I feel claustrophobic just looking at the pictures of the inside of their death trap on wheels.
I knew taking children out in the water was risky, even with flotation aids/devices, but taking the 4 year old I nanny swimming ( at a local pool) last week really made me realise how vigilant you have to be. He wanted me to go and get some rings to play with, when we were in the water, that were just a few metres from the pool, but I said either he could go ( with me obviously watching him the whole time) or we would go together, as he isn’t allowed to be in the water without an adult ( and I would have had my back to him for a few seconds while getting the rings). It took me about 6 tries to get his armbands properly inflated too, but again, his “Oh, I just won’t wear that one” were countered with “I understand this is frustrating, but you have to wear them both or we can’t go swimming, it’s not allowed” and I eventually got them inflated enough to fit on his arms.
It just makes me sick that these so-called parents have endangered their children’s lives so many times: leaving a sleeping 4 month old on a beach, going paddle boarding without wetsuits, life jackets or any sort of buoyancy aid in lochs, on lazy rivers and in the sea! When a well-meaning person came to helpfully inform them, they got angry and caused him to lose business. It just makes me so angry and sad!
I worked at an after-school club and often had to go and pick children up at different schools. I don’t drive, so a colleague drove us down to the school in a car with seats in the boot facing backwards/the rear end of the car. A police officer came over to us before pick-up and asked to see colleague’s license etc ( I had to act as translator, as my colleague’s French was minimal). That was all fine, but then the officer looked in the boot and told us rear-facing seats have been illegal for quite some time ( I know I travelled that way with a friend as a child, about 25 years ago). I explained that it was the head of the after-school centre ( who, as an aside was bat tit crazy, I just didn’t know that yet!) who dealt with hiring/buying cars for the centre, and that, as far as I knew, everything was up to standard. He let us use the car, thank goodness, but I don’t remember it ever being used after that.
I am so afraid for those children!