Here's an article I wish I didn't have a reason to write but that I feel I need to. If talking about assault scenarios like active shooters makes you too anxious, feel free to click away. My intent isn't to scare you more but to help you feel prepared and practice some safety tips, the way your family already probably has a plan in place for emergencies like a fire.
Now, I am not a tough cookie. I am not a trained martial artist or Olympic-level sprinter or law enforcement officer or indeed anyone who would be helpful in an active-attacker situation. The following is my take on what to do based on researching from people who know. I encourage you to do your own research and make your own determinations. Because:
1. The first step is to be prepared for what you will do in an emergency assault situation.
This sounds like an unnecessary prep step to skim over, but I assure you it's not. Most people's initial reaction to a public assault (shooting, bomb threat, car driving into pedestrian area) is to do nothing. This is due in part to a trick of the mind that your brain is much more likely to believe something usual than something unusual, so it takes longer for your brain to figure out what is actually happening in an emergency situation, or that it even is an emergency. I saw video footage of people watching the bomb fire on the London Underground and basically saying, "Huh," until someone authoritative yelled at them to run. (See the video here at about the :20 mark.) Like, duh, of course, and yet they just got their cellphones out and videoed it for awhile.
This ties in to a second reason we do nothing in emergencies. We are social creatures, and we look around to see if other people are freaking out and what they're doing about it. But if we're ALL just freezing in confusion, then the freezing reinforces itself. We don't do anything because no one else is, and they don't because you aren't, and so on. Until it's too late. I was on a plane where the oxygen masks dropped down. You've heard the safety spiel, right? What are you supposed to do when the oxygen masks drop down? PUT THEM ON. No one did. No one. We all just looked around to see if anyone else did, and no one wanted to look like the goofy person who put on a mask when no one else was. Everything was (relatively) fine; it was some technical glitch and we could all breathe without the masks, but it brought home this point.
Decide in advance what you will do when you think there's an emergency, and then DO IT, no matter if you're the only one. Be safe now; feel silly later if necessary.
This is all the more important if you have young children in tow. Taking action is going to be slower and more cumbersome for you, so you need those extra seconds you'd have wasted wondering what to do and if you should do it. Just GO. Because, point #2:
2. Run.
Don't hide or stay to fight. If there's a bad person intent on harming people in a particular space, the best thing you can do is DON'T BE IN THAT SPACE.
Get out. Grab your kids, and haul it.
Some subtips on how to accomplish the above.
Be aware of your exits wherever you go. This can be accomplished in a way that makes you feel more like a secret SWAT team member than paranoid. There's a reason airlines emphasize all the exits, including the weird ones over the wings. They don't want you (a) wondering where they are or (b) remembering only the "official" exit you came in through. Same here. A lot of businesses seem cave-like, with only one official entrance. But most, for fire code reasons if nothing else, have alternate egresses. Consider employee-only areas like stockrooms and kitchens. Consider convenient windows. Consider emergency exit doors. It might sound silly to remind you of those, but I think psychologically we tend to gloss over those as possibilities since we're not usually allowed to use them. This would be the perfect scenario to give them a try.
Leave your stuff. Don't lug your diaper bag or fumble for your kid's lost shoe. Go, go, go. People first, stuff later.
Trust your instincts. If something seems hinky to you, get you and your kids out first and worry you overreacted later.
Consider in advance which of your kids can run alongside you and which you need to grab in your arms. If you're not carrying certain children, see if you can arrange to grab a hand to haul them along. If you have older kids who can help move along younger kids, enlist them in advance. If your youngest kid is already currently being worn in a baby carrier on you, that's perfect for leaving your hands free to help an older. If not, you don't have time to strap in, so just grab and go. With a stroller or car seat-type carrier, if there are any obstacles in your path, it's probably best to grab just the baby and leave the gear, unless it's physically impossible for you without a stroller. In general, if you have someone to help you carry children or can rope someone into helping, use that. Again, though, don't wait for people to run with you if they're not. Tell people to get out as you go, but keep going even if they're not. The exception is if you're physically not able to manage escape with your children; then you'll need to quickly persuade someone nearby to help you out.
Prepare older children in advance. I don't really want to freak my kids out by having active shooter drills at home. My kids are homeschooled, and I know they do these in schools now, but I think it's possible to do a generalized emergency drill without going into details of what scenarios are possible. Emphasize that some emergency situations might require you to evacuate, quickly. As with fire safety, remind them that people are more important than things and they should be prepared to leave a place immediately and leave any belongings behind. Teach them to take you seriously when you say something's an emergency (and don't abuse that term for any other situations), and to stay near you and run as quickly as possible if you say so. For even older children, those who might be on their own in an emergency, you'll want to go over these tips so they can be prepared to save themselves.
