- ‹ previous
- 5 of 1494
- next ›
Maclaren Strollers Chop off Baby Fingers? Hey, Whatev.
We're officially in Day 4 of the Maclaren stroller recall, and it's abundantly clear that far too few parents have gotten the message. In case you haven't heard (or are not a multitasking metro-mommy or -daddy) fancy pants British baby-stuff maker Maclaren has recalled every single stroller it has sold since 1999 for this compelling reason: Their hinges amputate little baby fingers. Twelve little baby fingers in America so far, to be exact. In fact, the New York Post (guardian of truth that it is) reported today that Maclaren knew of the defect for five years—five—before issuing a recall. Parents have been surprisingly nonchalant, while nonparents (like me, for instance) seem to have been gripped by news that the decade's must-have child accessory is actually evil. Brooklyn alone is swimming in schadenfreude.
But back to the parents for a second: What's wrong with you people? The New York Times' City Room blog reported on Wednesday that pram-pushers in Park Slope, the Big Apple's de facto Maclaren capital, were utterly uninterested in the recall and the easy-to-install safety kits that render their pricey strollers harmless. We know the risks, they blithely told the Times. I'll take my chances. But that's New York for you, right?
Wrong! This morning in sunny (and fiercely overprotective and neurotic) San Francisco, during my pre-coffee commute, I was confronted by the same devil-may-care-about-junior's-appendages attitude. Specifically, a newbie dad struggling to juggle his his precious 15-month-old, North Face backpack, and $200 Maclaren stroller as he boarded the train. Long story short, I ended up with the stroller between my knees while the happy ten-fingered baby babbled on about the scenery and waved incessantly at every stranger, and I bit through my tongue so as not to blurt out the *ahem* risks associated with that naked hinge. Finally, it was too much to bear.
"You heard there's a recall on this stroller, right?"
The man laughed. He had.
"How did you hear about it?"
Eye roll.
Was he planning to get the safety cover?
Eh, maybe.
Maybe?
"I mean," he replied, "she's got ten of 'em."
He was kidding. But still.
Darwin's Rainbow
Parents like that are the reason the term "Yuppie Scum" was coined in the first place.
Is this post serious? Did
Is this post serious?
Did you expect all strollers to be fixed or taken off the street in four days?
How many of these strollers have been sold? How many fingers injured? What would you expect rational parents to make of those odds?
Is MoJo for robotic responses from the citizen, or for citizens acting rationally and responsibly based on the information they heard.
And the parent in the article doesn't even fit the description you give:
YOU: it's abundantly clear that far too few parents have gotten the message.
PARENT: Yes I heard of it, how did you hear of it?
So you write the parents haven't heard, you interview one, exactly one parent, and guess what, he had heard.
In response, you give a snobbish, elitist, dismissive, disrespectful, "EYE ROLL"
I think you have issues Sonja.
chillax
Maybe you need some reading glasses. I never said parents haven't heard about the recall. In fact, I said just the opposite--that they HAVE heard about it and DON'T CARE. These are the same parents who flip their lids if their kid has a drop of corn syrup or goes outside wearing anything less than a spacesuit-level SPF. It's incredibly easy to order and install the fix for this problem, and, after teaching preschool for the better part of a decade, i can promise it's possible to live without your ultra-performance stroller for 3-5 days while UPS bungles your order. I'm not a snob, i just care about kids a little more than i care about stylish child-accessories, which, in my experience, is not true of many parents.
ha! unbelievable. and yet,
ha! unbelievable. and yet, there wil be some sort of lawsuit about it next. that's what we do now in this country right? with the standards we have now for what parents and children 'must have' i wonder how anyone grew up before 1901.
Research? Fact check?
Research? Fact check? anyone?
Is the New York post really the "guardian of truth?"
Is San Francisco really "fiercely overprotective and neurotic?"
Are the parents that "KNOW" and DON'T CARE," really the same ones that, "flip their lids if their kid has a drop of corn syrup or goes outside wearing anything less than a spacesuit-level SPF."
I'm all for a little editorializing for the sake of readability and humor, but come on, if this is half as serious as you suggest then your tactics seem misguided.
And while you're "not a snob," isn't it possible that despite how, "incredibly easy to order and install the fix for this problem [is]," that people may simply have other priorities through the course of the day, and fixing a stroller within four days of a recall isn't one of them?
As a non-parent myself, I can't say I'm as "gripped by news that the decade's must-have child accessory is actually evil," but have great sympathy for someone whose life can be so absorbed by such a social injustice.
Eye roll.