Amy, sounds like a story that was big in my local newspapers when I was a kid (maybe 11 or 12). Seems a tot of around 4 wanted to go to grandma's one night, so he got in the car and started to drive.

Luckily, he lived on a one-way street. The other way would have taken him down a steep hill, across a busy street, and into the river.

If you're using outlet covers to protect small people, you should probably know that the kind with a spring-loaded sliding cover work the best. Traditionally, children pull off the ones that just plug into a single outlet. Then they choke on them. How do children survive?

How do children survive?

Neurotic freaked out parents.

While I was changing Olivia's diaper, Owen scaled the kitchen counter and tried to stick one of my metal shish kabob skewers (which had, up until now, been well hidden) into the plugged in toaster.

My mother told me over Christmas about my toddler-age "climbing on things" phase. I apparently became quite adept at rearranging furniture to create climbable pathways so that I could get up high. Once she found me on top of the refrigerator.

This is why my children will be kept strapped tightly in their swingy chairs at all time. Who needs motor skills any way, right? I figure we're only a few years away from individual hover chairs...

If so, she's the evil one, tempting me into all sorts of fannish obsessions.

Then again, I'm the one who gave her Fernet.

There must be a third out there somewhere.

How do children survive?

My mother used a leash. Literally. With a harness.

Oh, Hec, OUCH. Poor Emmett's feet.

Luckily, he lived on a one-way street. The other way would have taken him down a steep hill, across a busy street, and into the river.

See Ginger's comment. I have no freaking idea.

I used to spend a lot of time wondering, possibly due to sleep dep, how kids survived the 1800s and earlier. Open fires in the hearth, all those flying hooves from passing horses, spoiled meat and unrefrigerated food, choking hazards, sewing needles lying around ... Of course, the infant/child mortality rate was a lot higher then. Still, for all our babyproofing equipment, an active toddler will find approximately A MILLION ways to hurt herself.

Of course, the infant/child mortality rate was a lot higher then.

That's the thing. You'd have eight kids and hope three of them survived.

I need better odds than that!

My mother used a leash.

So did mine, and boy did she get looks with a leash on my sister, who wore braces. That girl could dart into traffic faster than a squirrel. I read somewhere that leashes are much safer than just holding a child's hand and that holding onto to the hand of a child can actually dislocate the child's shoulder.

David, totally random but I just noticed your tag. The Ref is one of my all time favorite holiday movies. Just saw it last week!

Last night, my galgroup had a discussion about how to keep kids safe...they all have sprouts-I do not...there ended up being a major debate over whether or not to offer sympathy when a bump or fall occurs. One side says, of course, you should acknowledge the pain. The other side posits that reacting as if it were no big deal meant the child would ultimately learn to take things in stride.

I wonder if one strategy works more effectively than the other in terms of teaching a child life-navigation skills.

I got run over by a car when I was 8 months old! I was an early walker, and my neighbors had a gravel driveway. Apparently I was sitting with my back to the bumper, in between the tires. Had a grease stripe down my back and got a stress fracture to my leg. While my mother claimed I was a monkey, I THINK that's the worst I ever was.

I once found my brother hiding in the lawn mower grass catching bag when the whole family got roped into looking for him. I left him there. At least I told my mom though.