As you're running, try to take any cover that's convenient. By this I mean, don't take the time out of running to hide, but if it's possible to run a direction that puts buildings, trees, or vehicles between you and an assailant, all the better. Most assailants aren't highly trained, and moving and obscured targets are hard to hit even if they were. Some tips will say to zigzag as you run through open spaces. I fear this may be hard to accomplish with an entourage of small children and might just slow you down. Consider your and your children's running ability as you decide now. If you want to zigzag, practice this running pattern with your kids in advance.
Once you're far enough away that you feel safe, then take shelter. Call emergency services, take stock of injuries, and take time to rest. Your adrenaline will probably have carried you this far, but now you will have to handle the aftermath and tend to your children.
For more information, I refer you to the steps disseminated by the Department of Homeland Security in order of preference: Run, Hide, Fight.
You'll notice I skipped the last two steps. That's because I don't think they're particularly useful for parents of young children. Crying babies and talkative toddlers don't hide well (nor do large groups), and how are you going to perform hand-to-hand combat while shielding your kids? But I do recommend going over these subpar options quickly in case they're what you're stuck with. Also be aware that you might have to do more than one of these three options and not necessarily in order. For instance, if you're in the direct path of an attacker, you might need to fight first and then flee. Think through some possible scenarios and what you might be able to handle as you deal with your kids as well.
Hide: If running didn't work or you're trapped, try finding a room with a locking door, maybe an office or family restroom. Barricade the door with anything that is heavy but movable, and then stay back and down and quiet. If you can get behind impenetrable objects like concrete walls or big appliances, do so. Kids can squirm themselves into small, unreachable spaces, but only if they'd be hidden rather than trapped. Again, escaping is better if possible. If there's nothing to hide behind, experts say to crouch against the wall that's next to the door.
Fight: If it comes down to it and a bad dude is lunging at you and yours, absolutely fight back. Might as well at that point. Resolve ahead of time that whenever someone attacks you, you will attack back. Don't be nice, and don't rely on an assailant's niceness. Just go full throttle and try to hurt him before he hurts you. There are some more ideas here, but a few tips are to enlist others' help (better for you if they can handle it without you as you stay with your kids, of course), take whatever weapons are to hand (fire extinguisher, swinging a chair, throwing a book, etc.), try to attack from the back or side if possible, and try to keep distance between you and the attacker by throwing or swinging weapons and then still fleeing if possible.
Here's a video I found helpful outlining each step in order of preference. It's one you could also show older kids who want to prepare themselves. For more sensitive viewers, skip to the 1:30 mark if you want to avoid most of the dramatization of violence. I've tried to cue it up for you below.
This is all assuming you alone are in charge of your kids in a public or semi-public space like a shop, place of worship, theater, restaurant, or the like. If you're in a school, airport, mall, or other organized space, authorities there might have procedures in place to direct you into lockdown areas. Without knowing the particulars, I can't tell you whether you'd be safer running or sheltering in those circumstances, but I know I'd probably err on the side of following authority figures who seem to know what they're doing. As noted above, we are sheeple at heart, so this might or might not be what's best in any given scenario, but if there's a coordinated lockdown procedure in place, that will likely end up at least being easier on you and your kids than running with them would be. As with the above, think about it beforehand and make your decisions in your own mind. Definitely obey any law enforcement personnel to increase your safety and avoid being treated as threatening.
The odds of being caught in such a terrifying situation are higher than they should be but still thankfully rare. I'm hoping none of you ever have need to follow these tips, but it's good to know what you would do should the unthinkable happen to you and your little ones.
Disclaimer: Please remember I am not an expert, and you should do your own research and training! I hope you will never need any of this information, but I urge you to read further about what experts recommend during an active attack and determine what you will choose as your possible courses of action.
This article is written from a U.S. perspective with regards to matters of law. I welcome other perspectives in the comments.
Did you see Making a Murderer, about a man who's been convicted AGAIN of a crime he possibly did not commit? We don't have to go into my opinions of Steven Avery's guilt or innocence — I just want to talk about what seems to me to be a classic case of extorting a false confession out of his 16-year-old nephew, Brendan Dassey, and my fear that my children could one day be accused, arrested, tried, and convicted simply because I haven't told them this important piece of advice:
Don't talk to the police.
