Realizing I Know Nothing
Archive for July, 2010
The Gooner
Jul 27th
Fingers crossed. Knock on wood. Our son is 16 months old and to date has not had a serious injury where an emergency room visit was required. Yesterday, the kiddo took a header into the wall and came away with a nice new shiny gooner. Nothing overly concerning, but then the creepy little “what ifs” start rolling in like spiders at the foot of your bed coming up under the covers.
The big “what if” for me: “What if he has a concussion?” The Wifey never played football, so she probably didn’t get all the lectures on the dangers of concussions. More >
Pacifier Recall
Jul 22nd
The CPSC has issued a pacifier recall by Antonio Flores due to choking hazard. The scary part about this recall is the first issue listed for “Hazard:” is: “The pacifier fails to meet federal safety standards.”
Simple question: How did it get into the market to begin with?
Evenflo and Humor in Ads
Jul 18th
Trust is interesting. Do/Will I ever really trust a brand? In the end the goal is profit, not my satisfaction, no matter what a company puts in its press releases. Do Board members say “Forget all this profit talk, are the customers satisfied with our products????”
I doubt it.
But, I also think that to be profitable, you need to make the customer happy with a safe, reliable product, especially when it relates to children. So in the end, by creating what I need, they get what they want. But how to market, how to market? I, for one, like humor in advertising. More >
And…yet another drop-side crib recall
Jul 16th
Pottery Barn is voluntarily recalling ALL of their drop-side cribs. Standard CPSC release can be found here.
I think by now you know my feelings on these cribs — but if you don’t — DO NOT BUY A DROP-SIDE CRIB. If you must for physical reasons, then please make sure to purchase any and all of the hardware updates available.
More on Drop-Side Cribs
Jul 15th
It took 36 deaths over a period of nearly three years to get some government action, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Even one infant death is appalling to me, but when is an issue like this a trend due to structure versus one-time accidents? (Although – it was not hard not to miss all those drop-side crib recalls.) Thankfully, the new rule will call for improvements in not only drop-side crib, but ANY and ALL cribs where safety might be an issue.
From the CPSC release: “Indeed, once the rule becomes effective, no crib may More >
Tip #10
Jul 10th
Don’t beat yourself up over past decisions. Hindsight is 20/20, especially when you have more information. We were told our son had an ear infection. Two days later he was still up all night and we were just a hair frustrated with the lack of sleep.
Turns out he had pneumonia.
We had never experienced it before, didn’t know the signs and had just visited the doctor for the ear infection diagnosis. Had we known, of course we would have done all that we could to make him feel better — but we didn’t know at the time. We didn’t More >
I didn’t see that coming
Jul 8th
In an earlier post, I talked about the “Blue Jean Diapers” from Huggies not making their way into our house. The Wifey (whiff-ey) didn’t particularly care for them – and I didn’t like them at all.
Then, after giving my own mom details on the kiddo’s recent 15 month checkup, she asked “how much did you say he weighed?” I knew the question had a followup — with this being the first grandchild, she would have remembered it from the moment it came out of my mouth.
I told her he weighed 22 pounds — which was More >
Still not my thing
Jul 5th
I like the ad. I really do. I like the fact that the recent Toyota Sienna ads focus on both moms and dads — but I know they aren’t doing because the feel a need to talk to moms AND dads. Again, you go where the numbers lead you and I am sure dads play a big role in the family car decision — and I am even more sure that the folks at Saatchi and Saatchi (they did this for Toyota) know this as well.
In the end — I find the ad funny. I think it is well executed, talks More >
