Oy vey!

What about we make the world safe by ending this war so that more working class kids are not sent to battle?

[jobycom]

43. Yeah, so?

What does that have to do with building a safer shopping cart? Gotta build carts anyway, why not modify the new ones to be safer?

As for the old-timer's rant, people used to grow up without polio vaccines, rabies shots, and integration. Children grew up without minimum wage requirements. Children grew up without girls being educated. Children grew up without cars. Let's ban everything and live like the Amish. Wait, children grew up without the Amish, too, and some lived to tell about it. Maybe we can return to living in trees and eating grubs. If you ban one advance in sociey, why not ban them all?

No one has said we should only fix shopping carts and nothing else. We can redesign shopping carts and still try to solve the gun problem and the war problem and the lack of adequate response to Hurricane Katrina problem. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[LynzM]

46. I agree, Joby

If you're going to make them anyway, why not make them safer? Yes, obviously some (many? most? who knows.) of those accidents are due to negligence and failure to set limits. Some are due to kids not listening or being able to undo buckles or any number of other things. But why not improve on it if you're going to manufacture it in the first place?

Not that I could rant about all the stupid shit I see parents let their kids do, or get away with, too. :)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

14. Let's just mandate everything, including people, be bubble wrapped.

Let's just do it once and for all and get it over with. I'm tired of hearing about this shit.

[Dora]

19. It's time for some genetic intervention.

Let's genetically modify humans so that we have a bubble wrap dermis.

On second thought, not such a good idea. Tweakers would go insane.

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. I couldn't stand the constant pop pop pop pop pop pop pop

of those unable not to pop bubble wrap... of which I am one, and I'm sure I'd have my dermis destroyed this side of a fortnight.

[skygazer]

15. I think the same people who are yelling about this

Will yell about how high the prices are in the stores when they have to implement all these safety standards.

The shopping carts in my store are equipped with seat belts and are certainly safe if used correctly. This means not putting children in the basket part of them, or letting them hang off the front or side of them, or not allowing them to push the cart themselves when they're barely big enough to reach the handle.

Each cart costs money and renovating or buying new carts will cost more money. That money is passed on to the consumer. That's just the way it works. Virtually every accident I've seen with a shopping cart has been because the cart was improperly used.

[elehhhhna]

16. Parents are stupid. USE THE SEATBELT in the cart. I caught a kid

at Kroger just last week who was falling out. Maybe 4 years old. Her mom was a good 10 feet away saying "be careful". Moran.

[bertha katzenengel]

23. off-topic -- elehhhhna, I love your sig line.

Dig it. :hi:

[elehhhhna]

37. feel free to use it, BK!

[rug]

17. I won't rest until they come with airbags.

[mark414]

18. this is another in a series of the dumbest things ever

next thing you know these same nuts will be calling for a mandatory helmet and knee padding of all children under the age of 8

children get hurt when they do dumb things. it's how they learn. that's why the body allows sensations like pain. to learn from our mistakes. if you stick yer kid in a giant padded bubble all their life they're going to grow up to be a soft, shiftless lump of dough that can't handle the realities of the world.

"won't somebody please think of the children!"

[jpgray]

21. Lazy, bitchy parents are the worst thing in the world

And I pity their children.

[bertha katzenengel]

22. Parents: Do not put your kids in carts without long pants and closed-toe

shoes! I remember being pinched every effing time my mother put me in that "front" seat in the cart. I had to be between like 2-5 years old. I remember being cold and being pinched.

I bet a lot of these injuries are pinches from that folding steel seat, and smashed toes from being run over when the kid who has been riding outside on the back of the cart falls off.

I agree with you, Rabrrrrrrr. Parents need to pay attention -- and dress their children appropriately.

[mockmonkey]

24. Washing machines too

When I'm at the laundrymat and there is some child running back and forth on TOP of the washing machines in front of the parents I'm thinking..hmmm they really should make these washing machines slip resistant what with all that water and soap spilled on there.:sarcasm:

And I really appreciate the tiny shopping carts labeled "customers in training" that the little tykes can use to run into my ankles, thus keeping them entertained.

[Midlodemocrat]

25. Hmm. I thought you meant there were parents who put their kids

into the washing machines.

[ikojo]

26. Bbbuuutt....it's for the chiiiiillllllldrennnnn

What about parents being PARENTS and keeping watch over their progeny. It will not be a cause for therapy if little Katelyn and little Conrad are not allowed to run amok throughout the store while momsy does her shoppy, shoppy. Shopping carts are NOT an amusement park ride, they are for schlepping groceries and that is it.

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. But... but... but... little Dakota and precious widdle JessiJenniLizabeth

will have hurt feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelings and stunted growth if their creative play nature isn't given proper room to blossom and come out, and it's the responsibvility of society to ensure that such speshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhul children, as mine, are nurtured into their full potential because I've already reserved their spaces at Exeter Academy and Harvard.

You only feel the way that you do because your kids don't go to a Montessori school. You Bastard.

[nosillies]

28. Somebody help me figure out what to do with my hellion

He's only two. Yet he can undo buckles. Meaning screw the seatbelt on carts, and screw his car seat! My pediatrician suggested, and I don't think he was kidding, duct taping his hands together when he's in the car.