Brendon is a minor when this murder investigation goes down. He is repeatedly interviewed without a parent present. He has a low I.Q. In short, he is vulnerable, and the cops take advantage of this.
Despite no physical evidence whatsoever, and no prior run-ins with the law by Brendan, they decide he's guilty and then systematically, over many excruciating hours, manipulate and lie to Brendan to coerce him into saying what they want. I don't really want to "prove" here that I'm right — this is just my opinion, after having seen comparable interrogation footage of other false confessions of similarly vulnerable people. You can watch the footage yourself and form your own opinion.
Whether this particular confession was false, my point is just this: People DO give false confessions, and innocent people DO go to prison, and I definitely don't want that to happen to my kids!
But how do you balance the messages you want to give young kids about law enforcement with the warnings you want to instill in older children? How do I tell my four-year-old, "Police officers are our friends! They help us!" — and then turn around and tell my eight-year-old, "If the police want to talk to you, you say NOTHING but 'I want to talk with my parents'"?
They've syndicated my post from the other day on how I'm a would-be free-range parent who feels hemmed in by today's safety expectations. BlogHer has made me some lovely Pinterest imagery as well:
That's totally what I wanted to do with those quotes and didn't! Procrastination pays off! And looks so much prettier than I would have done!
I'll be hanging out over yonder to field comments and spark some chatter on the topic of free-range kids. Come join me!
Even if you've already read the post and let me know what you think, I'd love for your clicks on and shares of the BlogHer page so they know I'm sending my peeps over to give it a look!
And if you haven't commented or shared it yet, I'd really appreciate your voice added to the conversation. Why is it so hard to grant kids independence today?
The other day, Sam, Alrik, and I wanted to head out to the playground — and Mikko didn't. Now, the playground is literally a block from our home. Mikko is 7 years old, nearly 8, and perfectly capable of amusing himself and retrieving drinks or snacks as needed in a short absence of parental supervision.
But we knew we couldn't leave him home alone, and told him as much. "But whhhyyyy?" he asked. Indeed, kiddo, why?
Because the neighbors might call the cops on us, that's why.
Instead, we had to cajole and bribe him into accompanying us. In fact, Alrik, Karsten, and I left first, and Sam followed a good forty minutes later, with new plans and relevant toys to meet up at the beach for a digging party, the activity Mikko finally agreed to.
Let me tell you a bit about my childhood in less (?) enlightened times. I walked to and from kindergarten in Alaska. My mom used to say she'd watch through the window until we disappeared into the fog. When I was 6 and living in Colorado, my mother went back to work, leaving me in my 10-year-old brother's care throughout the summer break. By the time I was 7 or 8, my best friend and I, and her brother and mine, would frequently walk as a group alone to the swimming pool. I remember wearing our towels in elaborate concoctions on our heads and pushing our bare toes into the hot, melting tar stripes on the pavement. When we got there, we swam without adults besides whatever teen lifeguards were on duty. By the time I was 8 or 9, my friend and I were going on walking or bike-riding jaunts by ourselves, visiting my dad at his office or the hospital (he was a social worker in the Army) or running errands for our moms, like picking up stamps or the newspaper. I began babysitting my little brother soon after he was born when I was 9. I had a chart to track my $1-per-hour payments. (I was surprised when I began babysitting for other families at age 11 or so and figured out they would pay me more than that.)
We successfully went out for Sam's birthday a couple days before Halloween,
so the baby & I were emboldened to join in on a short
trick-or-treating jaunt at our local business district.
Sam and I had different, themed costumes planned,
but Karsten's somewhat tardy arrival meant mine
didn't fit my postpartum mummy tummy. (Nerts!)
So I'm the ocean, and Karsten's a shark. Bam.
URGENT: Write the CPSC by THIS FRIDAY, September 13, to tell them why you think window blind cords should be safely covered. Help end child strangulation on window coverings once and for all!
Welcome to the September 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Staying Safe
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared stories and tips about protecting our families. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
{TRIGGER WARNING: This post talks about child deaths due to strangulation.}
Do as I say and not as I do. Here's newborn Mikko in front of the DEATH BLINDS.
When Mikko was a baby, we lived in a rented apartment. On the windows? The ubiquitous white metal horizontal-slat Venetian blinds.
Before I had kids, I hated those things for how hard they were to keep clean, how easily they started looking ratty and dented, and how they kept pretty much no light out. Once I had a young child, I added a new reason to my list:
They could kill my child.
