Come on Sweetie -- we're going for a ride!

So, do these people hate their kids, or what? You see them every day. Stalwart, enviro-conscious moms and dads (nothing wrong with being enviro-conscious per se) pedaling furiously on their bikes, with their tiny tots being towed in a tiny canvas, wire and spit rickshaw like thing out in back. Now, this is hardly much defense against the huge Mack 12-wheeler that is coming up from behind, now is it? So, my question is, in an age of neurotic obsessiveness with the safety of children why are these contraptions legal? Truly, it amazes me that they are.

Just last week I read an article about how a child below a certain age will be more secure in a kiddie-seat stuck in the back, and facing backwards. In other words, in great big SUVs, the tots are to be trussed and belted and positioned so that no harm can befall them. Probably well-and-good, even if a bit anal, in my esteem. Sure does cut down on those old fights over which kid gets to sit up front with Mom, however. And, in the same context pudgy Britney Spears is lambasted for letting her child sit on Mommy's lap while the vehicle is cruising down the highway. Now, Miss Britney probably deserves to be dissed for many things, including appalling tastelessness, but if she is to be hit with this brickbat, why do the kiddie-trailer towers escape unscathed. Truly, if Britney had positioned her kid in one of those trailers, it would have earned her points with the save-the-worlders. Weird.

So, we run around keeping Shiloh and Darth Vadar Jr. all secure in this mean old world. We don't let them play with lawn darts, set off fireworks, or ride in the car unfettered, but we let them ride on crowded highways and byways, populated by street-racing morons and drunks, seated in a contraption that would blow over in a decent breeze, let alone lose in any conflict with a Hummer's front tire.

Why not just encourage them to play backyard catch with live handgrenades?