IF YOU READ ONE THING IN MY BLOG THIS YEAR, LET IT BE THIS ENTRY!
A video is making the rounds that you need to see if you have furniture in your home...
Horrible. That kiddo is lucky he didn't end up severely hurt or dead.
Furniture topples like this are a very common problem. It's so common that IKEA has an awareness campaign about it. And it's not just kids getting squashed by unsecured furniture... it's pets and adults as well. When I bought my new IKEA furniture, every dresser and shelf unit came with an anchoring kit and instructions to get others for FREE if you had older IKEA furniture that didn't come with a kit. For any non-IKEA furniture, anchoring kits are available at many hardware stores for a nominal fee.
I took them seriously and secured every unit in my home. I do not want a curious kitty getting squished!
And if you're thinking "Well, yeah... of course cheap, lightweight IKEA crap is going to fall over... I bought real furniture so that won't happen to me!" then you need to know you're wrong. Enough weight in a drawer (like a child!) can tip any unit... because leverage. In fact, heavy furniture is just more weight to land on somebody and cause more damage. And if you live in an earthquake zone, then you should know that your unsecured furniture could be toppled by even mild tremors... regardless of how heavy it is.
So... if you're into New Year resolutions, make one to secure your furniture so this doesn't happen to you... your kid... your pets... or anybody who enters your home!
Be safe, everybody!
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You know what? When I saw that video my first instinct (besides “phew, lucky guys”) was what kind of idiots their parents obviously are. Not only didn’t they secure the cabinet properly, but also not add child-safe locks to the drawers. I mean, how ignorant can you be to put this kind of furniture unsecured in a child sleeping room?
The longer footage including the actual toppling is even more horrifying as you really realize how much luck the one kid stuck under the cabinet had. He was pretty much inside the drawer that was pushed in when it toppled…
http://www.spiegel.de/video/ueberwachungsvideo-kommode-kippt-zwilling-befreit-bruder-video-1732184.html
Hopefully, the parents will also reconsider keeping electical appliances connected to wall outlets in their kid room. Everything from strangulation to electrocution comes to mind when you see the toddler playing with the device…
Sheesh, people. 🙁
And then there’s rumors this was staged somehow. Don’t know how that would work… but the message is still a good one. And I definitely agree about the electrical appliances!