Daily Dose of Common Sense

This story lacks common sense in so many areas that it’s hard to know where to begin.

A Connecticut mother left her two small kids in the car while she ran an errand. Big deal, right? Well, what if I told you it was in freezing conditions and the car was off? Bad. Really bad. Has this woman never heard of frostbite or hypothermia?

We can assume she left her 3-year old and a 1-year old to freeze their buns off in the car while going on a SUPER, IMPORTANT errand. Perhaps picking something up at the store, dropping of a letter at the Post Office, paying a bill, or maybe bringing peace to the Middle East.

Nope. She had to go sit in a tanning bed. Yep, getting a fake tan was that important.

Guess she hasn’t heard of skin cancer either.

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How stupid do you need to be in order to shoot bullets into the air for fun? Even if you’ve never heard of Newton or his Law of Gravity, you know if you throw an orange in the air that it will fall back down to the ground. Well, shockingly, bullets work just like oranges. If they go up, they eventually come down. And sometimes innocent people get hurt.

This past NYE in Atlanta, a 4-year old boy was killed at 12:30 AM while sitting in church with his mother. (The fact that a 4-year old was out at 12:30 AM and not home in bed is surely the topic of an upcoming DDOCS post, but I digress….) A gun (likely an AK-47 rifle) had been fired into the air within a 3-mile radius of the church and the boy was a tragic casualty.

Sadly, this incident is not the only example of stray bullets falling from the sky and doing harm. You have to wonder what these shooters are thinking. Do they believe that the bullets will disappear? Or, perhaps be absorbed in the clouds like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon?

I learned about gravity as a kid, mostly through this video. (Another reason why taking Schoolhouse Rock off the air has made future generations less smart.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb93OZXpFd0

Down, down, down, down, down….gravity.

Some residents of Big Spring, Texas didn’t appreciate one man’s holiday decorations. The man has a statue of Michelangelo’s David in his front lawn. For laughs and holiday cheer, he dressed David up in a Santa hat and beard, which caused some parents to complain. They claim their kids were asking “Why is Santa naked?”

After complaints, the homeowner covered the statue’s bait and tackle with boxer shorts, which you can see here in this photo.

Parents can’t explain to kids that it’s not really Santa and that it’s a replica of a famous statue? Come on, people! Lighten up.

You know, living in a place called BIG SPRING, these townspeople should have appreciated the joke.

[Via PatsPapers.com]

Photo: BETSY BLANEY/The Associated Press

From the Huffington Post, here are 15 toys to avoid for your kids this holiday. Some of them are weird, some disturbing, and some just plain wrong.

Enjoy!

Not everyone relishes the quality family time provided by the holidays. If you dread the upcoming moments with your kin like a Michael Jackson seance, here are some tips to get through it all in one sane piece.

At family gatherings, don’t talk about:

• religion
• politics
• the lack of seasoning in the food
• your lesbian experiment in college
• the inheritance

More tips:

Don’t expect to share a bedroom with your boyfriend/girlfriend if your hosts are conservative in this area. Just accept that you’re sleeping apart for a few days in exchange for some free grub. Better yet, offer to stay in a hotel nearby.

Just smile and nod any time your mother picks on comments on your _________________ (insert most sensitive topic here). Because she WILL mention it.

Make sure to keep taking your medication. Whether it’s Prozac, Ambien, Johnny Walker or chocolate cake, don’t try to go cold turkey around Turkey Day.

Pack a bag with snacks. That way, if you don’t like the food, you can sneak away for a Snickers bar later.

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Here are some of our favorite brief Web stories from this week.

Some people had common sense.

• A University of Minnesota professor uses superheroes to teach physics. I never understood physics, but maybe I would have if it had been this exciting.
• There were some big changes in women’s health this week. Recommendations for mammograms and pap smears were adjusted and women everywhere were confused. We thought this write-up from NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman did a nice job of putting it all into perspective.
• Over privacy concerns, the Grinches at the USPS called a halt to the “Dear Santa” letter program with the residents of North Pole, Alaska this week. But, according to one of the Alaska Senators on Friday, the USPS has agreed to resume the program. Some new security measures will be put in place, and Santa’s letters will continue to be opened and responded to by the Alaskan volunteers. Childhood everywhere rejoices!

And, some did not.

• A North Carolina dad packed McDonald’s for his eighth-grade daughter’s lunch in a brown paper bag, and she ended up suspended. My dad used to pack me HoHos, Hostess Fruit Pies, or Hostess Cupcakes in my lunch. Would I be kicked out of school now?
• A 19-year old man was arrested in Texas after selling pot door-to-door. (What, is pot Amway, now?) His luck turned south when he knocked on the door of an off-duty policeman. Dude.
• Kate Moss, a well-known waif model, has become the poster girl for other girls who are trying not to eat. Moss recently said, “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Girls aspiring to be super (dangerously) thin now use this quote on their own web sites as inspiration not to eat. NOT TO EAT. Someone should slap Moss upside the head with a double Quarter Pounder with Cheese for this comment. (To be fair, the model’s rep says the line was taken out of context. Sure, it was.)