In the United States, about one child a month strangles to death on the cord of a window covering, and another child suffers severe and sometimes permanent injury.
This post is really hard for me to write, because when I was researching this issue several years ago, I steeped myself in the grief of families who'd lost a small child due to window cords. In particular, I watched a video I can never unwatch in which a mother was filming her baby while her preschooler, offscreen, had wandered over to the window to strangle himself. Fortunately, he survived, but her screams haunted my nightmares.
I know the death count for window blinds isn't as high as, say, motor vehicle accidents, and I'm not here telling you you shouldn't drive. But I do advocate for the safest infant and child seating in a car possible (hint: rear face!), and I think even one unnecessary death from window treatments (window treatments! such a small thing to change!) is one too many — especially when there's a fairly easy solution:
If you're in a home with young children, don't use window coverings with cords. Ever. At all.
We continue to be delighted with the inspiration and wisdom our Carnival of Natural Parenting participants share, and we hope you'll join us for the next carnival in September 2013! (Check out August, July, June, May, April, March, January, and a summary of all our 2012 posts and 2011 posts if you missed any.)
Here are the submission details for September 2013:
Theme: Staying Safe: How do you approach some aspect of family safety? We want to hear about car seats, water safety, emergency preparedness, poison control, babyproofing, and more.
Deadline: Tuesday, September 3. Fill out the webform (at the link or at the bottom) and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time: CarNatPar {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com
Carnival date:Tuesday, September 10. Before you post, we will send you an email with a little blurb in html to paste into your submission that will introduce the carnival. You will publish your post on September 10 and email us the link if you haven't done so already. Once everyone's posts are published on September 10 by noon Eastern time, we will send out a finalized list of all the participants' links to generate lots of link love for your site! We'll include full instructions in the email we send before the posting date.
Welcome to the May 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Emergency Preparedness This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared their plans to keep their families safe. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
If you prepare for the just-in-case car scenarios, you can all rest easier.
Even if you think you're out just running errands or taking a leisurely drive through scenic views, it's prudent to have a just-in-case kit stashed in your car for emergencies. Just a small selection of basic but very useful supplies will help tide you over if your car breaks down somewhere remote, if you get lost or stranded in bad weather, or even if you're fleeing from a natural disaster or other urgent scenario where you have to rely on just what's in your car as you evacuate.
Your car safety kit isn't necessarily supposed to have everything you might want or need in any situation, but it will contain the most likely helpmeets. Except in the most dire circumstances, it should you see you through until you can reach safety and replenish your supplies.
This list is in no particular order, as items popped into my head. That makes it fresh and engaging. Yes, let's go with that.
{Amazon links are affiliate and are provided for your shopping/foraging convenience in finding similar products for your safety stash.}
Flashlight:
Because emergencies don't always happen in daylight or well-lit areas! Include a pack of backup batteries, or invest in a hand-cranking or solar-powered model. If it's solar-powered, be sure to periodically charge it in the sun.
Blanket:
I'd go for fleece or wool so it will be warm (even if wet) but durable. Fleece folds up pretty small, which is nice if you have a compact car. Have at least one full-size one on hand and potentially more if you have a lot of family members to cover in an impromptu car-camping situation. Blankets come in handy for more than just emergencies, though: They're great partners at picnics and outdoor concerts, they can shield small passengers from the sun (or is it just my vampire kids that demand that?), and they can cover up conspicuous shopping bags or backpacks that might attract thieves peering in your windows.
Jumper cables:
In case you need a boost. And here's another tip: Replace your car's battery regularly, about every three to four years. If you're in the U.S. and are not sure if your battery's heading to the auto-parts graveyard, you can take it to AutoZone for free testing (and to get a replacement). Ask me how I know this. We have certain children who like to do "pretend driving" with all the lights and the radio and windshield wipers on — and wouldn't you know it? — our car wouldn't start after the latest round. When we took our battery in, the reader said — I kid you not — "Bad Battery." Ha ha! It calls it like it sees it. After that experience (and two days of waiting around at home for helpers to visit us for a jump and a ride), we also purchased a Jump-N-Carry starter that promises to jump start cars without a second vehicle being needed. We haven't used it yet to vouch for, but I like the extra peace of mind that we're that much more self-sufficient … assuming we don't have a Bad Battery!
Theme: Emergency Preparedness: Have you ever lived through a natural (or man-made) disaster? Has your family stocked up on supplies to prepare for a future emergency? Could your family sustain itself through a long-term disaster? Share your stories and tips this month.
