First responders often have a much different view of safety than people who don’t handle dangerous situations every day. Police officers, doctors, nurses, firefighters and military personnel see what happens when people put themselves in danger and are often a little more cautious than the average civilian.
Situations that seem safe to some can seem like the beginnings of a horror story to someone who works in the emergency room and regularly sees people being admitted for the same types of injuries.
That’s why a video by pediatric operating room nurse Josie Rose Mueller should be seen by parents everywhere. As a mother of 3 young boys, who has been working in the operating room since 2018, she shares the 5 things she’d never let her kids do because, as Mueller puts it bluntly: She’s “seen some sh*t.”
Although the activities she mentions seem relatively harmless, she’s seen what can happen when things go wrong.
Warning: Video contains strong language.
@josierosemueller
1. Sit atop a ride-on lawnmower
“Without a doubt, I see one person on my Facebook feed doing this every single summer and yes, the photo is adorable, but it is less adorable when I see kids getting their legs cut off from it.”
2. Play with fireworks
“I will never ever ever let my kids play with explosive fireworks during the 4th of July. I have seen kids lose fingers, entire hands, teeth, portions of their jaw. I’ve seen them blow up basically just about anything,”
3. Go to a swim party alone
“Number 3, I will never let my younger children, who are not very, very confident in water, go to a swim party without me. It is actually true that the more people in a pool, even the more people surrounding a pool, the higher chance there is for your child to drown. There’s way too much room for error. There’s way too much room for someone to get lost.”
4. Ride in a car without a harness or seatbelt
“I have seen situations where one kid is buckled in and walks away with very minor injuries and the other kid either passes or walks away with very severe injuries because they were not buckled in from the same exact car crash.”
5. Attend a sleepover
“I will never let my kids be babysat by or go to somebody’s house or spend the night and do a sleepover at a house where I do not know every single person that’s going to be there, every single person in the house. I’ve known them a long time and I can verify that they’re good people. I can’t even get into the abuse situations that I’ve seen, but it was enough to really … and I still question whether I’ll ever let my kids have sleepovers at all.”
Mueller’s video has nearly 2 million views and she disagrees with those who think she’s being too cautious.
“It’s my job as my child’s parent to keep them safe,” she told Upworthy. “I want my children to take calculated risks, and I want them to fall, scrape their knees and make mistakes. I believe that builds character and helps them recognize and deal with adversity. However, when it comes to their life or their limbs being in danger, it’s a parent’s job to keep their child away from said dangers.”
She believes parents should be short and to the point when explaining potential dangers to their young children.
“Kids don’t process long, drawn-out explanations. For example, if my husband is mowing the lawn, the rule is the boys stay inside,” she told Upworthy. “If they request to go outside, I will say, ‘The rule is we stay inside until daddy is done mowing the lawn. This keeps your brothers and you safe. We can go play outside when the lawnmower stops.’ We can make a fun game out of it like counting how many times Daddy passes the window. And the reward would be if they stay inside like I’ve asked, we play outside with Dad when he’s all finished up.”