Bouncy Danger

Sometimes items included with a product are worthless.

For example, the extra buttons that come with new shirts and pants are pretty much a 0 on the 1-to-10 scale of useless.  I have never, ever used one of those buttons as a replacement and I don’t know anyone who has used the button for the purpose intended.

It’s just a big zero.

Another thing I’ve never put to practical use: the cookbook that comes with my crockpot.  I’ve kept it, but I’m never once used a recipe.  The crock pot, yes.  The little, cheaply printed book on strange but glossy paper, no.

Until tonight I’d never considered using the stabby pins that come with a tent either.

I’ve always assumed those tie downs are just a suggestion required by manufacturers to make sure they don’t get sued.

But a family in Tucson, Arizona learned that the tie downs are pretty important.

They rented a bouncy house for their child’s birthday party.  Suddenly, like a bad movie in slow motion, a Dust Devil hit the neighborhood, lofted the bouncy house and carried it out of the yard and across two lanes of traffic, finally upending itself and dumping the kid out on the median!

Talk about a bummer birthday present.  Or a really horrible real-life version of the movie Up.  And now I have to acknowledge that not only are bouncy houses a pit of foot smell and foul bacteria (because there is NO WAY anyone is able to thoroughly clean those things!), it’s also a viable option for truly harming your kids.

So, keeping this cautionary tale in mind, I’m changing my mode of operation and am going to start using the useless things that come in new packages.  At least for awhile.

What items do you throw away as soon as you open a new product?

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