Deadline: Tuesday, May 7. Fill out the webform (at the link or at the bottom) and email your submission to us by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time: CarNatPar {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com
Carnival date:Tuesday, May 14. Before you post, we will send you an email with a little blurb in html to paste into your submission that will introduce the carnival. You will publish your post on May 14 and email us the link if you haven't done so already. Once everyone's posts are published on May 14 by noon Eastern time, we will send out a finalized list of all the participants' links to generate lots of link love for your site! We'll include full instructions in the email we send before the posting date.
Welcome to the March 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Tough Conversations
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have spoken up about how they discuss complex topics with their children. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
Some months back, I was watching an episode of Dateline about protecting kids from child predators. It was a segment with the theme "My Kid Would Never Do That" that puts parents' certainty in their children to the test. It's a recurring segment on Dateline, where they'll test kids on whether they'll open the door to a stranger when they're home alone or give out identifying information or, for older kids, drive with someone who's been drinking.
In this case, they were setting up a situation where small groups of kids in the mid-elementary age range (6-11 years old or so) were put at a table outdoors working on some projects. The kids thought they were alone and unobserved since the producer and other adults had gone out of sight. Then a hired actor drove up in an ice cream truck and worked at tempting the children to enter the truck without seeking their parents' permission. He promised them free ice cream if they'd just come on board.
Welcome to the November 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Family Service Projects
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about what service means in their families.
Brightly colored pedestrian flags make crossing the street safer for walkers of all heights. Children especially can benefit from a waving pennant to attract the attention of car drivers at busy and dangerous intersections and crosswalks.
As the signs on some of the tins near here read: "Pedestrians struck last year who were carrying crossing flags: 0." (I can't find exact statistics, but I can testify they sure do encourage cars to stop for you!)
Seattle, where we live, installed street crossing flags at various intersections a few years ago. However, the flags too often go missing or get vandalized (the dowels broken or fabric ripped). Plus, the city no longer refills empty containers, relying instead on community sponsors.
A helpful service project for any family or group that favors walking and safety (and walking safety) is to help restock the flag bins. If you want to get truly guerilla, you could even secure your own tins or buckets to handy telephone poles or street signs, though I'm going to refer you to your local laws as to whether that's a good idea. (Seattle's policy is currently that all flags are community-sponsored — flags must be placed only at legal crossings, the container must be attached to a pole with zip ties or other mounting hardware, and flags must be at least 10x10 inches and made of orange or fluorescent yellow-green fabric.)
Seattle photo by kenudigit, on Flickr,
showing a city-sponsored bucket
Some locales allow you to sponsor a crosswalk, which would be a great family project — the city provides the flags, and you make sure the bucket stays full and clean!
This photo by Brett VA, on Flickr, shows the nearby city of Kirkland,
where flags are manufactured by the city
and citizens can adopt local crosswalks to keep them stocked.
It's easy to make a load of flags in a dedicated evening if you have a willing group, and it's kind of fun to sneak around placing them in empty tins around town!
Much of this project is best performed by adults, unfortunately, so you might want to make the flags beforehand and then let your children place them with you. However, older children can help with portions of the work: cutting out the fabric, potentially pushing the staple gun (avoid fingers!).
You can even skip the following work and buy street crossing flags (such as these for $87.50 for 25, or $3.50 apiece), particularly if you have a group kicking in funds for the purchase. I know it might sound silly, but it was nearly as expensive making them ourselves — we just needed something more involved for our small group Bible study to do for a service project! However, if we'd made our flags smaller, the DIY version would have been more cost-effective. And you might be able to find certain materials cheaper, so it's worth researching to see how much this project might cost you either way.
Here are the instructions on how to make the flags at home!
Materials
Bright orange or yellow outdoor fabric (or consult your region for the preferred color) — We bought this Phifertex 54" Orange Polyester Weave from Fabrics Central — we used a coupon to get the price down to $12.12 a yard, and we bought 6 yards. I'm having trouble finding a coupon online, but you could contact Fabrics Central at their Facebook page to see if they'd offer one for a good cause! I also found this cheaper nylon fabric at Fabric.com for $7.98 a yard, although I'm a little concerned that it reads "very lightweight." You might contact the store to ask if it's recommended for pedestrian flag use — or just take a chance. You can also check your local fabric stores for their outdoor fabric selection or repurpose safety vests if you have an unused stash.
