Saftey in the Modern World
First, gotta say that radiator is breath-taking, lovely.
Now on to my intended topic. It seems like there are so many safety things we just "knew" growing up that kids today have no clue about--don't put fingers in an Emerson fan, it will chop them off... If you touch the space heater it will burn you...
I have a child's sized functional wood burning stove that belonged to my grandmother. My grandfather built me a playhouse, and I built fires in it without supervision from before I can remember. Fans, heat, heat, guns, electricity, fire were things I and all the kids I knew were taught about from such an early age that we don't remember being taught.
Now ceiling fans have warning labels cautioning parents not to stick their child's head in them. I have a Mr. Coffee glass lined thermal pitcher that is labeled "do not put ice or hands inside pitcher." A woman wins a law suit because she's been burned by hot coffee that is supposed to be hot. It's insane, but it is the real world we live in.
Somehow my husband refuses to accept this brave new world. Our oldest son is eight, and one of the biggest battles we had when he was born was over my insistence that the guns be kept in a locked cabinet. "But, daddy kept his hunting rifle propped in the corner of the dining room..." So did my grandaddy, but times have changed. He was dumbfounded when our kindergartener got in trouble for snitching dad's pocket knife and bringing it to school. The principal saw no difference between the small, funcional stockman's knife and a weapon. I got it. Bruce is still shaking his head. Thank God our kids are in parochial school. Otherwise, our son would have been expelled in kindergarten under zero tolerance public school rules.
