Although we encourage play, not everything is safe.

Well, I visited this grandma the other day and found her taking some time to respond to my pushing the bell at the gate. And when she did open the door, between her legs was one tiny little guy with his four-year old mischievous face popping out. Then as grandma reached for the remote controller for the gate, the little one's hand reached out to grab the controller. Before grandma could do anything, the small guy had pressed the controller and the gate started to slide open. But then it stopped. If I had wanted to I could have squeezed my body through, but then I was fortunate to have hesitated for the little one pressed the controller again and it started to close once more.

In that instant, a story of a man crushed to death by such a remote controlled gate came to mind. I had read it quite some time ago in one of the newspapers. The gate had closed before he had managed to go through and the power was great enough to cause him fatal harm.

Well, at this point I became cautious as i did not wish to be in the footsteps of the man who was crushed to death. In fact that little used the remote controller as a toy and played with it resulting in the gate opening a little and closing again a number of times. Finally, the grandma had enough sense to forcefully take back the controller and opened the gate wide enough for me to enter safely.

I told her of the man who was crushed to death by such a gate and told her she has to be careful with that kid handling the remote as someone less careful could become another victim to such carelessness.

When it comes to children, certain things ought not to be allowed to be used as toys as they could endanger the child or others. Sockets, electrical wires and explosive materials from fire-crackers are certainly dangerous things to play with, be it adults or children.