Family: The Best Way to Protect Your Children in the Car

The Best Way to Protect Your Children in the Car

Written by Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach

Car seats may be required but there’s one other thing you should be doing to protect your children in repparttar

car, because repparttar 110887

best-constructed car seat in repparttar 110888

world doesn’t insure they’ll live through an accident.

Prevention is repparttar 110889 best cure, and driver error has been documented to contribute to over 90% of collisions.

Your distractibility is crucial, and once again one of our best technological advances has proven to be a very mixed blessing. You might even say a very mixed curse.

And what is that?

It’s repparttar 110890 conversation you’re having with your sister about repparttar 110891 party next week. Or repparttar 110892 quick call to verify directions or to say you’re running late. Or worst of all, an intense or complex relationship issue you’re discussing with your spouse. ON THE CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s hand-held or mounted, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re dialing, chatting, intensely relating, or hanging up. It’s dangerous.

According to repparttar 110893 Fatal Analysis Reporting System, in one analysis of fatal accidents involving cell phone use, repparttar 110894 cell phone-using drivers were all in what’s called “the striking vehicle.” This means they either hit a stationary object, or left their lane of traffic and struck a vehicle or obstacle. In these crashes, 75% of repparttar 110895 drivers were engaged in conversation, 13% were dialing, and 13% were hanging up.

And worse yet – of those engaged in conversation, 1/3 were using mounted phones in repparttar 110896 hands-free mode.

Risk of collision when using a cell is 4 times higher regardless of your age, driving experience, of experience with a cell phone, and – get this: repparttar 110897 hands-free units offer no safety advantage.

What I learned on family vacation

Written by Darrin F. Coe, MA

My wife, my two preschoolers, and I recently drove from Canon City, Colorado to Readstown, Wisconsin in a 4-door dodge neon. I’m happy to report my children are still alive. Believe it or not this was one of repparttar

most enjoyable times I’ve experienced in repparttar 110885

past year. My family grew closer and I learned to experience joy in that most exasperating of questions, “Are we there yet?”

I learned that it is better to be creative than it is to be frustrated and angry. One of my boys would ask, “Are we there yet?”

I would answer, “Yes, but only in our existential and ethereal lives.” Which bought about 10 minutes of silence as they tried to figure out what I’d just said. There was one point as we were approaching Onowa, Iowa on our return trip at which I found myself wanting to use every expletive I’d learned in my eight years as a correctional professional as well as wanting to try my hand at creating a few. The boys were tired, loud, talkative, and only barely listening as I and my wife attempted to speak rationally to them about shutting their mouths..

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