As a child of the ’80s, I spent way too many Saturday mornings with my two best friends: a bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal and cartoons! Yes, I’ve loved TV since I was a kid and the evolution in technology has just been amazing.
Two things completely blow my mind these days when it comes to TVs. First is HD. I can barely stomach watching a football game anymore unless it’s in high-def. The other thing is the size. It’s crazy how thin TVs are these days!
I remember when my kids were just learning how to walk. At the time, we had one of those huge Sony WEGA sets. It was like a 40-inch TV that weighed well over 100 pounds. Probably close to 200 I bet. It was so huge it actually needed a special stand. My wife and I loved it, except it also scared the bejesus out of us.
No, we weren’t watching Nightmare on Elm Street or anything. We were just scared because our 2-year-old son would walk up to the TV set and start tapping at the screen. As he got older, he got taller and that meant he could lean more and more on the TV. We were petrified it’d tip over and crush him.
We later bought some flat-panel TVs and felt a bit safer. But again, we just had it sitting on some furniture. Flat panels are definitely lighter and thinner than TV sets of old, but they’re still pretty big and heavy. What’s more, because they’re so thin, they’re a lot more wobbly. Which means they can fall over a lot easier.
Before you think I’m one of those over-protective, helicopter type parents that practically put a bubble around their child, let me share some scary stats with you. These are from the consumer awareness website, TVsafety.org created by SANUS, a market leader in TV mounting solutions.
- A child is killed every three weeks from TV instability.
- There are approximately 18,900 emergency department-treated injuries due to tipping TVs reported each year.
- 215 deaths due to tipping TVs were reported from 2000-2011; 96% of these fatalities were children under 10 years old.
- 47% of TV tip-over related injuries happen to children under the age of 5.
- Only 25% of adults take action to secure their TVs to a wall!
Even one death by TV instability is one too much. So I bought some wall-mounts, hired an electrician and had him mount (and install outlets) my flat-panel TVs on the wall. If you’ve been a reader of my blog, you know I’m far from handy. There’s just no way I’d trust myself to mount these. Not when safety’s a concern.
I have four flat-screens in my house and every single one of them is mounted. Not only do I feel one thousand times safer, but they just look so much cooler!
With the Super Bowl coming up (and yes, even though my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers won’t be playing in it, I’ll still be watching), sales on TVs are about to go crazy. So many people buy up huge TVs now, so they can watch the Big Game in style. Some even buy them just for the game and then quickly return them to stores afterwards. Pretty shady, if you ask me.
The scary part of all this is that many of these people buy up the TVs quickly, and just slap them on an entertainment center without a thought to safety. At the very least, they should try strapping them to the wall to keep from tipping over.
Companies like SANUS offer some incredible selections of wall mounts. You can get types that swivel slightly or ones that give you full range of motion, so you can angle them any way you’d like. It’s a small investment but one well worth the price if you ask me. Not only are you ensuring the safety of your entire family and guests, but you’re improving the quality of TV watching in your home.
To learn more about the potential risk of injury or even death from unstable TVs, please check out TVSafety.org. They even have a TV Safety Facebook page and Twitter account if you’d like to keep up with their latest findings, reports, and suggestions.
The folks over at SANUS are so dedicated to TV Safety that they’re even sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy’s Busy, Go Ask Daddy! One lucky winner will get a SANUS TV Mount for their flat-screen TV!
Win a SANUS TV Mount
(Value: $100 – $150)
Giveaway ends on January 30, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on this site. Giveaway is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States (including District of Columbia) who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry. The Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. Winner will need to provide their mailing address, as well as TV Brand & Model number.
I was compensated for this post in exchange for my honest opinions. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own and in no way were influenced by the company providing the product.
Good electricians are highly trained individuals with a lot of schooling and practical experience behind them. Before you go sticking your hand into a fuse box, or rewiring the house for power, you have to know a lot about electrical power – the way it moves, how it does what it does, the math and physics behind it and a lot of other things.
You will generally find two types of Debt owed: Child support
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i would this.
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