The Land of Ozz

We recently went through the task of rearranging car seats for our kids. Riley is moving into a booster and Josiah has out grown the infant car seat (carrier). We have a fairly nice Britax that we got when Riley was less than a year old. It is in good condition and has never been in a vehicle when an accident occurred. The seat is nearly six yeas old and I was wondering whether or not the seat is still usable despite its appearance. I have heard that car seats expire. Is this a true statement?

I probably would not have even given this a thought but rather let common sense dictate whether or not to replace a car seat. But, sometime last spring we had a fire rescue team at our church one Sunday afternoon doing inspections on the installation of our car seats for anyone who wanted to participate. Ours were all installed and being used correctly, but the technician did give me a little feedback that I found interesting. One of the things he told me was that Riley’s Britax seat was expired. “DO WHAT?,” was my reply. This guy proceeds to tell me that car seats expire after five years. Don’t get me wrong. I get the concept. These things are made of mostly plastic and plastics can become weak when it gets pushed and pulled on enough. The belts can become weak when they get enough acidic spit up, juices, and other foreign substances on them over the years. All that said, you would think that the manufacture would have this plastered all over the boxes that these things come in. After all, that would equate to a fresh sell ever five years. Anyway, I heard what the guy said and went on about my business since this just did not seem to make sense to me. How can you you pick a number and say that in X number of years a car seat will expire? In my opinion you can’t.

Here’s the thing about those expirations. There is currently no federal law requiring that child safety seats have an expiration date. I have also found no state laws referring specifically to expiration dates. If you find that a seat has an expiration on it, you are not likely to get put into jail for using it past its expiration date, but you should certainly contact the manufacture to make sure you understand why they put that date on the seat. A report from AAA says that you are required by most state laws to “use seats in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions.”

Yes, some seats have expiration dates on them? Why? The explanations vary. Maybe the seat nmaufactures are trying to ride the wave of fear created by the technicians who tell us that the seats to expire. Many “convertible” car seats are sold touting that they can be used for 5-35 lbs rear facing and from 20-50 lbs forward facing. Those seats would need to be replaced before one child outgrew them if they were to expire in five or six years. For instance, the average boy will reach 20 lbs between 8-9 months of age based on the CDC Clinical Growth Charts that most of our pediatricians use. That same average boy will reach 50 lbs at about 7 years of age. That means that the average male child would be required to get a new seat before reaching the maximum allowed weight for most convertible seats simply due to an expiration.

The bottom line is that opinions rather than facts seem to be driving the five or six year expiration dates. The expiration age varies depending on who you talk to. Some Child Passenger Safety Technicians claim to have been taught that seats expire after five or six years depending on who trained them. One organization that offers certification classes for these technicians says, “Make sure the safety seat is less than 10 years old (preferably less than five), the expiration date stamped on the plastic has not passed, and it has never been used in a crash.” Reference

This little guy is a handful of joy.

This is a picture of me holding Josiah the latest addition to our family. Josiah is six weeks old today.  He is as beautiful in person as he is in the pictures.

You can read more about all of my three sons on Caden’s Page.

The Growing Kids God’s Way Student Workbook has a new look.  The look and feel of the book is where the change ends.  The principles of Growing Kids God’s Way are exactly the same.  You can read the full details about this awesome new edition of the Growing Kids God’s Way Student Workbook at GrowingKids.org.

The posting has been light over the past few weeks. On top of doing some behind the scenes coding for GrowingKids.org, I have been preparing for the latest addition to the Osborne camp.  Josiah Joseph (JJ) was born this past Friday, August 10th at 8:24PM.  He weighed in at 8lb 10oz and is 20 1/2 inches.  Josiah did create plenty of excitement when he arrived and I posted much of that story on Caden’s Page in the past few days.   There are also a few more pictures of all three of my boys on Caden’s Page.

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” Psalm 127:3 (NLT)

Wal-Mart’s move into toy action figures based on characters from Bible stories is likely a pure business decision and not because a senior executive got saved in church last Sunday. A story posted on USAToday.com tells of the retail giant’s move into a new line of toys in about 13% of its stores. The toys are distributed by one2believe.com. The web site URL for this company will redirect you to a Yahoo! online store with a URL of store.messengersoffaith.net where the company lists Focus on the Family and FamilyLife.com (a division of Campus Crusades for Christ) as partners.

Sadly enough, I think Jim Silver, editor of Toy Wishes magazine has probably nailed the fate of this effort.

“Once children turn 4, parents tend to get them what they want. And right now, kids are asking for Transformers.”

