Important Note:  I am providing links to information from well-respected resources, but information can and does change.  Use all of the information you take in from the links with discretion and good sense, and if you have a question, consult your family healthcare provider or a qualified professional that can give you accurate, up-to-date information.  I also ask that you use discretion in speaking to your husband about the assignment, if need be.  You’re his wife, you know how to best communicate with him.  Lastly, if you do the assignment, you do so by your own choice and are personally responsible for any outcome arising from it.  Excelsior! 

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        In part two of Creating Our Families Own Worlds (click here to read it, if you’d like) a section about making our houses, yards, and gardens safe for not only children, but adults, as well, was written.  Below are links to some very important pieces of safety information that is important for every mother to know. 

        This information is important because you don’t want to take any chances on your child, or your husband or yourself, or anyone else having a preventable accident at your home.  Accidents are, at the very least a bit painful, and at the most, fatal.  Debilitating or fatal home accidents that would have been prevented with a bit of caution cause life-long pain, regret, and remorse.  They are worth avoiding at all costs.  You, nor anyone in your family, nor anyone that visits your home, deserve this pain and trauma for the rest of your lives.  We can easily, by devoted thought and study, heart and hand work, prevent many tragedies and accidents in our homes and have homes of safety, goodness, and outstanding health. 

Here are the links:

From the University of Michigan’s Health System

Playground and Outdoor Play Safety

Childproofing and Safety at Home

Children and Safety General Information

From the Minnesota Department of Health

Home Safety Checklist Reference Guide - Though this is a twenty-five page guide for home visitors, it is a very valuable, worth-reading guide for all mothers to read, print if possible, and have on hand.  This reference guide includes a home safety checklist and the “why’s” of home safety!  It’s a fantastic, helpful resource!

From the University of Nebraska’s Cooperative Extension

Toxicity of Common Houseplants - This list includes commonly found plants used in yards as ornamentals, too.  If you have a plant or are considering planting one that isn’t on this list, it’s a good idea look up its toxicity online or call your local cooperative extension for this information.  Remember, a ounce of caution is worth a pound of cure!

From the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services

Household Products Database - This is an amazing, detailed base of information to look over concerning household products and their toxicity levels and information. 

This Week’s Assignment:

For You - Get a sheet of paper and a pencil or pen and write the day’s date and the question “How safe do I feel our home is at this time?”  Write an honest answer, but it doesn’t need to be elaborate or long.  Save this paper but write nothing else on it.  Next, each day this week schedule about a half-hour of study time to read the information found at the links above.  Use the Household Products Database to look up questionably toxic products in and around your home.  Use the home safety check list in the resource guide to go through your home this week.  Work to make your home a safe, family friendly place by the end of the week. 

         At the end of the week, get your paper back out, write the day’s date under what you had written at the beginning of the week.  Write the same question and your new answer.  This assignment may need to last longer than one week to get your home safe.  Keep working on it and writing until you can honestly answer that your home feels truly safe, then be wholesomely proud of yourself and let yourself enjoy the peace of mind, sense of loving, devoted nurture, and wholesome fun and enjoyment that can be found in such a home.  Also really take a few minutes to contemplate the fact that you are being a loving, responsible mother and woman throughout the time it takes you to complete this assignment – that is really something to be wholesomely proud of.

Involve Dad – Ask him to read the Home Safety Checklist Reference Guide with you this week and discuss it.  Ask for his input and his help in making your home – your family’s unique world – the safest it can be.  If your husband is of the ‘Americans have lived for hundreds of years without this stuff’ mindset, gently reply that Americans haven’t lived for hundreds of years with today’s furniture, chemical cleaners, cars, and household items.  The safety information shared in the guide is there because 1.) Accidents that the guide mentions have happened 2.) Enough studies have been done to prove that the safety measures mentioned work to prevent these accidents very often. 

        You, like so many women who involve their husbands in things like this, may be very, very pleasantly surprised at his eagerness to participate, his unique input, and the bonds it builds when you work together.  If your husband is uninterested, be of a *suit yourself mindset and study it yourself; don’t get upset or angry about it, it’s his choice.  It is highly likely that as you really devote yourself to your family’s care and well-being, he will be impressed and intrigued, therefore more inclined to join you.  At the least, you will gain respect in his eyes as well as a measure of self-respect.

Share a Link – After you complete this assignment, share whichever safety link above you’ve found most helpful with your family and friends via e-mail, Facebook, your blog, etc. or even print a copy of the reference guide for another woman who you think would enjoy learning from it.

*The phrase “suit yourself” means oh well, it’s your choice, that’s fine with me, do as you wish.  It isn’t an angry or insincere mindset or phrase, it’s an accepting phrase.