NotiPR :: That's All Folks! :: Scare The HELL Out Of Your Kids -- And They May Just Live Longer

4.1.05

Scare The HELL Out Of Your Kids -- And They May Just Live Longer

By Keith W. Tyras Romanello 2004: 10.22 10.29 11.5 11.12 11.19 11.26 12.3 12.10 12.17 12.24 12.31

2005: 1.7 1.14 1.21 1.28 2.4 2.11 2.18 2.25 3.4 3.11 3.18 3.25 4.8 4.15 4.22 4.29 5.6 5.13 5.20 5.27 6.3 6.10 6.17 6.24 7.1 7.8 7.15 7.22 7.29 8.5 8.12 8.19 8.26 9.2

You will NEVER SEE someone young, either a baby, a toddler, a child or a teen, standing on the corner of any street, handing out $200 in one-dollar bills they received for their birthday or Christmas to total strangers.

You will NEVER SEE someone young, either a baby, a toddler, a child or a teen, standing in the courtyard of their school, asking students and teachers walking past them to stop for a moment or two and beat the crap out of them.

You will NEVER SEE someone young, either a baby, a toddler, a child or a teen, sitting down at the dinner table with their parent, parents or family, eating an entire stick of butter for their individual meal, consuming an entire bottle of ketchup or barbeque sauce or emptying a full shaker of salt, pepper or sugar onto their plate, then consuming it completely for their individual meal.

Only in the RAREST CASES will you hear about either a toddler, a child or a teen taking a live hairdryer into a bathtub or shower, attempting to blow dry their hair while standing or sitting in water.

Our goal as parents is to NEVER SEE -- and be satisfied, for the moment, with the RAREST CASES -- working at full throttle, as a team to achieve a goal of 100% NEVER SEE.

From the youngest ages there is something that virtually every parent has in common. These are things that we teach our children from the earliest ages, UNTIL SUCH A TIME as we are CONVINCED BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT that our children have ABSORBED what is being said to them and REASONABLY CERTAIN that THEY GET IT and IT is etched in their minds, so that if they NEVER AGAIN hear it from you, they will not only go on throughout their own lives NEVER ATTEMPTING to do IT, BUT WILL ALSO teach their own children the same valuable LIFE lessons.

When I was a little kid, I would regularly visit my grandparent's apartment in Brooklyn on Lorimer Street. Back in the 1960s, the apartments in that area had large kitchens and very small bathrooms. The bathtub was directly next to the sink in the kitchen. When it was not used as a bathtub, a wooden countertop covered it and it was used for food preparation.

Because it was directly next to the kitchen sink area, there were electrical outlets in the wall, for a toaster or other appliances. Anyone could easily reach this outlet while sitting in the bathtub. For a child taking a bath, an adult would have to be right there EVERY SECOND.

My grandmother would literally SCARE THE HELL OUT OF ME, telling me in brief-but-graphic detail, exactly what would happen to me if I were to touch anything on the countertop while in the water. I never, for even one minute, considered doing anything I was WARNED NOT TO DO.

To this day, I am extremely careful with electricity and the dangers of ACCIDENTALLY being electrocuted. Since my children were toddlers, they received the same LIFE lesson from me.

I am certainly NOT a mental health professional -- so whatever I am mentioning is simply the way I was raised and how I choose to raise my children. The only thing I am VERY sure of, is that kids, no matter how young, can take an awful lot -- as long as they believe what they are being told is the absolute truth.

I would much rather have a kid who GROWS UP with -rational or irrational- fears of certain dangers in life than NOT GROW UP AT ALL because of some PREVENTABLE catastrophe occurring that cuts their life short.

As children begin to grow up and eventually do grow up, the most potentially CATASTROPHIC dangers they will face in life MOVE QUICKLY from inside the home to the streets, roads, highways and expressways we all travel on.

Every time I get in the car with my kids, I say the same thing to them I have said whether they were 4-years-old, 9-years-old, 13-years-old or 18-years-old -- I yell out "SEATBELTS GENTLEMEN!" or "¡CINTURONES!"

Only about 2 or 3 times in their lives, have I found them not having AUTOMATICALLY fastened their own seatbelts before I yelled out what clearly annoys them, hearing the same thing time-after-time and before I placed the car in gear and proceeded to drive.

This has not occurred in many years. They fasten their seatbelts like clockwork. They do this because they know IN GRAPHIC TERMS what can easily HAPPEN TO THEM if we are ever involved in a car accident.

My kids realize that they can NEVER ride in the front of the car until they reach their 12th birthday -- just like the WARNING MESSAGE states on every drivers-side visor of every vehicle.

My kids realize that they can NEVER talk to me while they I am driving -- unless it is URGENT. I tell them that this SIMPLE RULE can prevent an accident.

My kids realize that MANY TIMES we drive A LOT SLOWER than other people. It doesn't mean that they are really cool and we are not. They realize that when we drive the CORRECT speed limit or a just few miles above the speed limit and others pass us going 10 or 20 or 30 miles an hour faster than we are, it's NOT because our car doesn't have balls or because their dad is an asshole -- JUST THE OPPOSITE.

Being crushed to death, disfigured or enduring a lifetime of paralysis IS NEVER COOL -- and too many kids WORRY about being COOL -- and to those kids, driving fast and making a car's powerful engine be seen and heard is too often the rule rather than the exception.

