Seat Kids Safe ~ {Giveaway} child car restraints

Giveaway brought to you by NRMA Insurance & Kidsafe Australia -Safety Campaign  -

This is NOT a Child Car restraint review !

Baby Car seats / child car restraints haven’t changed too much since we brought our eldest, adopted son, home as a 13 month old in 1994. We bought the best money could buy for our precious son and the baby shop fitted it.

The laws were not so strict about toddlers and preschoolers, but I was. I think our son was still in the same 5 point harness car seat till he started school at 5 yrs , then he went into a booster. I would not let friends take him for play dates unless they had a child restraint. When I worked we had a child restraint seat for each car.

The laws governing child car restraint have changed a few times over the last few years . While 90% people are aware of the current National laws for keeping 0-7 yr old restrained , their child car restraint seat may be, unintentionally, incorrectly fitted (Yes, some ignore it anyway) .

Last year , 70% of child car restraints inspected by Kidsafe needed an adjustment. I find it hard to believe and shocking that figure is so high. Four months ago we attended a professional check of car seats organised by our local council . We were surprised that we needed to remove the car seat retainer/locking clip. A Locking Clip normally helps ensure proper and effective car seat retention but wasn’t required in our case.

Making sure child restraints are exactly right can be tricky for parents to determine, so why not let Kidsafe do this for you, for free.

Dec 2007

One guy (a local car restraint professional) also said we didn’t need to bother with the restraints after they turned seven (a month ago). I am keeping them restrained as my twins are at only at 10%  (115cm) & 25% (118cm) height percentiles for their age - no where near the recommended 145cm. It is far safer and no trouble to keep them in correctly fitted child restraints, in my opinion.

I have had friends begrudge the money paying for car seat safety checks , even when it is for the safety of their kids. As well as grumbling about paying for new seats after a minor accident. 

A good friend works as a nurse in a busy Sydney Children’s hospital, Accident and Emergency, she was very vocal speaking OUT to our playgroup mums when she heard people talking about putting siblings 'out' of child restraints for a new baby and into booster seats or a seat belt. Tragically, she had seen children lose their lives due to incorrectly fitted seats or an absence of car safety restraints.

Fortunately, we rarely changed vehicles and still own the same car we bought the twins home in. Every time you remove seats or change cars you are advised to have them checked. When the twins were born we also purchased the best available at the time for 0-4 yrs (Given we also wanted them to last as long as safely possible). 

Sept 2011

We've had their child restraint seats professionally checked a few times over the years .The local hospital provided a free service 2-3 times a year to have a professional check car restraints. It was reassuring to drive away with the certainty that my children were seated safe. It took less than 10 mins a seat, for peace of mind for parents or carers .

Simple mistakes such as having the restraint at the incorrect height or a twisted harness may lead to a child being injured. When I was asked Tuesday for my assistance, in the form of a post, to help promote child safety when traveling in cars I was keen to participate.

A team working with NRMA Insurance and Kidsafe Australia have offered free restraint checking days in QLD and NSW . Encourage your friends and get the word out. Their goal is to educate parents and carers through these free restraint checking days.

They need your help in spreading the word to help keep children safe on our roads. Tell your family and friends to help spread the message about these important events to other parents and carers.

Parents can have their child restraints professionally checked and adjusted to make sure their children are seated safely – in just minutes and for free. 

GIVEAWAY

As part of the campaign I have Two child car restraints (rated three stars and above on the Australian Standards Restraint rating site: crep.com.au), as prizes to give away to my readership base:

• 1x 6 months – 4 years rearward/forward facing restraint (Safety 1st) 
• 1x 4 years – 7 years forward facing restraint (Infa-Secure) 

The seats will be delivered to the competition winners (one prize/one seat per winner)

Enter by leaving a comment telling me  ...

How do you keep children happy in the car ?

Terms and Conditions.

1. Only Australian Residents are eligible to enter.
2. Entries not answering the question will be deemed invalid. The winner will be chosen by originality and creative merit, not by chance. Judges decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
3.There will be two winners - one seat per winner , please indicate in comments which seat you would prefer.
4. Entries - Open 8/8/2013 - Close 11.59pm 22/8/2013 AEST. The winners will be notified by email, and posted to mylittledrummerboys.blogspot.com.au after they reply - Winners have 7 days to respond or a new winner will be drawn.
5. The Prize is not transferable, changeable or redeemable for cash.
6. Prizes sent out by PR firm directly will not be replaced in the event that they are stolen, lost or damaged or delayed in transit.
 
7. Subscribe to my blog  to receive MLDB updates.
8. Follow via Facebook or Bloglovin on the sidebar .

All opinions are my own.

