What's wrong with the world today

The sun can kill you! Avoid being in the sun between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm. Which is to say, pretty much all day, and certainly during all the hours that you might be able to find lessons at your local outdoor pool. If you must go outside, wear long sleeves and long pants to protect yourself, even though this will make you horribly hot and uncomfortable. Slather yourself with sunscreen.

West Nile Virus can kill you! Stay indoors early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and in the early evening, because that's when the mosquitoes are most active. If you must go outside, wear long sleeves and long pants to protect yourself, even though this will make you horribly hot and uncomfortable. Slather yourself with DEET.

While keeping your child inside, don't let them go near windows! Screens will not keep your children from falling out, and don't get complacent -- even a fall out of a first-floor window can seriously injure a child. Kids should be looking outside only with adult supervision. Eighteen children die every year from falling out of windows!

You know what? I think the risk of acting like the outdoors is a scary, dangerous place, and teaching kids that it's safer to stay inside (away from all windows!) outweighs the risk of just sending them out to play in the sun. With the mosquitoes.

I am not one of those freaky anti-bike-helmet people who rants about how WE never used carseats and WE all lived (because our generational peers who died in car wrecks aren't around to rant, duh). I was wearing a bike helmet in 1983 (I was the ONLY KID IN THE WORLD who had to wear a bike helmet in 1983, except for my younger sister, who also had to wear one). My kids ride in car seats. No one in my family swims unsupervised. I think it's good advice to use sunblock, and I'm pro-DEET simply because I hate mosquito bites, but telling people to stay inside from 10 to 4 during our short, beautiful Minnesotan summer is insane.