Caution: Ridiculous Warning Ahead | Do Try This at Home: Caution: Ridiculous Warning Ahead

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Caution: Ridiculous Warning Ahead

I can never decide whether people on the whole, as a group, species, or whatever are smart or dumb as a post. I work with people every day, so I sort of get a lot of chances to watch and wonder.

Granted, the people I work with are short and have only been on the planet 3-7 years. Still, I’d describe the short folks I work with as smart at the very least - creative, inquisitive, curious, with even occasional bursts of brilliance. None of them seem dumb as a post at any rate.

Something must happen to humans by the time we reach adulthood though that makes us dumber than a box of rocks. It's true that they took the “Warning: may contain peanuts” of the peanut butter I usually buy. But how do we get stupid enough to need this warning be on a package of birth control pills for cryin’ out loud?

“Do Not Use This Medicine If You Are Pregnant, Plan To Become Pregnant, Or Are Breastfeeding.

The manufacturers must be thinking something along the lines of: not only do we expect the people using our product to be trying to prevent a pregnancy already in existence, but these people can’t read words that don’t start with a capital letter. In fact, we suspect they’re using birth control pills WHILE trying to become pregnant.

Did it occur to the makers of these birth control pills that maybe the people who are taking birth control pills while trying to become preganant SHOULD be taking birth control pills REGARDLESS of whether or not they’re trying to reproduce? And while they’re at it, perhaps they can get their partners to steal some condoms.

14 comments:

Beth said...

Stupidity Abounds with manufacturers of products. What I really want to know is when do you find time to read the small print on so many products? My advice is ignore it all and then you won't have to think about how stupid the world is! Works for me!

Kerry McKibbins said...

Such a funny post!
Sadly, you KNOW there are dopes out there who would bring a law suit and say....."I didn't know!"

Carey said...

What is sad, they probably put that on there because someone did sue and they have to CYA for future lawsuits! LOL!

KarenSue said...

I'm tagging you on my blog,
the 7 random things.

so, tag you're it!!

Ingrid said...

There are peanuts in peanut butter?

RW said...

Hahaha so true!

DJ Kirkby said...

Oh thats funny. We spend quite a bit of time laughing over the 'warning may contain' labels or the 'serving suggestion' pictures.

Curly Glamour Girlie said...

It's a CYA world out there. Sad but true.

the frogster said...

No fooling. The ones that are scary to me are the ones that say things like "These pills should not ever be handled by women ever because of the risk of developing immediate death." Then I'm supposed to think, "Well, I'm a guy. Should be fine. I'll have two."

Yikes.

Anonymous said...

I read some ridiculous warnings but the problem is that common sense isn't so common and sometimes it's not stupidity but ignorance.

Like, maybe some poor pregnant woman (like oh, a teenager maybe) doesn't want to get pregnant AGAIN and isn't aware that while you are pregnant, you can't get pregnant!

Also, when it comes to breastfeeding, not everyone knows that breastfeeding is a natural birth control method. I hadn't known that you couldn't get pregnant while breastfeeding for the longest time. I could see someone thinking, "Had my kid, want to make sure I don't have another one right quick.."

Just playing Devil's advocate! I do agree with you though - some warnings seems over the top!

Jill said...

Beth - I dunno. *shrug shrug* I'd be out some major fun if I didn't think about how stupid the world is on a fairly constant basis. What can I say? I'm easy to entertain.

Thanks Kerry!

Carey - Yeah, I kind'a can't help wondering if someone hasn't already sued.

Thanks Karensue! I'll look!

Ingrid - Apparently so! Who the heck knew?!?!?!

Thanks Roger & DJ Kirkby!

Curly Glamor Girlie - Sad and yet disturbingly entertaining...

Frogster - TOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!

Ms.Q - Yeah, the breastfeeding one is a little tricky. As I understand it, you actually CAN get pregnant while breastfeeding, it's just not all that likely. Your fertility comes back at some point even if you're nursing (usually when you start introducing solid foods, but it could be earlier, especially if you're supplementing with formula). Since you can't accurately predict WHEN exactly you will regain your fertility, relying on nursing as birth control is sort of a toss of the dice.

Janet said...

LOL!! Totally with you on this one, Jill! And what's with marking those little bags in shoe boxes "Do not eat"? Who the heck would look at one and decide, "Hey, that looks tasty. Think I'll have a nibble."

Jill said...

JP - Yeah, you'd think all the LITERATE people would already know not to eat those things!! And what the heck kind'a good is the labeling going to do for an infant or toddler?

Anonymous said...

When it comes to those little what, silica packs that keeps things like pills and shoes and what all DRY, I always think that the warning not to eat them is sorta like a reverse Cracker Jack prize!

And what about suppositories? I've heard that people eat those! But maybe that's an urban myth.

Thanks for the info on breastfeeding being a tricky form of birth control. Not that I will ever being using such a method but it's inneresting.

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