Protecting the future

I've read several articles about the declining birth rate in Japan. Basically, women are waiting until later and later in life to get married and have kids. The problem is that within a relatively short period of time, the number of elderly will outweigh the number of workers. At this point, the burden of a socialist health care system is so extreme can it can trigger economic collapse.

Thus, the Japanese are trying to figure out ways to encourage more women to marry earlier and have children. While, this is certainly necessary, I'm a bit puzzled. Shouldn't there also be a great deal of focus on protecting the ones that already exist.

What on earth am I talking about?, you wonder as I step on my soapbox.

I am generally appalled at the number of kids I see in situations that just make me cringe. While I am never one to tell someone how to parent, that doesn't stop me from physically wincing when I see someone doing something I consider really stupid. It's especially bad when there's an easy remedy that is readily available.

"What on earth am I talking about?," you wonder as you try to coax me off my soapbox.

Car seats. This isn't rocket science. Car seats protect kids. The leading cause of injury in kids is car accidents. Car seats keep them safer. Why is it then that I see FAR more kids sitting in a lap, playing in the floor, even driving?!?!?! in mom's lap here than I have in the US? The US certainly isn't burdened with a birth rate problem, but we are really pushing the protection of our kids via car seats.

The other thing we realized is that seats alone don't make it safe. They have to be in the right place. It kills me to see parents riding around with infant carriers rear facing in the front seat. Especially since, like the US, most of these cars do have passenger air bags.

Granted, I rode in my grandmother's lap in the back seat with her "hand belt" a lot as a kid. It wasn't a big deal. I also distinctly remember flying to the front of the car and bashing my head on the gear shift when my dad slammed on the brakes one day. I remember the huge goose egg on my head. These days I realize how lucky I am that's all I had and why my dad was pretty shaken up by it. It wasn't safe for me to ride like that. My dad knew it. It was what was done when laws weren't enforced.

This is what really gets me, though. That's where Japan is today. They have laws. No one pays attention to them. No one enforces them. For a technologically advanced society, that seems really backwards.