Minnow’s Five Things

bandaged_head_blog


1. Sarah and I have been friends and business partners for so long that we’re sometimes accused of acting like a married couple. We share lunches; we finish each other’s sentences; and we show up at the office wearing the same outfit sometimes (except hers in usually designer and mine is Joe Fresh). But this last week really took the savvy cake, with our sons suffering from head injuries at the same time.
My youngest has a concussion and has been in lockdown at home for the past few days. Sarah’s boy had a much more serious accident, however. In a random act of nature, a large branch from a tree in Sarah’s backyard fell on his head while he was outside playing on Saturday afternoon. He suffered a serious blow to his head and was taken to SickKids where the doctors and nurses took very good care of him. After surgery and close monitoring for four days, he is now home—safe and sound—under the watchful eye and care of our publisher (Sarah) where he’ll require lots of rest and recovery.

I mention this today because of all the things that crossed my desk this week, the impact this accident had on all of us at Savvy HQ made everything else seem trivial—or marginal at best. Every mom knows how difficult it is to watch their child in pain. To be a victim of such a random accident is scary, makes no sense and is a fierce reminder of the fragility of life. We can only protect them so much and things can change in a nanosecond. We know. But to be reminded with such a close call is another thing.

We have missed Sarah in the office this week but our hearts and thoughts have been with her son.

So I’m sending you a gentle reminder to cherish your children. Hold them close and give them an extra hug tonight.

In lighter news, I’ll mention four more very quick thoughts from the week:

Youtube clip

2. Speaking of bedtime, this video brought me back to the days when my kids were babies. It also highlights how quickly things have changed since those days. This is a real book—not just a video!

Organic Food

3. Back then (in the olden days) we didn’t know much about organic foods, either. A study released last week claims that there is minimal nutritional difference between organic and non-organic foods. This is causing all kinds of debate—even our food editor, Jan Scott, weighed in. Let us know what you think.

4. And there’s more in the world of good parents/bad parents. A new motion to outlaw spanking here in Canada reveals that apparently 50% of Canadian parents and 70% of US parents admit to spanking their kids. The Canadian Journal of Medicine states that spanking can lead to depression, drug abuse and other substantial problems in children later in life—using that as the main reason to outlaw the act. Sounds like a fair argument to me. At least 30 other countries are doing it already, including Austria, New Zealand and Sweden. Shouldn’t we?


5. And for anyone with a mobile device that stores music (hello), I found this hot new toy that turns anything into a speaker. Seriously. Watch this video to understand what I’m talking about. We’re still testing it out so we’ll keep you posted on how well it works.

Have a great week. Remember that extra hug tonight.

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