It seems like such a dangerous world. So many terrible things happen. So many kids get hurt.

It’s what keeps you up at night as a parent—what if, what if, what if?

But of course it doesn’t keep all parents up. You’ve been next to the parents at the beach who are seemingly unbothered, even as their toddler plays in the surf despite the rip-tide warning and the red flags. You’ve seen the parents in your neighborhood who let their kids ride bikes without helmets. You’ve heard their blasé dismissal of infectious diseases and viruses. You’ve been to the birthday parties where the adults check out, despite the unfenced pool. You’ve pulled up next to cars and seen little kids in the front seat, you’ve seen the poorly installed car seats. You know some people let their teenagers run wild.

As we’ve said before, we should remember that while the world is objectively dangerous and every parent is, as Joan Didion put it, a ‘hostage to fortune,’ some parents make the world much more dangerous. We should remember that these folks skew the statistics and mess up the sample. And it is these parents who should be far more worried than we are.

If we have taken care of the bike helmets and the vaccines, if we do a good job supervising, if we strap them in properly, if we follow the guidelines and observe the best practices, we should be able to worry less. Otherwise, what was the point?! Again, nothing is guaranteed in life and bad stuff happens to good people. But most of the time? Most of the time, the worst stuff happens to people who are not being safe, who fail to prevent preventable accidents, who neglect and ignore.

You did your job. You are doing your job. You are taking care of what can be taken care of. You should be able to feel good about that. You may never feel completely safe as a parent, but this should let you feel safer. After all, that was the point.

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