The more parents who get their restraints professionally checked, the safer our children will be.

Winners : Katie P -  4 years – 7 years forward facing restraint (Infa-Secure)
Jody - Six Little Hearts  - 6 months – 4 years rearward/forward facing restraint (Safety 1st) 

Change your clock, change your smoke alarm battery on 1 April ~ Giveaway

A few years after I had moved out of my parent's home they had a kitchen fire (yes it was the CHIPS - and I think they disagreed on who left it on the stove ) - they had extensive internal damage to their kitchen , smoke and water damage to the rest of the house. They had to move out for over 6 weeks for repairs and cleaning.

wikipedia - not my parent's

They were lucky, no one was hurt and luckier still the local fire station was less than 2km away, so they arrived in minutes. It was frightening, hearing how quick the fire took hold at their home.

One day 6-7 years ago - I left meat pies cooking in a microwave convection oven where we worked, in the kitchen . I went outside to do something while it cooked. I suddenly heard the smoke alarm beeping madly ...both of us ran inside - the pie/maybe it was foil were alight inside the microwave - totally stuffed it too ! but  thankfully nothing worse happened than we also lost our lunch ! The smoke alarm had alerted me and I screamed for my husband !

In one of my jobs I regularly dealt with families who had loss everything due to fires and needed emergency accommodation in caravans on their properties for months, and even up to year.

When I was asked to post about changing your smoke alarm battery - I didn't hesitate for a minute.

By coincidence my husband had just installed three new smoke alarms. There where previously none , after I nagged asked him to do it - minutes hours before he had to travel to Sydney to work for 4 days.

NSW households (well everyone should)  are now being urged to revisit fire safety procedures as new research released by Duracell* reveals that 97% of Australian homes surveyed are not following the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) recommendations around home smoke alarms.

Australian fire services together with long-term partner Duracell, are advising residents to change their smoke alarm battery when they change their clocks – on Sunday 1 April, 2012 – in the lead up to this winter fire season, a high fire risk time.

"This weekend, when you change your clock at the end of Daylight savings, change your smoke alarm battery and make time to map out a home escape plan with your family" said Fire & Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins.

The Duracell Fire Safety Survey of Australian women aged 25-44 years old revealed:

• over half of women do not know that a spark can become a life threatening blaze in less than 3 minutes....about the same time as cooking a piece of toast  

• 68% of those surveyed either don’t know or don’t follow the recommendations for changing smoke alarm batteries,

• 58% don’t know how to correctly test whether smoke alarms are working and 95% don’t know how often to test them

•  Two thirds of homes surveyed are not changing their smoke alarm batteries yearly, as recommended by Australian fire services.

•  Nearly a quarter of mums believe their children know more about fire safety than they do ???

•  82% of working women have a fire escape plan at work, but only 11% have a planned and practiced one at home. 

• In most households surveyed (55%) the plan is simply to get out as quickly as possible ; 17% don’t have a fire plan at home because they have never thought about it 

•  Most married women claim their husband needs a reminder to prompt him to change batteries in the smoke alarms in the home. In most cases it’s the ‘low battery’ beep sound that acts as a reminder, but more husbands respond to a reminder from the wife (18%) than no prompting at all (9%).

NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said, "Smoke alarms provide an essential early warning in the event of a fire, giving you time to evacuate safely – but only if they work. This is particularly important for people living in remote or rural locations who need to consider the time it may take emergency services to reach them.#"

 

#This is particularly important to us now living 20 mins out of town. We also have a fire extinguisher up on the wall.

Fire & Rescue NSW, NSW Rural Fire Service and Duracell recommend YOU:

1. Test your smoke alarm (by pressing the ‘test’ button) once per month to ensure the battery and the alarm sounder are operating and clean with a vacuum cleaner annually to remove particles that will affect smoke alarm performance
2. Replace the battery annually with a long-lasting 9V alkaline battery
3. Install smoke alarms in positions that will wake all occupants in the home and give them time to evacuate. For example,installing the alarms outside each sleeping area, with additional smoke alarms installed inside bedrooms where doors are closed at night and along evacuation routes if bedrooms are located upstairs.
4.  Develop a home escape plan and practice it regularly. 

Especially practice with your children - at school my boys they had a safety day 2 weeks ago. They came home to tell me what they had learned . The RFS visited the preschool last September too.

This weekend take 10 minutes and have a fire drill with your family. Teach them to feel for heat at the door before opening, stay low to the floor because apparently smoke kills more people than fire, etc -  this weekend a Fire Plan is top of my list. {Hubby & I have talked about it because we have both doors at the front away from the bedrooms and only have windows to exit from...we need to make sure the kids know}

A working smoke alarm is your best defense against fire so when you Change your clock, change your smoke alarm battery on 1 April  !

