Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A lack of thought

Two different stories popped at us today, and both involve people not thinking as hard about as subject as they possibly should have. Sometimes, just coming up with scenarios can be a good exercise, and it seems that it would have been useful in both of the following situations.

Take, for example, our first story today, where parents are starting to raise concerns because the pet door they had installed didn't carry any warnings that children might fit through it as well. Listen, folks, we sympathize. We really do. But come on. The reason you installed a pet door in the first place was so that your dog or cat could have easy access to the outside world. And, for plenty of people, their dog is either the same size or larger than their children. If you can't put two and two together on that one, then we're sorry.

Seriously, just take an example of an average three-year-old, and most dogs in the beagle range. Put the kid down on all fours, and there's a chance that they might be right around the same size, thereby enabling them to fit through the opening meant for your pet. So what are your options, at that point? Either remove the pet door, set up barriers that prevent the child from getting to said door, or focus more on your kid. As an added bonus, accept that by the time the child no longer fits through the door, they'll be able to figure out how to open the entire thing. And remember, kids like having mobility to go in and out as they please. If they didn't, there wouldn't be the old phrase about heating the neighborhood.

In the second story, we simply see an example of people perhaps needing to use a little more caution. When you receive a phone call from someone who is disguising their voice, maybe you shouldn't send a solo delivery driver out with their subs. That goes double when they call back with a slightly different address. Sadly, the driver paid the price, getting beaten up in a robbery attempt. And to think, putting just a little thought into the circumstances might have allowed the workers to sniff out that something wasn't quite right, and they could at least have sent along an extra person. Sure, it might have lead to two people getting attacked, but it might also have prevented the entire mess in the first place.

So, please. We beg you. Think a little more about the consequences. Just to save us all a little trouble.

No comments: