Teaching Kids To Handle Knives

I was recently doing the laundry and one of the less pleasant aspects of this routine is going through my teenage son’s gym bag. Sweaty socks, crusty underwear, shirts thatdon’t bend and a home made knife. Something fashioned out of a butter knife, sharpened on a grinding wheel and clad in duct tape for a handle. A shiv. I put this item aside and waited for my husband to get home to discuss it. He was as shocked as I was so we confronted our 17 year old, Sam, about it that evening.

Sam was embarrassed and sheepish about it at first. He explained that it was becoming the norm for kids at school to carry knives and some of the students even had guns. He claimed that he didn’t want to be the only kid unarmed and vulnerable as violence was on the rise at school.

As a mother with three teenagers I took a stance that was against the norm. I didn't want my kids to be vulnerable. Yet I also didn’t want them to be held victim by the very=devices they carried for protection. After discussing it with my husband we agreed.

Training. Training was the missing element. We agreed our children should be capable of defending themselves in a non lethal way.

My husband purchased three lock-back knives easily deployable with a thumb button. Two inch blades. Contrary to popular belief a two inch blade is more than enough to take the fight out of an opponent to buy you the time you need to escape.

He taught them the proper way to hold and conceal the knife in times of danger. Thetis to hold the knife with the blade tucked up the sleeve and not visible as opposed to holding it with the blade out like you’re about to butter some bread.

With the use of a training dummy the kids were taught non lethal puncture points specifically to slow your opponent down. Specifically the choice targets where thequadracept (avoiding the femoral artery), the calf, the top of the foot, the biceps (avoidingthe brachael artery), the palms and the right pectoral muscle.

They all learned how to properly use a knife to simply slow an aggressor down in anon-lethal fashion to allow them to run away. We kept tapes of all the training to be able to prove they were trained specifically to wound and not kill.

Embrace the reality that things are not about to become less violent. As tired as the saws I believe it’s better to be convicted by 12 than carried by 6.

Pain Relief After Labor

After a woman has a baby her body can be very sore. Post-partum pain is usually caused by sore muscles. The body can go into shock from all of the muscle strain. Everything can hurt, including your arms and legs. Often the hips can really hurt as well. This is s the result of having your feet and legs positioned in stirrups or in an odd position. Your back might also be sore as sometimes there can be a lot of maneuvering of the spine in order to allow the child to emerge from the womb.

People who have had an epidural also might have a sore back from the needle or because they did not feel the back strain happening because the pain killer was masking the feeling.

The thing is that most moms do not want to take drugs after labor because it can get into breast milk and cause you to sleep through paying attention to your baby's cries. That is why many people use other measures including taking warm baths and showers, using rice socks and flax bags for heat, icing the area and massaging the area. Your doctor can also tell you what medications, whether they be over the counter or otherwise are safe for you to take.

Many women experience a lot of post-labor pain in their lower regions. The pain can radiate from the vagina to the rectum. This is because this area expands to allow you to let the baby out of your body. You can also be in pain if forceps or an extruder of some kind was used to help you give birth.

In this case a sitz bath can help soothe damaged tissues. You can get over-the-counter and sitz bathas that are good for this purpose. There are also portable pads known as TUCKS pads that can help soothe the heat or pain emanating from your tissues.

Some women get headaches after giving birth. This is due to hormonal changes and stress. Relaxation can really help take care of this type of headache. Women who have epidural or spinal injections when they give birth are quite prone to this type of headache and may need to rest for a few days after labor.

Breast pain is also common after labor but there is not that can be done about it. You can try applying warm packs to your breasts if they are giving you pain after giving birth.