For more information on the recommendations for smoke alarm usage and home escape plans visit
www.changeyourbattery.com.au

To locate your nearest fire station go to www.fire.nsw.gov.au/contact
For NSW RFS please click here.

* Research was conducted nationally by Galaxy Research, on behalf of Duracell, in January, 2012. A total of 1265 women between the ages of 25 – 44 were surveyed

Did I mention our 18yr son is now training as a Fire technician (?I think it is his title) he inspects Fire extinguishers, equipment and fire safety systems at business premises. Now the twins also want to be fireman :).

 The GIVEAWAY -  NOW CLOSED

One winner will receive:

-        Duracell Fire fighter bunny, valued at $60

-        A smoke alarm, valued at $20

-        Colouring in posters, magnets, and temporary tattoos. 

-        Duracell AA Batteries (for the bunny), valued at $10

-        Duracell 9V Batteries (for the smoke alarm), valued at $10 

-        Fire Brigade Kids – an Activity and Colouring in Book – valued at $7.95

Australian residents only

Closes 10th April 2012

To enter -

Tell me how your family is fire prepared ?

Winner - Belinda 

♥

Would you flash for a stranger ?

to warn them a police car is up ahead or around the next bend ?


After witnessing what speeding and drivers over the legal alcohol limit can do to 'families' my conscience says if other people are speeding they're taking their own risk of getting caught and fined.

They shouldn't be warned about the police presence in the vicinity.

I know it is also illegal to flash your lights as a warning that police are in the area ... and you can be fined. Drivers still flash their lights despite this.I witness it regularly.


I don't feel sorry for many of those who get caught as a consequence of poor driving decisions. I do a little when signage is confusing and it's tough when the road limit changes suddenly or you aren't paying attention or are just over and get pinged.

I worry if you are busy warning others you really aren't paying attention to your own driving. I would also hate to cause an accident by alerting others to the presence of police and they went on to hurt someone else...I mean I wouldn't really know but it's a risk.

I may not be completely law abiding driver myself (100% of the time ;) and when drivers flash me I automatically check my speedo and touch the brakes. It is natural reaction to slow down not just because of police but they may be warning of another accident or hazard around a bend.

Most of the time I travel within the speed limit. I may sound hypocritical but I try not to speed , sometimes I just creep over the limit a little.
 
There is feeling that there are gray areas in the battle between law enforcement's technology and safety .The feeling in the community that the allegedly speeding countermeasures - radar traps in concealed places, mobile & fixed cameras are more about revenue raising than saving lives.

Active police presence seems to have diminished. If the revenue from fines went to road improvement & repairs or victims' support instead of the government coffers it would be less controversial. It isn't the fault of police though.

Essentially, the police are there to protect us / our families . If they stop someone who is speeding/drunk maybe they will prevent loss of life or injury to innocent victims often involved in car accident by being just in the wrong place at wrong time, or the driver themselves and their family. A good friend of ours works in Highway patrol as a police officer. I don't envy her job when I hear the stories she tells.

I do flash strangers only if they have forgotten to turn on their headlights at dusk/dark or for cars overtaking & coming straight at me in my lane or a road hazard like water over the road (to slow down).

Flashing means different thing to different people too sometimes it is to warn of road hazards or other driving courtesies. 

Very rarely I have flashed my lights for someone in the opposite direction driving recklessly or speeding to prompt them to slow down ONLY if the Police are NOT on the road... to give them a subtle hint.

---

I digress ...in the early hours of Saturday morning about 12.30am on our way home from the farm and about 8km from home  my husband was given a direction to pull over to the left lane (a section of road in between was marked off by orange witches hats/cones) for 'alcohol' breath testing.
The Police officer greeted my husband with " I can tell you haven't been drinking Sir ! "
He still produced the breathing testing device and asked my hub to 'count'.
No problems there.

I was puzzled why the Police officer had said it ...
I asked DH - Ah ha ... DH was towing a car trailer 7m long , behind a Landruiser 5.5m and he didn't knock even one cone over. He eased in between the cones, swiftly too. I hadn't noticed. Lucky it wasn't me ...I may have knocked them all down LOL or NOT if they taken me away.

DH said police officer must not have seen the trailer behind the 4WD (it was dark & night).Usually when he has been towing trailers or caravans they rarely pull him over unless it is in a wide open space because of the tight spots they set up random breath testing in. He definitely doesn't drink & drive anyway.
 ♥ Never miss a post

Tragedy ...

My husband came home Monday to say he had heard some tragic news. A local man (
a father of 7 children ~aged 6 -18) had been killed in a motorbike accident on Sunday.Someone who came into our business had mentioned it to him in passing conversation.