I find it interesting that 4 year olds get turned on to characters from a PG-13 movie like Transformers, but that is a subject for another day. Anyway, I agree with Mr. Silver, it is transformers this week, it was Spider-man a couple of months ago, and it will be more Harry Potter dolls in the weeks and months to come. With the release of the most recent Harry Potter movie (also PG-13), next week’s release of the latest book, and the upcoming Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, the magical world of Harry Potter will cast spells on millions of American families.  Many will be Christian families.

Many parents can plead ignorance to the words given to use from God through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6: 12-13.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

For those Christian parents who do read and study the Bible regularly, I do not understand how they can still endorse things like Harry Potter, Spider man, and Transformers for their children, especially the young ones.  My rule of thumb is: If I discern a program, book, or toy to be anywhere between morally neutral and glorifying to God, then I will consider investing in that item for my children. I know, the real issue for each Christian is where to draw the line on the morally neutral end? My answer: If you are having to ask then you are probably too close to the line. Many Christians are under a misconception that God put us on this planet for our own personal enjoyment. While I do believe good clean fun for us humans is a good thing in God’s eyes, we were put here to glorify Him and serve His wishes above our own happiness.

The point that I am trying to come to is to tie together the comments of another person quoted in the USAToday article.

“Laurie Schacht, president of The Toy Book, a toy industry publication, says some parents also are dissatisfied with toys from conventional toymakers: “There are a lot of wild things out there. Parents want to give kids wholesomeness.”"

This lady got close to my point of view on toys, but her wording is just a little, shall we say, worldly. In all fairness, she is likely referring to parents in general and not just Christian parents. I personally want to teach my kids holiness above happiness and wholesomeness. There are not many items on your average Wal-Mart toy isle shelf to help get that job done.

It will be interesting to see how these faith-based toys sell in Wal-Mart.   “Stores that sell a lot of Bibles will carry the new line,” says Melissa O’Brien, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.  This line of thinking seems a little shallow and I hope they did not hinge too much of their marketing strategy on this one statistic.

…the first time I ever prayed with them.  I know that sounds weird, but stick with me on this one.  I was listening to a pastor on the radio while on my way to a meeting at the church last night.  He talked about how dads really should be setting the example for their kids.  Many parents tell their kids, “Give me a kiss and then go on up to bed…oh, and don’t forget to say your prayers.”  If the statistics being thrown around are close to being correct, then this sort of dialog is much more likely to be the norm in most Christian homes.

Some of you parents may have heard something like this before, but I am going to say it again.  Way more is caught than taught.  You can not sit in your recliner and give the old “do as I say and not as I do” speech and expect it to work.  That dog won’t hunt, especially with the older kids.  Get up and join your children in their bedtime prayers.  Teach them how to talk to God by your example.  Do you remember the last time you prayed with your children other than when giving thanks for food?

I hope that my kids are not able to remember the first time I prayed with them.  I want prayer to be so much of a routine part of our lives that they can not remember when it started because it was farther back than their memory can stretch.  I challenge all dads to get a similar mindset towards prayer and daily devotional with their kids.

Today for the first time ever, I get to celebrate Fathers Day and my wedding anniversary together on the same day. What an awesome combination.

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads!!!

“Top teacher arrested for criminal sexual conduct”

Top teacher means that this same teacher was selected as “Teacher of the Year” for 2007 by her peers at Westview Middle School in Goose Creek, SC. The teacher’s name is Kanesa Hopkins. Ms. Hopkins is charged with sexual misconduct that allegedly occurred back in 2003 and 2004 with a girl from her Sunday school class.

The headline article on the front page of The Goose Creek Gazette adds support for local residents to consider alternatives to public school. This article hits the front page of the local paper on the same day that I write the following comment on a recent blog post on reasons to homeschool.

“…even those claiming to be Christian, may not be as aligned with your family values as you might think. Teachers are not given a morality and character test before being allowed to enter the classroom. And in most cases you do not get to choose your child’s teacher. So for 6-7 hours per day for 180 days out of a year, you get that one teacher’s moral and ethical values transferred into your child’s heart and soul no matter how much you agree or disagree with that teacher.”

When writing this comment I was focusing on my upcoming article on “worldview”. I had not even considered extreme issues like the ones being dealt with in this case against teacher Kanesa Hopkins.

Westview Middle School is were my children would have to attend based on our address.

This is a valid question no matter how determined you are to homeschool your children. I am told that homeschooling is not easy. Since we have not technically begun homeschooling, I am only speaking from the limited experience of homeschooling a four and a half year old preschooler. We have received our share of questions from friends and family. They want to know why we are homeschooling. The answer to this question is more valuable to us than it is for our family and friends. The list of reasons why we have made this choice will server us best as encouragement when reviewed on the tough days that will come in the future. Below are a few my answers to the question.

1. Best opportunity for moral training based on family values
2. Best student to teacher ratio
3. More opportunities to build family relationships
4. Dynamic learning environment