US Airways - January 2013 - (Page 130)

Must Read less than 3 percent of the injuries studI was horrified. A fact I’d confidently risk assessment. Human beings, as a ied and vastly outnumbered by pencils, rule, are terrible students of probability. passed along to my trusting children musical instruments, toys, sticks, and so As a result, we develop paranoid, nightturned out to be third-hand rumor on. The hospital treated just one lolconfirmed only by a novelist? (A novelist- mare-inducing phobias about the unlipop case every two years, on average. likeliest things (plane crashes, strangers slash-rabbi, but still. And it turns out Meanwhile, the Tootsie Pop company kidnapping our kids) while ignoring far the lollipop injury isn’t in The Chosen, alone makes 20 million lollipops per more pressing risks (heart disease, car anyway. It’s from In the Beginning.) day. I guarantee that lots of those lolaccidents). I’ve used the best statistics What else had I been inadvertently lipops get eaten by kids on the go — available to try to help you gauge the misleading them about? Washing beand yet injuries are rare. So the numrelative risks of different childhood hind their ears? Chewing with their bers suggest that, compared to lots of activities, whether that’s going outside mouths closed? Was our whole life other common day-to-day activities, barefoot or swallowing gum or running together a huge lie? eating-a-lollipop-not-sitting-down isn’t with scissors, but the final decision is That’s the dirty secret of parenting: terribly reckless. There’s a fine line always going to be a judgment call — It’s a big game of Telephone stretching between making kids cautious about like so many other elements of parentback through the centuries and deliverdangerous horseplay and just making ing, an art and not a science. ing garbled, well-intended medieval them panicky about totally bromides to the present. Possible normal stuff, like moving misinformation like the lollipop humans are poor stuaround with a pencil or harthing never gets corrected; it just dents of probability. monica or something in goes into hibernation for a few we develop paranoia their mouths. decades and then jumps out to Parents love their kids, of snare a new generation, like a and phobias about course, and would like to keep 17-year cicada. Parents find themthe unlikeliest things. them safe from everything. selves in these factual blind alleys But even if that were an because they have no other reachievable goal — and it’s not — it Take my mom’s lollipop fear, for source than the dimly remembered might not be great in the long run for example. There is a fair bit of medical 30-year-old lectures of their own the poor kids involved. A 2009 Time research on “pediatric oropharyngeal childhoods. magazine cover package on “helicopter trauma,” which is what doctors call it Until now! In this book, I’ve comparents” followed the first wave of hyperwhen kids bash up their mouths on piled 125 of the nagging Mom- and cushioned, overparented American some foreign object. A 2006 study out Dad-isms that we all grew up with, and children into adulthood, and the results of Edmonton estimated that fully 1 then I’ve meticulously researched the were depressing: mommy webcams in percent of childhood injuries are oroscientific evidence behind them. On college dorms, employers like Ernst & pharyngeal traumas, and another study some, I’m happy to deliver a clear-cut Young preparing “parent packets” for from Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital verdict one way or another: either conthe pushy parents of new twenty-somefound that puncture wounds were infirming them as “True” or debunking thing hires. By trying to protect our kids deed common outcomes. Twenty-nine them as “False.” More often, though, from every little thing, we may have percent of the injuries were serious: a the truth falls somewhere in between: created a generation of kids and young large laceration, or a fistula (eww) or true with an “if,” false with a “but.” adults who don’t feel confident about mucosal flap (don’t know what that is, Some of these parental clichés turn out anything. So the risks need to be meabut double eww). Brain damage and to be accidentally right for the wrong death are extremely rare complications, sured against the rewards. What if reason (see “Eat your crusts, that’s there’s a 0.95 percent chance that a kid but both have happened. where the vitamins are!” on page 90 who bikes to school will get in a wreck, So clearly I was justified in telling or “Never wake a sleepwalker!” on but a 95 percent chance that a kid my son to sit down while finishing his page 165). Others are time-tested and lollipop, right? Well, maybe and maybe who’s not allowed to bike to school will unimpeachably sensible . . . but still grow up more tentative, complacent, not. The Pittsburgh study also notes don’t always hold up well in real life that most cases are minor and heal with lazy, and/or unhappy, because riding (see “Don’t talk to strangers!” on page no medical intervention at all, and then your bike to school is awesome? I feel 57). So there are plenty of “Mostly runs down the items that are most likely like those percentages might not be False” and “Possibly True” verdicts in that far off. to cause this kind of trauma. Lollipops here as well. So I hope this book serves as a reality were one of the rarest culprits, causing Much of the gray area is a matter of 130 january 2013 usairwaysmag.com http://www.usairwaysmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of US Airways - January 2013

US Airways - January 2013
Table of Contents
CEO Letter
From the Editor
Did You Know?
Making It Happen
Hot Spots: Fantasy Trips
Hub Crawl: Boston Logan International Airport
Wine & Dine: Martinis
Adventure: Scotland Golf
Adventure: Skiing Whistler Blackcomb
Great Escapes: Quintero Golf Club
Gear Up: Pet Gifts
Travel Feature: Aruba — Little Island, Big Presence
US Airways Vacations
Celebrate San Francisco
The Cactus League
Must Read: Because I Said So!
Great Dates
Puzzles
Readers Resource Index
Your US Airways Guide
Video Entertainment
Audio Entertainment
U.S. and Caribbean Service Map
International Service Map
Airport Terminal Maps
US Airways Fleet/Customs & Immigration
Passenger Info/Contact US Airways
US Airways MarketPlace®
Window or Aisle?

US Airways - January 2013