Stroller Safety Strap

(My niece with her Stroller Safety Strap from Childharness.ca.) 

The other day my niece was visiting with her new baby and when we were heading out for a walk I was surprised to see that her (extremely high-end) stroller was not equipped with a safety strap for her to loop around her wrist.

REALLY???

I asked her if she would like me to make one for her and before I could even finish my question she was saying "YES!".

When my own boys were small I had a jogger for them and I'm pretty sure that all joggers come with a wrist strap. It's a critical piece of safety equipment and gives you the confidence to take your hands off the jogger without worrying it - with your children - will roll away on you. I was accustomed to that feeling of safety and I must tell you, when I was pushing the stroller the other day while my niece walked with her husband I found it nerve-racking not having the feeling of that safety strap around my wrist. I didn't have the confidence to take either of my hands off the stroller and I was terrified that a bump on the sidewalk with dislodge my fingers. I'm sure I permanently dented the cushioning on the push bar, my grip was so tight.

That night I made her a wrist strap and sent it off to her but that got me thinking - are these things available? If so, what do they look like? Now, keep in mind that I've been working with webbing and sliders and d-rings and rectangle rings for many years now, so I do feel I'm justified in expressing an opinion about someone else's quality..... 

Here's what I found; 
1. the safety strap made with a metal d-ring

This thing looks great. Cushioned strap so it's comfortable on your wrist, nice and thick, looks durable. So what's the problem? 
i) See where the material is sewn around the straight edge of the d-ring? Believe it or not, over time, the d-ring can cut through that material. It may take a while to happen but unless I had seen it with my own d-rings and webbing, I wouldn't believe it. 
ii) The strap is waaaaay too short. You'd have to remove it from your wrist to reach your baby in the stroller and anyone walking a baby knows how often you're reaching inside to adjust soothers and blankets.

Ok, moving on; 
2. the safety strap made with a plastic slip lock

i) This makes me very nervous because a slip lock is not meant to be used in this way; it is meant to keep 2 layers of webbing together so the webbing is kept neat and tidy. That's their purpose. Here, the slip lock is being used to take tension and stress (i.e. to hold the weight of the stroller if it drifts away from you), and that's not smart. Slip locks can crack a lot easier than you'd think when they are used incorrectly.
ii) It's also waaaay too short and it would ALSO have to be removed from your wrist to reach your baby inside the stroller.

There were other variations of these safety straps on the market and if cheap prices are your thing, you could get one for just a few dollars. Let's put aside the fact that you may have to rely on this safety strap to keep your baby from rolling off the sidewalk, but anyway, some people go for the lowest price regardless. 

For me, I've always been a stickler for quality. I have to be able to TRUST the product I'm using, especially when it came to my kids. And it has to be functional. The safety wrist strap that came with my jogger was too short and had single row box stitching which I didn't think was enough. The last thing I wanted to have to remember is to inspect my safety strap when I had everything else to do to get the kids ready for an outing. 

Which brings me back to the Stroller Safety Strap that I made for my niece. 

1. The Safety Strap has a small loop at one end and a large hand-loop at the other. Choose a place on the stroller where you want to attach the Safety Strap. Feed the BIG loop through the SMALL loop, pull the webbing through then put the BIG loop over your wrist. 
2. Two seams of reinforced zigzag stitching as seen in this picture of the small loop end of the Safety Strap


3. Two seams of reinforced zigzag stitching and a velcro strip at the big loop end of the Safety Strap, as seen in this picture;


The velcro strip is used to bundle the strap so it can stay attached to the stroller.
4. The Safety Strap finished length was approximately 30 inches long. There are a number of reasons why the strap MUST have some length to it!! 
i) You must have options to attach the strap anywhere on the stroller. If the strap is very short, you can only attach it to the top push bar, assuming your stroller has a top push bar (some models don't). 
ii) The Safety Strap is long enough for you to reach forward and touch your baby inside the stroller WITHOUT having to remove it from your wrist. This is just plain common sense. There are many times during a walk when you have to check your baby or adjust their blankets or help them with their soother or sippy cup (when they are older). Having a short strap that restricts you from using both hands isn't practical, and having to remove the strap to use your hand isn't safe.
iii) Which also means the Safety Strap is long enough for you to reach up and touch your face when the strap is over your wrist/forearm. Why? To eat! To drink! To put on your sunglasses! To take off your sunglasses! To wipe your nose! To get the hair out of your face! To zip up your jacket. To unzip your jacket. The other wrist straps on the market are about 12-14 inches long, and if you're a Mom who is 4 ft tall, it will work great for you. For the rest of us, it's too short, too restricting, and too annoying. Just use your other hand you say? True, but for me, everything I needed seemed to be always on the left side of the stroller or in my left pocket. Regardless, I didn't want either of my hands to be restricted in movement.
iv) When your little one is older, use the Safety Strap as something for them to hold onto when they walk with you. Having a bit of length is GREAT for your child - they can walk close to you but still have some space to explore; something that a 12 inch strap would not allow.