Stupid haircut? Yes, for sure.

But, worthy of getting suspended from school? Not even close.

This boy was suspended from a Cincinnati middle school because the school deemed the haircut as violating its “extreme and distracting hairstyles” code. The student is a Bengals fan and wanted to show his team spirit.

What kind of world are we living in where we refuse children the right to have any hairstyle or haircut they want? I had a mullet in middle school. For SURE that look should have been banned somehow. (I still have to live with the photos to this day.) Perhaps the school should realize that the future shame will be enough punishment for this haircut.

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As I’m sure most parents have now heard, Southwest Airlines flight attendants kicked a cranky two-year old child off their plane last week. Mother and son were flying together from Amarillo, Texas to San Jose, California, and the toddler started shouting and crying before the plane took off.

Pamela Root’s 2-year-old son was screaming for the Southwest Airlines plane to “Go! Plane! Go!”

“I want Daddy!” Adam shouted. Over and over again.

Despite her embarrassment, the stay-at-home San Jose mom remained confident that once the plane took off and she fed him, Adam would calm down and take a nap–just as he had on the half-dozen other plane rides with Mom.

The flight crew wasn’t willing to find out.

The mother couldn’t give the kid a few small snacks to keep him quiet before takeoff? He’s hungry, in a strange space, and screaming, and she decides not to give him anything. Huh? I’m assuming they were not the only two passengers on the plane. Did the mother not care at all about anyone else around them? I’m not saying the airline should have kicked them off the flight, but come on, lady. When it was obvious her son wasn’t calming down, her common sense should have kicked in. Giving him something small may have distracted him and prevented the whole episode.

Seems like an unfortunate incident that could have been avoided with a few Cheerios.

Is your child dressing up as a witch this year? What about a gypsy? Or, perhaps as Darth Maul from Star Wars? Well, some schools and communities might take issue with these costumes. Around the country, there is a growing movement to eliminate “scary” or “inappropriate” costumes.

Guns, daggers and other toy weapons have long been excised from costumes at many school celebrations on Halloween. But in some classrooms across the country, the interpretation of what is too scary–or offensive, gross or saddening–is now also leading to an abundance of caution and some prohibitions.

First, you have to wonder what the motivation is here. Halloween began as a Celtic tradition where, “their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm.” So, traditional costumes began as monsters, vampires, witches, devils, or skeletons. Does the desire to eliminate any “scary” costume come from a Christian religious contingent, whereby some devoutly religious believe that Halloween is a satanic holiday?

Second, can’t we just let kids wear what they want?

Restricting toy weapons makes some sense, as it is a safety issue. However, who is responsible for determining which costumes are too scary, offensive, gross, or sad? When someone starts making those kinds of judgements, next thing you know the only costume allowed will be a fruit or vegetable. “Ohhhh, that turnip is so scary!” Will a beet be acceptable, or does the red color make it offensive?

(Is this just a ploy by the Veggie Tale people, whose “mission is to enhance the spiritual and moral fabric of society through creative media.” Back off, religious broccoli!)

Parents and some educators said that restrictions like those at Riverside Drive often stemmed from a desire to protect smaller children from freakishly scary costumes, to maintain classroom order (spray-on hair color is often banned, for instance, because children tend to spray it all day long) and to keep from demeaning groups through costumes that play on stereotypes.

Parents should be able to use discretion when it comes to their child’s costume. Do I believe Freddy Krueger is an appropriate costume for a little kid? No. But, I wouldn’t call the Halloween police on the kid, either.

How is that sexy costumes for girls are becoming more prevalent and “scary” costumes are getting a bum rap?

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Let’s face it: we all want free candy. The only thing better than free candy is free money, and that doesn’t happen very often (like, never). But, there comes a point where it becomes obnoxious to intrude into what is, essentially, an event for littler kids. For example, have you ever had a trick-or-treater with a real five o’clock shadow? Well, the Chicago Tribune has a great piece today on helping us all learn who is too old to trick or treat.

Here are some of the suggested guidelines:

I say that if you’re old enough to shave, you’re too old.

Old enough to drive? Too old.

Are you old enough to have an iPhone? Too old to trick-or-treat.

Old enough to remember life before Google? Too old.

Older than Miley Cyrus? Too old.

Not sure who Miley Cyrus is? Beyond too old.

[via Pat's Papers]

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