The Right Way to Make Unsafe Choices

I am so excited that my new friend (who feels like an old friend), Gila from aliyahbyaccident.blogspot.co.il mentioned me and my blog in her blog.  I have been reading Gila's blog for around two years and she doesn't disappoint.  In fact, hers is the only blog I read on a regular basis.  Recently, we actually spent a Shabbat with her family and all the different counterparts got along.  Isn't it great when that happens.  Anyway, I mostly started this blog for my mom and my friend Ilene (who came up with the name for oysandjoys) but if any readers from accident want to join--you are very welcome.  I may  have just set a world record for using the word blog in a 5 sentence paragraph.

So do other parents ever get the feeling that the message you may be trying to send just isn't getting received?  I feel like I try to emphasize safety with my children especially since my career involves dealing with a lot of the aftermath of unsafe choices (generally mixed with alcohol, but still . . .)   When Ariella was a baby she used to find tiny little objects in the house, put them in her mouth and then bring them to me and say "choking hazard."  You know all the times I had taken something small out of her mouth and warned her about choking hazards somehow got mixed up in her mind.  We were never able to fix that one.

Today I discovered Ariella blending two phenomena with which our Israel experience has thus far graced us:  Bicycle safety and stone floors.

Well, bicycle safety has always been a big theme for us, and our children, including Ariella, never tire of pointing out the common practice here of bike-riding without helmets.

The stone floor phenomenon is widespread here.  The upstairs, downstairs, and the stairs connecting them in our house and in almost every other home we have seen in Israel are made of stone.  They are rumored to lack the soft, plushy qualities that many carpets possess (except for the "Grey Banshee" that was our carpet in Kansas for several years.)

I caught Ariella blending these two important themes as she prepared to pillow-surf her way down the stone stairs.  Her final preparation:  Putting on her bike helmet.