So this is now my new mission: to offer Moms a HIGH QUALITY and FUNCTIONAL Stroller Safety Strap to attach to their stroller, to use now as well as later when their little one is walking.
* reasonable price + shipping. Remember, ya get what ya pay for so if you want something for $5.49 off ya go to Amazon!
* available in Black, Navy Blue, Pacific blue (pictured), Red, Purple (made for my niece)
* any length you like, though I would recommend 30 inches finished length for practical purposes

Contact me through my website, elaine@childharness.ca or childharness@yahoo.com, and put "Stroller Safety Strap" in the subject heading.

Make plans for Family Literacy Day, January 27

Yesterday my son brought home a notice about Family Literacy Day on January 27. The notice had a number of suggested activities that we can complete together as a family leading up to that date. The activities are laid out in a Bingo card format and the idea is for families to complete as many activities together as possible. The students return their sheets to school on the 27th for a chance to win a book and a gift card from Chapters. 

The activities on the sheet are wide-ranging. Apparently Literacy can be a broad term. "Fix or build something around your home" is one of the boxes so I guess they're assuming you'll be referring to a manual if you decide to put up some drywall with your kids.

Other suggestions were; Make a craft together, Count out the money together when shopping, Choose a book to read to your whole family, Make alphabet soup and make words out of the letters, Read at home for 30 minutes. 

All the suggestions are excellent and they all have the underlying theme of encouraging activities that bring families together. But in some ways it makes me sad that these reminders have to be said in the first place. I often hear parents say "it's faster if I do it myself". True enough but before you know it, the kids will be grown and gone and you'll be doing it by yourself all the time. 

For me, I try to make every day Family Literacy Day.

Kids and Physical Activity. They should meet more often.

Yesterday there was yet another report from Stats Canada about the inactive youth in our country and I must say the numbers were more shocking than I had imagined. 

Of kids aged 6 to 19 years, only 7% were "active enough to make health gains".

For children and youth, 8.6 hours (62%) of their waking hours were spent being sedentary and this increased to 9+ hours for children aged 15 to 19 years. The percentages of obesity among young boys and girls aged 6 to 10 was also disturbing; 8% and 5% respectively.

Why has physical activity essentially disappeared from the lives of our children? What can we do to get it back? As a parent, what examples are you setting for your kids? Could you lose a few pounds yourself? According to the report, chances are you could.  

Oh come on, don't shoot the messenger.

Adding small doses of physical activity to your day can be as simple as walking to the end of the street with your kids after dinner. Ask how their day was. Ask questions so they tell you more. It's amazing how much happens in their worlds and when given the chance, they'll tell you everything. Soon that walk to the end of the street will turn into walks around the block.

What about bike riding? Do the kids have bikes? If they are riding and you are walking, you'll be able to stay out longer and walk further while the kids ride ahead.

Walk your kids to school if you can. Bizarre idea? What's bizarre to me is seeing the long line of cars at the front of the school every morning to drop the child right at the door. Can you park a few blocks away and walk at least that distance to school? Once a week maybe? For your kid's sake? 

TV, video games, computer time, there are lots of convenient excuses and pleasant distractions to keep all of us sitting around at home. But speaking from experience, there are lots of equally pleasant distractions outdoors too that are worth exploring at least a few times a week.

Kids have a poor diet? Let them make dinner!

It's a miracle that neither of my children have scurvy. The statistical side of my brain highly doubts they are getting all the vitamins, minerals and fats their growing bodies need from the 3 or 4 items they agree to eat. But amazingly enough, they still have hair and fingernails and teeth and are still outgrowing their clothes. 

I've always had the boys help in the kitchen, stirring flour and baking powder and mixing the eggs and butter, but recently with the cold weather I dusted off the slow cooker and implemented some Child Labour. Time for the 6 and 7 year olds to make dinner.