[idgiehkt]

29. I think they ought to make them more dangerous.

So when the asshole comes up to you in the store and accuses you of manning the cart that hit his car, even though you hadn't even entered the store when this happened, and didn't even have a cart, and weren't even on the sidewalk, as a matter of fact, and therefore couldn't have possibly had anything to do with it, despite what his kid says when he goes and gets the poor little tyke and drags him over to where you are standing and forces him to LIE and say that yes, you are indeed the crazy lady that went into the store, got a shopping cart, pushed it out of the store and off the sidewalk and into his car just for the pure HELL of it, although as you've already stated you had yet to enter the store yet, that when the cart that some rich Cadillac driving southern-baptist motherfucker couldn't be bothered to push over to the rack, unlike your Geo Tracker driving shopping cart conscientious ass ALWAYS does, hits his piece of shit burgundy Mazda, it rolls right over his sorry motherfucking ass and kills him on the spot.

But I'm not bitter.

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. My God, that rant was pure beauty!

I know we had our differences in that other thread about cracker barrel, but I'm big enough to say "Holy Hell that was genius!" when I see something that's holy hell genius!

:applause:

I wish I had written it.

And I agree - I think carts should be made even more dangerous. Razor sharp, full of spikes and rotating knives, and covered in porn.

Maybe then parents would leave their fucking children home instead of dragging them to the "GREAT FUN PLAY PLACE!!!!!!" grocery store.

[idgiehkt]

45. roflmao "full of porn"

That was actually a play by play. The only part I left out was my reaction to the kid when his Dad was forcing him to lie ("now you tell the lady what you saw her do") because I kind of lost it at that point and he turned and ran down the aisle and all the way across the store into his mom's arms. It's not often that I scare little children, but I got pushed too far that time.

[qnr]

33. screw "safer" - I want one that goes straight for more than 9 inches. n/t

[NMMNG]

34. rAmen

I'm tired of this notion that stores are a playground and carts are toys. Exhibit some parental responsibility for crying out loud. You don't see me walking around the store blindfolded, then whining about how they need to make the store safer because I bumped into something, do you?

[RevCheesehead]

35. Are you auditioning to take over for Andy Rooney?

You make him seem like Mary friggin' Poppins. :hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. I thought about this overnight, and came up with a solution for

people who want other people to take care of your children.

When you get into the store, put a couple bags of softener salt on the bottom rack of your shopping cart. Your precious little Cody (whether it's a boy or a girl) will have a hella hard time tipping the cart then while you go in search of something more interesting, like the perfect kafir lime for your barbaeuq party at your weekend home, or, if you are a lazy poor person, go off in search of another bag of Doritos and a chance to talk about cigarettes with your equally unwashed neighbor lady with four screaming hellspawn, than watching your precious spawn.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

40. Interesting you should bring up this topic

Today I was in the supermarket and there was a father with a kid sitting on the child seat of the trolley. They were blocking the pathway to the aisle to get the dips (where I was headed) and the father was spinning the trolley around with the kid in very fast motion. He was literally spinning the trolley around going “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” several times in a row all the time in the middle of a pathway with other customers close by and with food very close to where he was spinning the trolley. When I eventually walked past him, he stopped but then he started again while I was still close enough to have been hit by the trolley.

Four thoughts crossed my mind
(1) He’s going to lose control of the trolley and hit someone –there were elderly people as well as very young children there at the time
(2) He’s going to lose control of the trolley and damage merchandise
(3) He’s going to lose control of the trolley and the kid is going to get hit and injured by some merchandise falling
(4) He’s going to lose control of the trolley and some merchandise is going to fall and hurt someone else

Now I’ll concede that it’s probably fun for a young kid to be sitting on a trolley and to have your mum and dad spin it around and around time and time again. But it is also dangerous –especially in the middle of a crowded supermarket in front of merchandise that could easily topple over. That father was not only risking the safety of other people but the safety of his own child

You can make carts as safe as you jolly well want to. But if you have parents such as this (and parents, I know that these parents are in the minority so I’m not making a group attack) man who is spinning his trolley around and around in a crowded supermarket and not watching where he is going or thinking about the consequences, then children are more at risk of getting injured. And innocent bystanders too for that matter

[underpants]

42. Put that Food Channel "Secret life of..." guy on it

:thumbsup:

[Juffo Wup]

44. Make them MORE dangerous

Weed out the weak. Evolution, baby.

[Rabrrrrrr]

47. Make 'em gas powered, with poor exhaust, exposed engines,

and a great big scoop feeding into the chipper shredder that is the base of the cart.

[billyskank]

48. Shopping carts don't kill people

People do

:D

[Juffo Wup]

50. We MUST institute cart control

Why do you right-wing cart nuts insist on perpetuating your warmongering, sexist ways?

[Burma Jones]

49. My Daughter Tipped over a shopping cart at Trader Joe's

she was 4 at the time, it fell on top of her (she was hanging off the side). Foolish me, I was looking at Basil and she wanted to hang off the side of the cart. Anyway, I had four bottles of olive oil which shattered and coated her in olive oil. She got a couple cuts, but her neck was about an inch from a bis jagged piece of glass.

That being said, I hate the idea that we have to sue our way to indestructability. Now that there has been press on "unsafe" carts, any cart accident is going to result in a lawsuit.....

[Rabrrrrrr]

51. Oh, my! What a mess!

Must have been horrible trying to clean the olive oil off of her, too. Tough enough getting it off one's hands.

It really makes me wonder what it was like in Biblical times, with all the annointing of oil and pouring of oil over one's heads and stuff. Seems like it would just be an awful mess.