Child Safety vs. Parent Safety
Christina Mendat - Former Staffer / Consumer Products / Human Factors / UsabilityCompanies go to very great lengths to design and develop the latest and greatest child products such as child safety seats, strollers, and other contraptions. Parents feed this development by wanting to provide their children with the best in safety. Given all of these products, our children are probably the safest they have ever been. It is great that our children are so safe and snug, but what about the parents?
I would venture to say that many parents experience a number of injuries that can be a result of these products. As a mom of two young boys (not to mention my small size), I can attest to having suffered a number of injuries from loading and unloading children, installing child safety seats, and handling of single and double strollers. There are a number of newer products on the market that claim to be lighter and “ergonomic” but these usually come with a very large price tag (and are, many times, unsightly).
Why can’t we protect the parents as much as we do the children? Children are resilient, us old farts… not so much.
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Ismael Rosa, II
I am a user interface designer. I was just wondering the same thing not to long ago. I was in the process of loading my 7 month into her car seat on my way to my doctors appointment for an aggravated wrist. I believe it is a repetitive stress injury due in part to loading and unloading the child safety seat into and out of the vehicle.
Child safety is paramount. This goes without saying. Who will take care of the child when the parent is injured? I dread the thought of being rendered “parent-ineffective”, if you will, due to a product made with my child’s safety in mind (solely).
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