Meghan’s Journal

The past three days has been an educational and inspiring experience. For the first time, all of the members of Parents Against Tip-Overs met in person. It’s amazing how it somehow felt as though we had known each other for a lifetime. It was an unspoken feeling that we are family.

We came together this week in Bethesda, MD to attend the the ASTM International meeting as voting members to encourage a stronger voluntary standard to be developed. 

We were fortunate to be in the same city that houses the Consumer Product Safety Comission’s (CPSC) offices. We met with the acting Chairman and all of the commissioners for the CPSC. In extremely powerful meetings we provided photos of our children, shared our personal stories, and encouraged their support in our mission to advocate for stronger and mandatory safety standards for furniture. We attended the ASTM meeting and let our children’s voices be heard. There has been little change to the current standard in the last fourteen years. This is how long one of our members has been advocating since the loss of her daughter in 2002. 

But today, our voices were united. Today they felt tour presence. Today they realized that we are here and that we are not going anywhere. Today they were forced to see “data” as actual beautiful lives that were lost due to insufficient standards. Today our children are beginning to make a difference.

There is a very long road ahead of us. We are focused, we are educated, we are professional, and we will not stop until children are no longer at risk from furniture that is brought into their homes.