A hotel in Scotland reports that the weirdest thing that guests left behind this year was a 4 year old boy. Apparently, the boy’s parents had a family party to attend, and were completely flustered on their way out of the hotel. When they realized they were missing their flesh and blood, they turned right around in panic and back to the hotel room where they found their son - still playing with his toys, and none the wiser (which is a good thing.)

I refuse to go tsk tsk here. Just yesterday, we went on a family picnic to a nearby wildlife park with my husband’s entire family. There were 4 cars and every time we stopped for a toilet break, the kids would change cars. When we left at around 6 pm, it was getting pretty dark, and in all the flurry of getting back, I began to panic that my son wasn’t in any of the cars. A couple of high decibel hysteria packed minutes later, we got out, took a roll call, found my son in one of the other cars, and were then on our way. Happy ending, thankfully!
I don’t find it strange that they had a momentary attack of amnesia where their son was concerned - it happens to the best of us. What I found weird was that they didn’t realize he was missing even when they were in their car, and starting off!

Back to the story, and what other things have people been leaving behind in hotel rooms? I love this one - an urn full of ashes.

I am guessing someone didn’t want her mother in law sitting on her mantle.

Continuing with yesterday’s topic - toy recalls- here’s a round up of some new recalls that have been announced in the last week.

• Sears is recalling more than 6000 pairs of TKS Brand children’s pants sold from July to August this year at Sears stores nationwide for about $16 each. The reason? A ribbon belt around the waist has been found to “cause entrapment hazards.”
• About 64,000 holiday figurines including plastic snowmen and bears imported from (where else?) China have been recalled because they have been found tainted with (what else?) lead paint. These were sold at Home Depot stores from October through November this year.
• About 13,000 girls’ clothing sets consisting of mainly olive cord knit pants and pink short sleeved tops of the Basic Edition brand have been recalled, also because of entrapment or entanglement hazards from the drawstring of the pants. These were sold at K-Mart stores nationwide during this July.
• About 1400 collectible helmets, again imported from China have been recalled because the surface of these helmets contains a high amount of lead. These helmets resemble those worn by race car drivers, and were sold at Bell Racing dealers through out this year.

Be happy, and be safe!

With 2007 being something of a record year as far as toy recalls are concerned, you’re probably still worried about the kind of gifts you can choose for your child. And a little caution is definitely not out of line when it comes to toy safety. I don’t believe there is any need for paranoia, but most of the toys that contain loose small magnets may still be on shelves when you go shopping this year.

This summer, Mattel recalled more than 8 million toys because of the presence of little magnets which were prone to coming loose, and posed a very real danger because they could be easily ingested by toddlers and preschoolers.

After Mattel’s high profile recall, the toy industry decided to formulate guidelines for the manufacture of toys that contained loose magnets. The guidelines include having labels on the covers warning parents that the toys contained magnets, and manufacturing safer toys that would eliminate the possibility of magnets coming loose.

The only hitch? These guidelines won’t come into effect till January 2008, which means that these toys will still be on toy store shelves through this holiday season.

If you have both older kids and toddlers at home, you might want to reconsider buying toys with magnets for your older children. Most of the kids who got sick because of ingesting magnets were preschoolers and toddlers, not older children. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to prevent the older ones handing over these toys to the toddler in the house.  In fact, in many cases where toddlers were rushed to the ER after ingesting a loose magnet, the toys in question were handed to them by a sibling. Definitely gives you something to think about.

So, what are you doing to take care of toy safety?