Fisher Price people don't kill kids; guns do

The Boston Herald

BEVERLY BECKHAM

Usually I read these things and take them for what they are: a warning that once I would have memorized, but that now I just peruse. I don't have little kids anymore. I don't need to worry about toy safety.

But the story was about Fisher Price's Little People and though it has been years since I picked up the cow and put him back in his barn, and arranged the plastic children in their swings, I finished the article because of all the toys my children had, Fisher Price Little People were my favorite. Even the words on a printed page evoke nostalgia.

At one point we had more than 40 Little People. I say "we" because they were as much mine as theirs. I was the one who, when the kids were in bed, would move the playpen, or look under the couch, or clean out a heating duct in search of a missing someone. I liked the way they all had a place: Mr. Hooper in front of his store. Big Bird in his nest. The fireman in his truck. The pilot in his plane.

We had a little village: A barn, a schoolhouse, a Sesame Street set, an airplane, a metal firehouse that wasn't Fisher Price, and some mongrel people, too, mostly Weebles. Remember Weebles? Weebles wobble but they don't fall down?

The article evoked all this - plus memories of baby powder, and pajamas with feet and my children's sweet breath, and their string of goodnight kisses, and the feeling that came at the end of a day, when it was dark and quiet and they were all tucked in and everyone was safe.

Now I read that Little People were dangerous. Edward M. Swartz, Boston attorney and author of "Toys That Kill" and "Toys That Don't Care," says they were cited in causing the deaths of six children and irreversible brain injury in another. Last year, Fisher Price enlarged the size of their Little People so that children wouldn't choke on them, and in ads the company is cautioning parents not to let children under age 2 play with them.

It occurred to me as I was reading this, that we - parents and society - go to such incredible lengths to protect young children. From the moment a woman is pregnant, it's "take care of yourself and eat properly and don't smoke or drink or use any medication, not even aspirin, not even when you have a cold."

And when a baby is born it's more of the same. We put bumper pads in cribs, cushion high chairs, buy government-approved car seats, dress our children in fire-retardent clothes, cover electric outlets, put safety locks on doors, set up gates in front of stairs, check smoke alarms and never leave children in the tub or near the street alone. We anticipate. And we act.

If we were as zealous about safeguarding our older children, we'd do more to protect them, too. We'd take the guns out of their hands. We'd have safety experts like Swartz in classrooms, on television, on radio, on street corners, demonstrating what happens when kids point a gun and fire, when they take a knife and kill. When they drink and drive. When they have what is considered "safe sex."

Look, these safety experts would say. See this person. He has a family, people who love him. You hurt him and you hurt them, too. See what happens when you kill someone. See what happens to you and your family and friends.

Meet this girl. She thought she was having safe sex. She thought wrong. She has AIDS. This is her baby daughter. She has AIDS, too.

It strikes me that this world doesn't make a lot of sense. The rigid plastic dowel on Fisher Price Creative Blocks could cause choking and eye injury. And this is good to know.

But guns do cause injury and AIDS does cause death. In 1989, the last year for which there are statistics, one of every 10 children who died was killed by a gun. More teen-agers die from guns than all the diseases combined. In Massachusetts AIDS is now the leading cause of death in young men.

We don't let our toddlers play with toys that could hurt them. And we shouldn't. But it's not Fisher Price people that are killing our kids. It's other kids, playing with toys that are dangerous and should be condemned.