Hi everyone, welcome or welcome back to the Debbie Doo Blog Series. ❤
I am going to be totally honest with you here. There are times in my own parenting journey where I almost didn’t listen to my intuition. One of the times was during a Christmas party with friends. My daughter who had just began to crawl, was loving her new found independence and was on the move. As soon as we arrived, we noticed that the family pool of the friends who were hosting the party did not have a fence, rather a screen door that slammed shut as soon as it was opened.
All day long I watched my daughter intently. She loved water and I knew she had noticed the shiny looking pool. Not able to fully relax, It wasn’t long before I was approached by the home owner with a glass of bubbly in hand, seemingly able to read my mind.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said reassuringly. ‘The door has a special pool safety action and we have put a baby gate at the stairs. There is no way your little girl is getting out to the pool.’
‘Sure thing.’ I smiled, not wanting to seem like a paranoid helicopter parent.
Suddenly five or so minutes later into the conversation, I realised that my toddler was no longer in my sight.
‘Relax,’ he said again. ‘Everyone has been playing with her all day. She is probably being cuddled as we speak.’
Feeling the pressure to continue the conversation, I reluctantly talked for another few seconds until my intuition banged on my chest.
‘Go find your daughter.’ It said with authority and without hesitation I sped off in search of her.
Within moments, I discovered she wasn’t on the top floor and to my horror I noticed the baby gate had been left wide open. Racing down the stairs, nearly losing my breath, I gasped when I also saw that the screen door that was apparently POOL SAFE was also jarred open!
Fighting the urge not to scream, I ran to the pool only so see my daughter leaning over the edge, trying to reach out for a ball that was floating in the water. I scooped her up, bursting into tears as images of my little girl silently falling into the pool, filled my mind.
The family friend raced down the stairs and seeing that his screen door had malfunctioned, apologized profusely before spending the rest of the day trying to fix the faulty screen door with a look of quiet terror on his face.
So number 1 on my list without a doubt is…
1. Follow your intuition no matter what anyone says!
Your intuition, 3rd eye, higher self, guardian angel, whatever you want to call it, is your brains inbuilt survival system, so listen to it in every instance and never let anybody bully you into ignoring the one thing that may save your life or the life of a loved one.
2. Always drain bath water straight after a bath.
This is a pretty self explanatory one, but it happened to a friend of mine with an active toddler. She finished bathing both her baby and her toddler. As she tended to the baby her little boy, who loved bath time, raced back to the bath and jumped in. She said from that moment on, the first thing she does when she finishes bathing is pulls the plug, no matter how rushed she is.
3. Don’t put bubs too close to the TV set and always use safety straps to attach furniture securely to the wall.
Again, I learned this the hard way. I was in the kitchen cooking. My son was three and my daughter was just months old. Giving her tummy time, I thought I would lay her on her baby blanket just out of arms reach of TV set that sat on a portable stand. Again, my intuition piped up and told me to move her away from the set. At first I questioned it. The TV unit is stable, I thought, it’s not going to fall, but I listened and moved my daughter away. Moments later, I heard a loud crash! Looking up, I was horrified to see my son standing behind the TV cabinet, shocked. In his travels, he had crept behind the TV unit and pushed it clean over. It landed directly on the spot where my daughter had been kicking carefreely just moments before… Thank you from the deepest part of my heart intuition. ❤
4. Never let children wear bike helmets with a studded cap on, even for sun protection.
Bike riding can get hot, and the extra sun protection of a cap under a helmet might seem like a really good idea. However, this is not the case. Wanting to teach bike Ed in schools, I enrolled to became a bike ed instructor and this is one of the first safety things we learned. If a rider both big or small falls off a bike and hits their head, the force of the impact could cause the stud on the top of the cap to puncture the skull.
5. Tell your young aspiring gym goer that Caffeine powder is toxic.
This one is if you, like me, have an older teen who wants to build muscles. The trend to fill protein drinks with all sorts of concoctions to achieve a gym body could be potentially fatal. Recently a boy bought caffeine powder over the internet, believing it could aid his workouts. After putting what he thought was a harmless teaspoon of caffeine powder in his smoothie, he passed away soon after. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/family-resources-education/700childrens/2014/09/the-dangers-of-caffeine-powder
I sincerely hope that this weeks post has been valuable. I have included my song Red Means Stop and Green Means Go about road safety below. Thanks again for visiting today and stay tuned for my next blog on Thursday and remember to stay safe always… ❤ Best, Debbie Doo ⭐
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