2 minute read
Trying not to lose our minds FOR THE KIDS
To keep my mind off the frightening prospect that school will end a month early for my kids and how I will keep them busy, I scroll through listicals like the worst designs Reddit has found. There seems to be a lot of empirical evidence proving boredom isn’t the worst thing that can happen to kids, from terrifying (and incorrect?) speech therapy diagrams to poison packets.
I’m not really worried my kids will be bored. I am worried they aren’t going to get any exercise this year. Considering how much everyone likes to game, though, we can swap out fi nishing homework for completing exercises. That has to be better than sand basketball or swings that face each other.
POOR DESIGN CHOICES
It seems in the rush to get hand sanitizer in kids backpacks, Smart Care used packaging designed for food purees. I saw the picture here on a listical of bad designs and noticed the paramedic uniform, so I had to Google it. A mom in Canada bought Trolls World Tour hand sanitizer for her stepdaughter’s backpack, but the child’s grandma mistook it for a snack, giving it to her 18-moth-old brother. He swallowed a bunch of the gel before she realized the mistake she’d made.
ABC News reached out to Smart Care, which revealed the product was “immediately removed from retail.” Anyone who has swallowed hand sanitizer is urged to contact Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
Meanwhile, more search results included a warning to parents as boy, 3, accidentally sets himself on fi re while playing with hand sanitizer and a lighter. And “sand basketball” led to another gel in food puree packaging. Base gel is meant to weigh down portable basketball hoops. Do not consume.
HAUNTING
While sand basketball and facing swings look like they came out of bad dreams, IKEA is offering up step-bysteps that trick you into entering a harsh reality. Their dynamic gallery wall is no big deal—just three steps, including don’t move the furniture. Ha! I actually think I like the wall better when it’s the brown placeholders. This will keep fl oating around in my subconscious as one more thing I ought to be accomplishing in quarantine.