Wooden dowels — We bought 1/2" to 1" in diameter dowels from Home Depot similar to this that are a default 48" long. We then sawed them in half to make flags that were 24" (two feet) in length. That's really as short as you want to go. A more ideal height would be two and a half feet, but it's hard to find dowels that divide into those dimensions. I can't remember what price we paid, but you can find a selection of inexpensive dowels at any home improvement store. You could use any sanded wood you had around that was an appropriate length and diameter (easy to hold in a hand), and it wouldn't need to be round necessarily.
Saw — If you need to cut your dowels down in length, grab a saw, as well as a suitable location and support — we used a balcony railing, because that's how we roll.
Sandpaper — If you've sawed your dowels, sand down the rough ends so you don't splinter up your pedestrians' hands.
Staple gun and staples — This doesn't need to be anything fancy for this purpose. You can find staple guns, sandpaper, and saws easily at home improvement stores as well, leaving just the fabric potentially to order beforehand.
(Optional:) Reflective Tape — You could decorate the edges of the flags to make them more visible in twilight and at nighttime.
(Optional:) Rust-proof metal or plastic container plus zip ties or other securement method — if you want to place the flag bucket yourself
Instructions
Cut your orange fabric into squares. You can go as small as 10 by 10 inches, according to Seattle's regulations. With our 6 yards of 54 inch material, 10 x 10 would make 105 flags, 12 x 12 would make 72, and 18 x 18 would make 36. We made 36 of the 18 x 18 variety.
(P.S. I'm obscuring our group members' faces because they're too fabulous for the internet, and also because I didn't ask permission to post their pictures. But, suffice it to say, they're awesome.)
Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the best blogposts I've read throughout the week.
After an unusual run of warm, sunny weather (see above), which we enjoyed as thoroughly as we could (see above also), it's finally turned to fall here in the Pacific Northwest.
That means hot-chocolate weather, wool coats and fleece jackets, a wealth of homeschooling activities (did I love my "chaperone" sticker for taking my kids to the zoo? yes, I surely did), and my kids picking up pretty much every leaf they see. (Why? Why not, I suppose. We have quite the fall collection now.)
So settle into someplace cozy and enjoy some links to read!
I get a lot of people saying they know how to breastfeed “safely” in a moving car. I sort of doubt most of them are.
If mom weighs 120 pounds, and is in a crash with 20 G’s, her entire body will weigh 120 pounds x 20G’s = 2400 pounds. You can imagine that her chest will weigh at least 1,000 of these pounds – and if she is leaning over the baby to nurse, her chest will slam down on the baby’s body in a sudden stop or crash – as both the mom and baby will be moving in the same direction due to the physics of the crash. You wouldn’t drop a 1,000 pound cinder block on a baby – so too you shouldn’t lean over the child to nurse them – as your body can crush the child.
I could see, given my very, very large boobs, that there might be a way for a very select number of people to stay firmly seated but streeetch a nipple over for latch-on. I still suspect that number’s far fewer than the people who think they’re being safe and are not. For my part (and despite the aforementioned boobage), it’s not worth the risk. If your baby must nurse, pull over.
“I usually cast on and then start knitting very slowly teaching thechild the rhyme. Once she has mastered the rhyme, I have her put her hands over mine while we go through the motions and repeat the rhyme. Then I put her hands under mine. Then I let her hold the needles while I wrap the yarn (and keep the yarn tension). Then I let her try to put it all together.”
As a writer, you no longer have to memorize due dates for the blogging carnivals you love. Notifications will come right to your Google Calendar and inbox!
As a carnival host, you can snag more participants and keep them apprised of due dates and themes!
Check out upcoming carnivals in the calendar below, and click the "plus" button at the bottom to add it to your Google account.
To add carnivals to the calendar, see the static page with an email form that takes you step by step through submitting your carnival information. Any carnivals on topics of interest to natural parenting bloggers are welcome.
Our October Carnival of Natural Parenting was inspiring, to say the least — our writers told us how they help to heal their own self-image issues so they can nurture their children's self-image.
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living.
Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.
Brightly colored pedestrian flags make crossing the street safer for walkers of all heights. Children especially can benefit from a waving pennant to attract the attention of car drivers at busy and dangerous intersections and crosswalks.
— If you need to cut your dowels down in length, grab a saw, as well as a suitable location and support — we used a balcony railing, because that's how we roll.
— This doesn't need to be anything fancy for this purpose. You can find staple guns, sandpaper, and saws easily at home improvement stores as well, leaving just the fabric potentially to order beforehand.
— You could decorate the edges of the flags to make them more visible in twilight and at nighttime.
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
