Do you have blinds? Please learn from DD's experience.

[mckenzie]

DD closed DS's blinds last night by sitting on the window sill. As she jumped down she lost her footing and slipped and the pulley (or whatever it's called) got stuck round her throat.
Luckily she's 10 and her weight broke the pulley but not before she was hurt. Her throat is very bruised and sore and she has lacerations where the plastic pulley scratched against her throat.

I'm still feeling sick about what might have been.

This type of pulley is no longer available apparently, because of accidents having happened in the past.
We think the blinds are about 7 years old.

Thank goodness she is ok. Thank you for the reminder of what can happen.

Not likely with the cheap and nasty ones dh just bought! Snapped the chain just closing one last night!! Ah well least they child friendly!!

Poor girl! I hope it heals fast. Maybe do a AIBU for traffic?

My friend herd a noise and ran in to find her kitten in a similar situation- he wasn't heavy enough to break the string so thank god she was in. As soon as I herd I banished all blinds in my house (I love my fluffs).

That's why I always cut mine short so only adults can reach.
But ypou can also leave a slightly bigger than necessary gap between roller and bracket so it pulls out should anything like this happen. You can also get cord guides that fit on the wall.

Thank heaven OP that all is OK bar minor injury.

Most blinds have the safety device included nowadays that keep the cord nice and tight against the wall. I'm always amazed how many rental properties that cater for families don't have cord hooks or window licks for that matter!

Glad your daughter is ok xx

*locks

Yep we bought a safety device that screws into the wall as ds room has a blind in and not worth the risk. Was about £2 from amazon!

Sorry that should have said 'holiday rental properties'

Thanks for the tip. I've ordered a safety device now for the other blinds in his room.

Omg that's scared the crap out off me. Thank god she's ok. I didn't know about a safety device I will be looking also as I have blinds everywhere. Xx

The law regarding blinds changed a couple of years ago. We had some blinds made for our extension and the woman making them said that we had to have these fairly crappy chains that are incredibly short even though our dc are teenagers. They snap if you put more than about 5kgs of weight/tension on them. Tbh, they are not up to the job as our blinds are large and heavy.

I agree that there ought to be regulations in place for holiday rentals, hotels etc but think in private houses people should have the choice of blind fittings. If my children were younger I'd opt for the safety fittings, but it's annoying to be forced to have them (and have the wretched things fixed every few months) when we don't need them.

I'm glad your dd was ok.

I banned blinds from my house (even though I like them) after someone shared this video on facebook:

Possibly triggering
www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/moment-toddler-silently-strangles-window-6780820

A woman is filming her small children playing (all in the same room with her), when she pans around and realises her older toddler is standing silently against the wall with the blind loop around his neck, strangling. She screams and runs to save him (he was fine), but it is really terrifying to watch, especially as she was in the same room the whole time.