We knew S because he had been a customer of ours a few years ago. He was a local real estate agent at the time. A few years later we purchased a new (7yr old) house through his agency. It was with one of his employees though not S.

The day we had the settlement on our house S was there for the final inspection. The day was very significant in that is was also the day we had to say our final goodbyes to our baby daughter. We couldn't delay the settlement without major penalties.

It only involved us having a 'walk' through inspection of the house so we went ahead despite the circumstances and her funeral being 2 hrs later. S was very sensitive and very caring. He expressed his genuine sympathy. I was very, very surprised. It made a big impact.

Then he mentioned his baby daughter had died two years prior.He offered us his card and phone numbers ...said if we needed to talk (or to his wife too even)...

By coincidence I later met his wife at a Baby/pregnancy loss support group .Their infant daughter had died at 18 days old tragically from meningitis. His wife came to the monthly support group only a few times as she had 6 children (another son had been born after they lost their daughter). Though children were welcome at the support group there was no childcare. As you can imagine it was difficult with noisy toddlers, running about, to grieve so she stopped coming.

Though I did not know S personally I feel tremendous sadness for his loss, for his 6 living children. They were on holidays at the time. The newspaper alleges his motorcycle was hit by a car doing a U turn. It will affect their lives forever , as well as the other children in sporting teams he had coached , his family and friends.

My bloggy friend Al, who blogs at 3 timesKewl also has a new blog called One second. A blog to promote and encourage people into safer driving and making safe decisions when about to drive.

One second is all it takes for someone to make a fatal mistake when driving. Al's husband lost his life due a drink driver, a tragic victim of another man's bad choices. Al, lost the love of her life and his children lost their father forever.

One second is all it takes to make good choices too .

It aims to facilitate discussion and help raise awareness of safe driving practices.Most importantly, it is about giving conscious thought to your defining seconds, and making them count.

My favourite from one of Al's latest posts ... only because I can't link this bit directly.

Every time you get behind the wheel, you take people's lives in your hands.

Every time you turn the wheel to steer around a corner - you choose life.
Every time you break - for a red light, to adhere the speed limit, to safely take the bend - you choose life.
For every second you have your eyes on the road - you are choosing life.

Alcohol
Drugs
Speeding
Driving distracted

These things impede your ability to turn the wheel, to take the bend, to see the red light, to drive safely -

To choose life.

Please go visit her blogs and encourage her too.
♥

Staying one step ahead of a teenager

or how to get even

okay ... so I might be the meanest mum but hey I laughed so much it was worth it.

One of my intentions in 08 is to stay one step a head of my teen. I know, I said my intention was to show him more respect but it cuts both ways.

We had the usual today I am not doing xxxxx.

Why is everyone else having fun ?.... blah blah blah and worse curse curse curse a mouthful of hateful words and foul garbage spewing out of his once every so sweet mouth. (Mummy am I your little darling ?)

So when he was outside I changed a few settings on the computer ... oh the password to log on , his name & hotmail display picture (to the duck) and his tag line (Snow White rocks). Then I waited for him to come back inside sulking and smart mouthed yet again.

I had already slipped Windows Family Safety on to his computer - we only just yesterday connected it to the Internet (right near mine so I can see what he gets up too) . Before he used mine and we had so many arguments about whose turn it was. Mine always...

He was 'mad' to say the least - especially when a few of his friends knew about Snow White ... he was begging me to change it back ... especially the duck - oh for goodness sake !

I let him eventually and the threat of deleting his hotmail or blocking his contacts ... had him scared (and in tears) but still angry at the injustice. Me, I don't care. He needs to learn a little respect.

Yesterday, his father left him at the boat ramp ( 6 mins drive from home but probably a good 1.5 hr walk) because of his cheek and carry on. I am usually the mean mum .I was the hero when I went to get him after 15 mins. I was already on my way home when DH left him behind. D had actually got out of the car, refused to get back in and said I am walking home - so DH let him and drove off.

Dh was mad and it takes a lot to get him mad. He is the most patient man on earth (he has had a lot of practice with me ). Dear Son's friends were here to see him slink in embarrassed but still grinning like he had won. The cheeky brat wanted me to pull over so he could walk in and pretend he had walked

D isn't a bad kid but just going through a rebellious phase and sadly his friends have too much freedom, money and electronic gadgets that he craves . He sees injustice that he doesn't have it all too. I know he tries hard sometimes to be good but he does a lot of uncool stuff.

I remember this brilliant piece Don't mess with Mom.

Anyway - there are still 3 weeks till he goes back to school ... give me strength. Tomorrow, he is going to work with his Father (for $$) ... peace will reign.