If you like your child's toes, DON'T let them wear Crocs!

Got Crocs? Be Careful on the Escalator
By SARAH KARUSH Associated Press Writer
Sep 17th, 2007 | WASHINGTON --

At rail stations and shopping malls around the world, reports are popping up of people, particularly young children,
getting their toes caught in escalators. The one common theme seems to be the clunky soft-soled clogs known by the name of the most popular brand, Crocs.
One of the nation's largest subway systems _ the Washington Metro _ has even posted ads warning riders about wearing such shoes on its moving stairways. The ads feature a photo of a crocodile, though they don't mention Crocs by name.

Four-year-old Rory McDermott got a Croc-clad foot caught in an escalator last month at a mall in northern Virginia. His mother managed to yank him free, but the nail on his big toe was almost completely ripped off, causing heavy bleeding.
At first, Rory's mother had no idea what caused the boy's foot to get caught. It was only later, when someone at the hospital remarked on Rory's shoes, that she began to suspect the Crocs and did an Internet search. "I came home and typed in 'Croc' and 'escalator,' and all these stories came up," said Jodi McDermott, of Vienna, Va. "If I had known, those would never have been worn."

According to reports appearing across the United States and as far away as Singapore and Japan, entrapments occur because of two of the biggest selling points of shoes like Crocs: their flexibility and grip. Some report the shoes get caught in the "teeth" at the bottom or top of the escalator, or in the crack between the steps and the side of the escalator. The reports of serious injuries have all involved young children. Crocs are commonly worn by children as young as 2. The company introduced shoes in its smallest size, 4/5, this past spring.
Niwot, Colo.-based Crocs Inc. said it does not keep records of the reasons for customer-service calls. But the company said it is aware of "very few" problems relating to accidents involving the shoes, which are made of a soft, synthetic resin. "Thankfully, escalator accidents like the one in Virginia are rare," the company said in a statement.

In Japan, the government warned consumers last week that it has received 39 reports of sandals _ mostly Crocs or similar products _ getting stuck in escalators from late August through early September. Most of the reports appear to have involved small children, some as young as two years old. Kazuo Motoya of Japan's National Institute of Technology and Evaluation said
children may have more escalator accidents in part because they "bounce around when they stand on escalators, instead of watching where they place their feet."

In Singapore, a 2-year-old girl wearing rubber clogs _ it's unclear what brand _ had her big toe completely ripped off in an escalator accident last year, according to local media reports.

And at the Atlanta airport, a 3-year-old boy wearing Crocs suffered a deep gash across the top of his toes in June. That was one of seven shoe entrapments at the airport since May 1, and all but two of them involved Crocs, said Roy Springer, operations manager for the company that runs the airport terminal.

One U.S. retailer that caters to children, Mattel subsidiary American Girl, has posted signs in three locations directing customers wearing Crocs or flip-flop sandals to use elevators instead of escalators.

During the past two years, so-called "shoe entrapments" in the Washington subway have gone from being relatively rare to happening four or five times a week in the summer, though none has caused serious injuries, said Dave Lacosse, who oversees the subway's 588 escalators, the most of any U.S. transit system.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said escalator accidents caused more than 10,000 injuries last year, but the agency has few records of specific shoe problems. Only two shoe entrapments have been reported by consumers since the beginning of 2006. One reported in May involved "rubber footwear."
Agency spokesman Ed Kang urged people who have had problems to report them on the commission's Web site.
Crocs officials said they were working with the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation on public education initiatives. But the group's executive director, Barbara Allen, said that's not true.
Allen said a Crocs official called her in September 2006 about possible cooperation, even suggesting the company might put a tag in its shoes with the foundation's Web address. But since that first contact, Crocs has not called, and nobody from the company will return Allen's calls, she said.

