Have we reached a new low with NJ ‘baby box’ program?

When the assembly comes up with as dumb an idea as a cardboard baby box to send home with new parents so that the kid will sleep in a "safe place", have we reached a new low?

I've always complained about the child protection service in New Jersey, now called Department of Children Protection and Permanency (DCPP), and how their overreaching practices have managed to annoy and infringe upon the rights of New Jersey families. But maybe this is one place where DCPP actually SHOULD step in.

If you don't have the means or the brains to find a proper place for your baby to sleep, said baby should probably not be allowed to come home with you at all. Send home a pamphlet explaining sudden infant death syndrome and the best way for a baby to sleep. Give out the information and be done with it.

We can't prevent every bad thing from happening. You've got the government deciding that a child should be taken from you if you leave your kid alone in the car for a minute to run into a convenience store for a cup of coffee.

So do you think you can trust a parent with a brand new baby if they can't even figure out what's the safest place for that baby to sleep that first night home? And then of course, you have to wonder who manufactures these boxes and who's going to get a cut of the sales?

There has to be more to this stupid idea than meets the eye. I realize this is just a pilot program, but let's hope that there's some common sense in the legislature and that they will see the "baby box" program for the ridiculous idea that it is.

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