My kids realize that when we have an appointment and arrive earlier than scheduled and have to wait many times, we do so because we PLANNED our trip and did not RUSH wherever we are headed off to -- because we left late and did not allow ourselves enough time to get there -- driving the legal speed limit and ANTICIPATING the POTENTIAL for heavy traffic.

My kids notice MANY people who drive badly on the road and more or less critique their driving skills. They realize that IT BENEFITS US to be polite and let others go first, ESPECIALLY when others INSIST in getting there way on the road. I tell my kids that WHEN OTHERS SEEM TO GET THEIR OWN WAY ON THE ROAD -- WE WIN, because we are less likely to be involved in a car accident.

Since I began driving 30 years ago, I have so far, luckily, NOT been involved in any car accident I was guilty of causing. In 30 years, I have received ONE moving violation ticket for speeding. When I got my drivers license at age 16, one of my first trips was to the library to work on a report for school. Two blocks before I reached the Syosset Public Library, I was stopped by a policeman and given a speeding ticket for driving 40 MPH in a 35 MPH zone.

I lost my newly acquired PRIVILEGE for 60 days. I was pissed off like you could not imagine. It was so embarrassing to tell my friends and especially my parents why I was TEMPORARILY UNABLE TO DRIVE.

I have never, so far, received another speeding ticket. I LEARNED MY LESSON! Not all of my friends, unfortunately, learned from MY mistake. Too many of them went on to BIGGER and WORSE things. My children know all about those things -- I'll spare you those details. The way I see it, when a parent scares the HELL out of their kids -- chances are LESS LIKELY their lives will become a LIVING HELL.

Besides all the things the government can do to prevent tragedies from occurring as often as they do -- AND THE GOVERNMENT CAN DEFINITELY DO A LOT MORE THAN THEY ARE CURRENTLY DOING -- every parent can, AND MUST, do their part. It will take what seems to be a lifetime to accomplish, but what will ultimately be accomplished is WELL WORTH the alternative -- a lifetime of WHAT IFS.

According to a poll and study released late last year, written about this week by Matthew Hay Brown of the Orlando Sentinel, Puerto Ricans rank #1 as the happiest people in the world. As I've written in the past, regarding THE REAL Puerto Rico -- this poll just confirms what I have always known. The nicest people anywhere are usually happy people anywhere as well. The two go hand-in-hand. In the article, Hay Brown quotes Lily García:

«"The Latin temperament is to be very optimistic in many ways," said Lily García, a radio and television-show host, newspaper columnist and motivational speaker here. "You give Latin Americans open space and music and a drink in our hands, and we're happy...»

I have to agree 100% with Lily García. Give anyone all the open space in the world and they will become the happiest people in the world. Give anyone all the music in the world and they will become the happiest people in the world. Give anyone all the drinks in the world and they will become the happiest people in the world -- as long as the drinks are non-alcoholic. When ANYONE, ANYWHERE consumes too many alcoholic drinks -- THEY NEVER BECOME HAPPY and most likely weren't too happy before they consumed the first of many alcoholic drinks.

I'm CERTAINLY NOT an expert in aerodynamics, crime prevention or anything else that would be considered overly complicated -- but I am VERY CERTAIN that when a car flies 100 MPH into a cement wall, off a bridge, down a ravine or into another motor vehicle or a pedestrian -- NOT ONE PERSON IS HAPPY AT THAT POINT and most likely MANY beyond those killed, affected by the event, will NEVER be COMPLETELY HAPPY again.

In many ways, Puerto Rico is VERY fortunate to be located exactly where it is, when it comes to driving safety. Puerto Rico will never have to contend with out-of-state drunk, drugged or distracted drivers, meaning people driving their cars directly from one state over a bridge to the Island. Puerto Rico also doesn't have to contend with treacherous winter driving conditions. What Puerto Rico needs to do is create the most severe traffic laws in the world, with fines so incredibly high that the average person would have to opt for the 10-year, monthly payment plan -- paying a little each month -- reminding them that W-RECKLESS and IRRESPONSIBLE driving will NOT BE TOLERATED.

The worst thing that will happen is that EVERYONE who drives responsibly will applaud the safer roads and those who realize there isn't much of a chance they could conform to these strict standards will MOVE OUT OF PUERTO RICO -- not missed at all, ready to do some damage somewhere else. There really is no down-side to this.

In my commentary next week, I'll list a series of COMMON SENSE solutions in curbing the number of car accidents -- fatal or otherwise -- including, but not limited to, MUCH STRICTER LAWS, HEFTY FINES, LONG-TERM, CONTINUING DRIVERS EDUCATION beginning in kindergarten and an UPDATED, credit card-type "GOOD CONDUCT" card that will DENY certain individuals access to purchasing alcoholic beverages along with its many other uses that will GREATLY IMPROVE our community.

There is only so much ANY parent can do. No matter how hard someone ATTEMPTS to drive safely -- complete success is NEVER guaranteed for ANYONE. Whether you live in a multi-million dollar home or a wooden shack, ANYONE at ANY TIME can lose their life in a car accident, whether it is their fault or the fault of someone else.

A real car accident occurs when someone does EVERYTHING possible to prevent such an event. When someone drives fast, drunk, drugged or distracted -- IT'S NEVER AN ACCIDENT, IT'S EITHER A DEATHWISH OR MURDER.

Well, that's all folks! Until next Friday.

Keith

For motivational speeches, conferences, media requests and other things such as eating disorders, you'll have to contact someone else. My only qualifications for writing a weekly column are based solely upon having a lot of free time, unlimited Internet access and very little else.