Washington Metro's Lacosse and other escalator experts say the best way to prevent shoe entrapments is to face the direction the stairs are moving, keep feet away from the sides and step over the teeth at the end.
Lacosse, of the Washington subway system, said he is personally skittish of Crocs and other soft-soled shoes.
"Would I wear them? No," he said. "And I tell my children not to wear them
either."

privacy locks and getting in

Tonight, my 15 month old son locked himself in the bathroom. Let me give you a little background on this lock. This is a lock that has NEVER worked and has kept me from having a bath by myself since my older daughter, now four, was about 2.... Those evenings when you think “Ah- a bath would be so nice” just add “with a toddler who wants to play Barbie and squirting ducks." That lock has always irritated me for that very reason. So, tonight of all nights, the door decides to lock and no way is it gonna open because, darn it, it has waited a long time for this moment. My poor little one was banging on the door and crying to get out.
My first thought was- How long has he been in there? And then, after turning the knob back and forth, jiggling it, and shaking it, I start to panic thinking "oh my god, he is going to get some nervous condition from being locked in and when he is 16 will freak out in an elevator etc....." All the while I can’t believe that the door is locked and if I shake it enough it will unlock.

Welll..Most bathroom doors with those interior locks and slit openings on the outside (known as privacy doors when you read the box at Home Depot) can be opened with a FLAT HEAD screwdriver. Of course, I forgot all about this and decided the best way to get in was with a variety of things ranging from a paperclip to a hammer and chisel.
yyyeah..that doesn't work. What it does do though is cause hysterics from the other side of the door.

Click- low wattage lightbulb goes on in my dim head. I called my neighbor-a contractor- and he came over and opened it in about 1.8 seconds- maybe even less.

So now I have a door jamb that is basically destroyed and a door that will need to be repainted and filled in some places.

I am feeling a mixture of totally stupid and thinking it is pretty funny.
Just last night, I figured out how to change the shower valve in the other bathroom after it flew off the shower wall, spraying water everywhere. Changing a shower valve is much easier then remembering how to open a privacy lock when your little one is crying on the other side. Actually, changing the valve is surprisingly easy by the way...really... but required turning off water supply and going to Home Depot at 11pm while helicopters hovered over my house because of criminal activity in the area. Anyway- It is funny how one's brain can go all mushy in certain situations and figure things out in others.
So remember- Privacy locks and flat head screwdriver. Repeat this to yourself several times.
AND if you should need to change a shower valve, all you need is a screwdriver, a special shower faucet wrench and a obviously, new valve. The guys at Home Depot are very helpful at 11pm.

-SBH

Boys will be boys

RAISING MALE CHILDREN
a) For those with no children - this is totally
hysterical!
b) For those who already have children past this age,
this is
hilarious.
c) For those who have children this age, this is not
funny.
d) For those who have children nearing this age, this
is a warning.
e) For those who have not yet had children, there is
birth control.


The following came from an anonymous Mother in Austin,
Texas...
THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM MY BOYS (and not kidding):


1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a
2000 sq. ft.
house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run
over them with
rollerblades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults
in a crowded
restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the
motor is not strong
enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman
underwear and a
Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied
to a paint can, to spread
paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling
fan is on. When using
a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up
a few times before you
get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long
way.

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't
stop a baseball hit
by a ceiling fan.

7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh
oh," it's already too late.

8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and
lots of it.

9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint
rock even though a
36-year old Man says they can only do it in the
movies.

10.) Certain Legos will pass through the digestive
tract of a 4-year old boy.

11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in
the same sentence.

12.) Super glue is forever.

13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming
pool you still can't
walk on water.

14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

15.) VCRs do not eject "P B &J" sandwiches even
though TV commercials show they do.

16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when
driving.

18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor
is.

19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on;
plastic toys do not
like ovens.

20.) The fire department in Tampa, FL has a 5-minute
response time.

21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not
make earthworms dizzy.

22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.

23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

24.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the
Clorox and brake fluid.

25.) Women will pass this on to almost all of their
friends, with or without children!