Little Fingers

Maclaren recalled a ton of their strollers today because a handful of toddlers lost their little fingers. This story makes me sad for those children and families that it happened to, but it also makes me mad. Jason and I went to the Renaissance Festival with Abby and this same thing almost happened to us. We opened our Maclaren stroller for Abby to get into, but when she started to crawl into it herself we noticed that it started closing on her (not locked open). We opened the stroller so that she wouldn't fall and immediately she started screaming. When we closed the stroller again her little pinkie fingers were pretty much flat. We were sure she we had broken her fingers or that she would have permanent damage. It was really scary and we felt like the worst parents ever!

We were lucky because after a few minutes, she was able to move her fingers and we were pretty sure she would be okay... but not all of the children were this lucky. Now I'm torn with whether I should feel mad at the stroller company or not. The thought had not even occurred to me until I heard this news report. Part of me thinks that the company would have had no way to know that this was going to happen... but I guess a children's company should do additional tests for things like this. And it turns out that someone that was mad at the company caused the company (and hopefully other children's product companies) to do tests like these and ensure that everyone that has the product with the problem would have a solution.

To be mad or not to be... that is the question.