I pick an unusual topic today. Kids toys...
Those of you who follow me on twitter may have seen my little 'rant' earlier today about the lack of toy ambulances in shops. They are full of fire engines, police cars, construction vehicles and sports cars, but very few ambulances. Even those that do are generally lacking effort, or as in today's case, came with a police man wielding a truncheon! (I can believe some would like this to be a reality when dealing with less salubrious of characters!)
It's not envy at my fellow services, not jealousy that someone hasn't made the effort to create us in miniature, it's bigger than that. Well, it's an element of that, but it's mainly, for me, about a lack of awareness. Kids grow up playing with, recognising, understanding the other services. They become interested, they have a drive to become a police officer or firefighter. They develop (generally) a respect for these services.
They know little about ambulances or Paramedics or the service. They fear them at times, and certainly don't respect them! It's as much the fault of the profession for, in it's nature, being secretive but maybe if they sold more ambulances, RRVs or little plastic helicopters tomorrow's new paramedics might say "I've wanted to do this since I was given a toy ambulance!"
I know they do exist, heck I own a couple, it would just be nice though to pop into a shop and see some on the shelf looking proud next to their colleagues!
Funny you should mention that. My girlfriend commented the lack of toy ambulances in Hamleys when she was trying to buy one for me (... long story!).
ReplyDeleteI agree, toys would probably aid in helping kids understand and respect the work of ambulance services but I think the problem runs a bit deeper than simply awareness. Because of the nature of healthcare, it is harder to sum up their work in one kid-friendly soundbite. Police arrest bad guys, firefighters put out fires etc. It would be possible to say that paramedics et al "save life" but that seems a bit nebulous. Ditto with equipment carried; there's an obvious linear link between handcuffs and baddies or hoses and fires but how do you begin to go about explaining the point of an AED to a small child?
When I'm on duty with St. John and not much is happening I make a point on giving kids that are interested a tour of the vehicles and trying to explain some of the kit (if I can wrestle the wee boys out of the driving seat for long enough) but it doesn't have the same immediate impact of some of the stuff other services carry and as such it's hard to keep their attention.
That's my 2p worth anyway!
JR