Tuesday, October 09, 2012

I Have A New Articfle Published

Rats: Debunking Common Misconceptions

I'm sure everyone has heard that rats carry the plaque, are vermin, are dirty and freak a lot of people out. But the fact is rats did not carry the plague, the fleas that were on the rats did. The fancy rats that we keep as pets are not vermin, but their cousins: the wild rats that can be found in New York City subways could be considered vermin. Rats are not dirty, they spend much time cleaning and taking care of themselves, much like a cat does.

While rats do freak some people out, they are also growing as a popular pet in many circles. There are rat rescues, rat shows, rat groups, rat forums, rat havens and people who spend their time breeding healthy rats and making sure they are given to responsible rat owners in the hopes that healthy lines of rats will live longer and not be so prone to tumors and lung problems that come from 'accidental' or bred rats from the same families.

If you'd like to read more misconceptions about rats, please click on the link at the top of this page.


Why Do Car Seats Expire

Finding out that I'm going to be a grandma has made me take a look at things I thought I knew about. Turns out that things have changed in the last 21 years since I was a new mother. One of the biggest changes I've noticed is that car seats now have an expiration date on them. I don't remember anything about that back when I bought my first car seat.

So I looked into it and found that there are good reasons for car seats having expiration dates.

Materials Wear Down- Have you ever left a plastic toy out in the heat of the sun over the summer and go to pick it up after 3 months only to find the plastic part is now brittle and cracked from the sun damage? Well that's the same sort of thing that happens to a plastic car seat after having been left in the car for years. The extreme hot and cold temperature changes will change the composition of the plastic, making it brittle and putting tiny micro cracks into the seat. so if you have a car crash the car seat could completely crumble, or crack apart leaving your baby vulnerable and possibly hurt.

Technology Gets Better-  Like I said, back in 1990 things were different and a lot of the new latches, restraints and materials were not available back then, things change and get better. That's another reason for the expiration dates on car seats, as technology improves the car seat safety also improves. I would rather get rid of an old car seat and buy a newer safer one that take the chance my grandson could be hurt with the older one.

How Long Are Car Seats Good For- From what I have read most car seats expire 6 years from the manufacture date. Now this is important because some people will wait a year and buy last years model hoping to get it for cheaper. But it will expire sooner also and you should keep that in mind. Some models don't expire for 10 years but that's rare and you have to read what the owners manual says about that. The expirations date will be on the manufacturers label on the bottom or sides of the car seat.

For those of you that didn't know about this I hope this information helps.