The ABCs of Child Injury

What is the purpose or mission of this book? This book was written because there is no license or test required to have children. Unlike a driving test or examination, a parent is not required to take a written test or performance test to qualify as a parent. As a parent, I understand and realize that there are a lot of decisions to make. A parent will make mistakes along the way. While children often forget this concept, parents are not perfect and do make mistakes.

What makes for a good parent? Well, this is a more difficult question than “What is the purpose or mission of this book?” A good parent is someone who devotes the time, energy, emotion, common sense, unselfishness, reason, and thought to the child. A good parent is a provider of support (both emotional and financial). A good parent strives to learn more about child care and other issues that may affect or enhance the health, safety, and well-being of a child.

This brings us back to the original question— “What is the purpose or mission of this book?” The purpose or mission of this book is to provide valuable and concise information for parents that will help enhance or improve their child’s health, education, safety, and welfare. Will this book by itself make you a good parent or caregiver? Let’s be realistic now—this book by itself is not a magic potion and will not by itself make you a good parent; however, the valuable tips in this book may make you a better informed, more aware parent. If all prospective parents were required to pass a test in order to have or care for children, would you pass that test? Ask yourself “Do I know enough to protect and guide my child as I should?” Hopefully, the information in this book will help you answer these questions in the affirmative.

As a parent, I thought about how I could empower you or educate you on issues that affect the health, safety, and education of your child. As a child injury lawyer, I am quite familiar with the legal issues surrounding a child injury. Of course, a parent would be empowered and educated by the sharing of my knowledge of this area of the law. In addition, I thought it was important to share the knowledge of other professionals who deal with children and child injuries every day. These professionals have a unique and valuable perspective of children. Having advice from these professionals will certainly empower any parent. With this in mind, I decided to contact these professionals for advice to pass on to parents.

The advice and information in this book from myself and other professionals will hopefully help parents respond and deal with child injuries in a calm, effective, and reasonable manner. When a parent is facing a situation in which a child is injured, a few questions immediately come to mind: “What happened?” “What happened to my child?” “What should I do?” “Where should I go?” Ideally, a parent would have each of the professionals mentioned in this book at his or her side to provide advice, direction, and guidance. Since the constant presence of this “dream team” of advisors and professionals is not realistic for every parent, I decided to write this book to provide this information in an easy-to-read guide so that parents can better respond to and deal with a child who has been injured.