And yes, I did have an ulterior motive. 

I had a feeling the boys would be more likely than not to eat a dinner they had made entirely on their own.

I suggested a turkey stew, they agreed (thank goodness) and before bed that night they went to work. Out came the slow cooker pot, the knife, chopping board, vegetables, spices, measuring cups and measuring spoons. The 6 year old likes to stand on the stool, the 7 year old prefers to squat like a Bedouin on the counter. They did everything, from measuring the water and spices to chopping the carrots, celery and onions. Pieces were big, mind you, because the vegetable was always secured with a foot at one end while the knife worked away at the other. Once, when the piece of carrot was particularly huge, I told them the pieces had to fit on a spoon so out came a spoon and each severed piece was placed on the spoon before receiving approval and entering the pot. Then they switched and the younger one cut the celery while the older one did the Quality Control. Cutting the onion was not a popular chore and they both decided that would be my role in future. 

And so it went. 

In the morning, I put in the turkey thighs and the youngest turned the slow cooker on Low. There was much discussion on the way to school about having the turkey stew that night. They were both so excited when I made such a big deal over them making dinner.

And the results of this Experiment? First of all, it was absolutely delicious. Other findings: the oldest ate a full bowl; carrots, celery, onion, meat, it all went down like nobody's business. The youngest had the broth and most of the pasta letters. Strides for him, believe me.

And me? Well, statistically speaking the results may not have been significant but I'm feeling better about the odds of their diets improving.

A Peck of Dirt

When we were growing up, we almost never got to stay home from school. There had to be vomit, spots or a temperature over 102F. If one of our friends had the measles, all the Moms were on the phone to each other making arrangements to send their kids over to the sick kids' house to play. Same with chicken pox.

Summertime was spent in bare feet. Oh the joy on the last day of school when the shoes came off for good! Once our soles toughened up, no gravel road could slow us down. Grass, sand, dirt, stones and wonderful mud. All underfoot, all summer long. Feet as black as pitch by September and all the scrubbing in the tub before the first day of school was a ritual that always marked the end of summer.  

In those days there wasn't the obsession with cleanliness that seems to be everywhere today. Lysol spray and handiwipes and disinfectants and sterilizing toys once a week and NEVER eating anything that fell on the floor God forbid. Mom always said we needed our peck of dirt and that was definitely our thought too.

When I designed my own Child Harness, it had to have a long lead so my boys could have all the room they needed to explore the ground beneath their feet. I wanted them to be able to get close to the earth and follow the bugs with their fingers, make patterns in the dirt and pile up the sand at the park. They had to have the freedom to walk a distance away from me and crunch through the fall leaves at the side of the road. Their harnesses kept them with me while they explored our world and acquired their own peck of dirt along the way.

The Importance of Walking

Sometimes re-stating the obvious is a good idea. We all know that walking is an easy and effective form of exercise but how many of us are denying ourselves AND OUR CHILDREN of this simple pleasure? How many of us leave the kids at home and drive around doing our errands because it's easier and faster? And if we take them with us, how many of us CARRY our child to the car, then when we get to where we're going, lock, strap and buckle them into a stroller TO RIDE while we march off behind like their Prison Warden?

Let my kid walk? Are you crazy? They're too slow and it's TOO MUCH WORK TO WATCH THEM!

Walking is a critical and essential part of childhood development. Practicing those gross motor skills gives that young brain a workout far greater than any of us adults can match. A 3 year olds' brain is twice as active as an adults (I read this today in a neurologic magazine). When a child learns to walk, it's a brand new skill for them that's exciting and fun and thrilling to practice! How do you react now when you learn something new? How many hours straight did you play Guitar Hero? What about Wii? Remember the first time you rode a bike without anyone holding onto the back? You didn't want to stop. Ever.

When a child graduates from crawling to walking, it's a new skill that they desperately want to practice. And for the sake of their development, they NEED to practice walking. But unfortunately the trend of denying them this important pleasure is evident everywhere.

Having your child on a Child Harness will not help you do your errands any faster. In fact, it's guaranteed to slow you down. But maybe that's a good thing. Go at your child's pace for a change. Absorb the colours and lights and sounds and smells around you just like your child is doing. Let them walk safely beside you, let them burn off that extra energy, let those neurons in their brains fire away, let them practice their new skills of balancing, walking and running.

And when they get tired, you've got their stroller and their favourite blanket right there waiting.