Thanks to Spearmint Baby, a new fave blog of mine featuring the most gorgeous things for bub, Sophia's room has gone global! Our little one's pink palace is lucky enough to be a Featured Nursery on the site - be sure to check it out!And, if you're looking to decorate a nursery any time in the near future, I can guarantee you'll find inspiration among the many diverse decorating styles...there are some absolutely amazing rooms (not to mention incredibly creative mums!)
And if you'd like to read the original post, you can find it here.
10 comments:
I would love to know where you found the decal of Sophia's name from.. I would love to order one...
Love your canvas art, it is so very pretty. Dianne
Leah, I've twittered you - let me know if you didn't get my DM.
Thanks Dianne - it was kinda like "I just spent $80 on these decals, I'd better figure out some way to use them!" I was really pleased with how the canvasses worked out...
Cute!! Way to go Amanda xxx
So, something on my mind at the moment...
on designing rooms for small children, I have always considered safety to be absolutely fundamental - right? Well, a friend asked for my advice for her little girl's room and, as I was drawing up a clever solution, she went ahead with something else entirely...ok.
Except for one teeny tiny GLARINGLY idiotic (read: dangerous) situation. In a small room with a ceiling fan, she chose a BUNK BED (the spinning blades come to approx 1cm from the bunk zone). In response to my recoil in horror, they claim "you can't get hurt that much" by the rotating metal blades. They are adamant that it poses no danger to their 4 year old girl, who "doesn't even go up there that much". I am adamant that it is highly probable... but they think I'm being melodramatic and refuse to do anything about it... what should I do???? I don't want them to get 'into trouble', I just want them to realise how stupid they are... and I wouldn't like to see their little girl injured. And is this worth losing a friendship over?
It's making me mad... What do your readers think?
oh geez. Accident waiting to happen. Are you talking about reporting them Nina? Is that what you mean? It's a big call. I mean, anyone can easily imagine how this is going to go.
The friendship will no doubt suffer but I suppose then at least you will know you did what was right. At some point we have to step back and say we did all we could.
Ok, I've been doing a bit of research this morning...and all Australian consumer fact sheets say that bunk beds should not be within 2 METRES of a ceiling fan (that's a wee bit more than 1cm!) Some organisations go so far as to recommend bunk beds and ceiling fans should never co-habitate.
I found this article from the Courier Mail, which says 1 in 10 bunk injuries are caused by ceiling fans...that's quite a percentage.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24391937-3102,00.html
Look, it's a tricky one...persist in the argument and it's quite easy for her to dismiss as sour grapes (because she ignored your design advice). So, maybe you could embellish a bit of a yarn to highlight the dangers(I think a fib is excusable if the end result is a child's safety).
If you were comfortable going this route, you could say you were talking to a friend whose sister-in-law is an ambo (true, that's me) and she'd recently been called out to a job where a young child had managed to push a chair over to the fan switch, turn it on, then climb up the bunk bed to play with the fan. You could say he suffered not only a bad injury to his head from the blades but also broke his arm from the fall.
In any event, I think I'd be inclined to push it...I know no parent wants their decisions questioned but, in this case, I think they need to take a long, hard look at themselves.
oh dear - tell her this: in high school, my science teacher - a 30-odd intelligent woman - stood on the lab counter to pull the blinds down, misjudged how close the fan blades were and nearly decapitated herself. the blades chopped into her head and she was off work for something like a year recovering. if an adult can't judge the closeness, i doubt a child could. and who's to say they won't think it an awesome idea to try and jump off the bed and grab onto the blades? even if they're OFF, they're not going to be safe. I think just tell her some horror stories and maybe suggest a way around it - can the bunks be separated? can it be moved to another part of the room? there's not much else you can do really...
and good job on the nursery, amanda - so cute!
Oh dear. I agree, this is a disaster just waiting to happen. Unfortunately, I don't think there is much you can do, apart from voice your opinion strongly and share some horror stories to drive the point home. At that point you have probably done as much as you can. Maybe you could suggest the removal of the fan and replacing it with a lovely light instead (it's not like we are going to be needing fans on any time soon!)
Thank you everyone, excellent advice.
Bells- you're quite right that reporting them would get quite icky, I think I need to get some independent advice to her - something more official than my apparently under qualified opinion (and that of my equally gobsmacked overly practical husband).
Bugmum, that article is perfect! I think I will casually forward it to her and mention the 2 metre rule, and suggest if they want to keep the bunk then they NEED to remove the fan (I actually think there's a chance they could agree to that). I would be willing to BUY them a pretty rice paper shade and pendant wire if they get the electrician in.... yeah.
I'm certainly not letting my kids into the 'room of death' until it's done.
Thanks again, and it's good to know there is unanimous agreement about the danger... I'll let you know if I have "a win".
Love Nina xx
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