This weekend I went browsing through The Great Glebe Garage Sale, our city's most highly attended and densest sale of the year. It's in the residential area just south of the downtown core - hundreds of thousands of people, and traffic is gridlocked for the entire day...
Apparently I am ruined for garage sales now. It just wasn't fun. Every second house, I found myself stopping to lift up carseats and look for expiry dates. And then I felt compelled to point it out to the vendor... and engage in discussions about why expired seats are unsafe, what could happen in a crash, whether the vendor could be libel for a child's injury... After the 7th or 8th expired seat of the first 7 or 8 seats I looked at, my friend started trying to block my view of seats we came across, and finally forbade me to touch another seat. I did get into a discussion with a twin dad (who still had 11 months left on his two seats) who claimed he worked in the plastics industry - and then who worked it through and convinced himself all on his own that plastics might not actually display visual micro-fractures, and suddenly decided to agree with me...
You know? It wasn't fun. I couldn't keep my hands off the seats, couldn't keep my mouth shut, couldn't help feeling frustrated and angry at parents for not knowing *exactly* the same stuff I didn't know until I took my certification course. It really wasn't fair to the parents, and I'm sure it was a sour moment for them, as much as it was for me.
I feel like a miserable cranky person if I point out the expired seats, and as if I am endangering children if I don't say anything. Arg.
I wish I had a notepad of sticky-notes, with "Expired Car Seat" on one side, and all the info about how to choose a safe seat, and why, on the other seat. I could leave a trail of these where-ever I went, and not engage or squash anyone's feelings.
Crystal Beach garage sale is this Saturday - can I keep my mouth shut? Should I?
Kat (the other one from Canada)
Apparently I am ruined for garage sales now. It just wasn't fun. Every second house, I found myself stopping to lift up carseats and look for expiry dates. And then I felt compelled to point it out to the vendor... and engage in discussions about why expired seats are unsafe, what could happen in a crash, whether the vendor could be libel for a child's injury... After the 7th or 8th expired seat of the first 7 or 8 seats I looked at, my friend started trying to block my view of seats we came across, and finally forbade me to touch another seat. I did get into a discussion with a twin dad (who still had 11 months left on his two seats) who claimed he worked in the plastics industry - and then who worked it through and convinced himself all on his own that plastics might not actually display visual micro-fractures, and suddenly decided to agree with me...
You know? It wasn't fun. I couldn't keep my hands off the seats, couldn't keep my mouth shut, couldn't help feeling frustrated and angry at parents for not knowing *exactly* the same stuff I didn't know until I took my certification course. It really wasn't fair to the parents, and I'm sure it was a sour moment for them, as much as it was for me.
I feel like a miserable cranky person if I point out the expired seats, and as if I am endangering children if I don't say anything. Arg.
I wish I had a notepad of sticky-notes, with "Expired Car Seat" on one side, and all the info about how to choose a safe seat, and why, on the other seat. I could leave a trail of these where-ever I went, and not engage or squash anyone's feelings.
Crystal Beach garage sale is this Saturday - can I keep my mouth shut? Should I?
Kat (the other one from Canada)