Thanks for the update!
Hot dogs aren’t a good stand in for fingers. You need a carrot or parsnip.
My sister tells me I worry too much, which is true, but sometimes I think it’s justified, so I want to run this by other people and get their reactions.
My sister has an old timey tabletop fan because she likes the way it looks. It’s the kind they don’t make anymore, with the huge gaps in the grill. They don’t make them anymore because they’re not safe. She uses it in the kitchen because she gets hot when she cooks. The ceiling fan is at the other end of the room over the dining table, so she needs something closer. She puts it on the end of the bar, which is about 3-4 feet from the stove.
This thing makes me nervous because I know accidents happen. If I say anything, she waves me off.
But. She has a 1 ½ year old granddaughter who visits frequently, and she runs the fan while the child is in the house, which I find horrifying. She says the child can’t reach it, but we all know children will find a way to reach what they want. My sister also has 2 large clumsy dogs who will get to the bar countertop if they smell food. What if they lunge at the countertop and knock the fan over the edge, right where the cats’ food bowls are, and the granddaughter likes to feed the kitties.
Am I worrying too much?
My answer depends on what, exactly, is an “old timey table top fan”. Is it one of those really old fans where even the blades of the fan are metal and the weight is considerable?
Is this kind of like the one you are discussing?
My opinion is that, unless the thing is much heavier and weighs 15 pounds, you’ve already done your part by mentioning your concerns. If you truly think it is a hazard, how about giving her a new fan as part of her Christmas? Try to reach an accord with her. If it is that old, it’s probably less efficient than the modern, much lighter, and much safer ones.
The one you pictured looks much safer. The grill on hers has 3-inch gaps and yes it has metal blades and yes, it is heavier than a plastic one. I will offer to buy her a different one, but I think she will refuse, saying she likes the look of the old fashioned one. I think it was broken and my BIL fixed it for her.
So maybe more like this?
For people with certain aesthetic sensibilities it may be satisfying to gaze upon such a thing, but I wouldn’t want one of these running in my house; any soft tissue that pokes through that coarse grate is almost certain to get cut, or even cut off. Kids and pets are oblivious to the hazard, and so are some adults.
Since you asked this very same question 10 months ago:
I’d say the answer is yes.
IMO your overall posting history suggests you’re very skilled at worrying. I’m not competent to say if that’s too much; that’s you’re call, not mine. But you do do a lot of it.
Thanks. I remembered this one’s SDMB debut, too. You saved me a forum search 
I apologize for making another post about this. I had forgotten that I asked about it once before (my memory isn’t that great). I had a bad dream about this fan last night so that’s why it’s on my mind again. Thanks for understanding.
Doesn’t apply to wood-burning stoves or fireplaces. On Thanksgiving I barely snatched a visiting toddler away from our big soapstone wood stove time (he was not supposed to be in that room at all, but he is very good at opening doors). Another half second and he would have had first and second degree burns all over. Not just a finger. They make protective surrounds for wood stove for that reason.
I doubt that we’ve gone overboard in protecting toddlers. Older children, yes. Toddlers no. They have zero sense of self-preservation, a sky-high sense of curiousity and exploration, and very poor motor skills.
I wouldn’t leave on of those fans running around small children who could not be properly supervised. I also wouldn’t leave a container of talcum powder out in the vicinity of the fan when older children, teenagers, and adults could not be properly supervised. Unless it wasn’t my house or my fan.
I grew up with those fans. As a 7-8 year old, I often poked my fingers through the holes. What I recall from the experience is that you can’t do yourself much damage from the front: the leading edge of each fan blade is set well back from the previous blade’s trailing edge, so your finger is gently thubbed by the flat of the fan blades. Now, if you turn it around and stick your fingers in through the back, now you’ll have your finger getting whacked by the slicing edge of each blade. The fan is chopping air from the back of the fan and pushing it out the front. (Think about it. This is relevant). Stick your finger in through the back and it will obligingly attempt to chop that as well. Kids that age being who they are, I did of course cautiously evaluate just how firmly I had to push my finger against those impacts before it started to really hurt.
Extrapolating to toddler behavior, if a young child went to the back of the fan and rather suddenly poked a finger in, there’s gonna be a solid painful whack from the edge of the fan blade, and pain and crying will result, but no blood or dismemberment unless someone has methodically sharpened the fan blade to turn it into a kitchen knife.
In the end, it’s her house, her fan, and her granddaughter, so you don’t have a lot of leverage, but the mother certainly does. Have you talked to her about it and expressed your concerns? I’d say the decision to intervene is hers. If she sees no problem, then I would let it go.
When the Firebug was little, we cooked almost exclusively on the two back burners, only using one of the front burners if we needed to use three burners all at the same time (which almost never happens).
A lot of household risks, to children or otherwise, are easy to ameliorate. Like the one with the fan. Electric fans are cheap. I’d buy Sis a new fan of similar size.
I’d say if nothing has happened in the months between your OPs you must’ve been worried too much.
Tell them. Kid gets older. Learns. Fan stops working. Any number of things.
Rest easy. Most kids grow up with all their digits.
I understand tho’.
I worry about lots of stuff too.
Try not to think about the kid learning to drive.
When I was a kid, both pairs of grandparents had old treadle sewing machine in the living room for display (plant stands, as I recall). I remember playing with them but I also remember later being not allowed to play with them. Something must have happened to a cousin.
Those were in fact dangerous. Us older kids would see how fast we could get the treadle pumping while the younger ones toddled around unaware. That wheel and its 25 pounds of spinning, pinching, crushing cast iron could easily lop off a kid’s hand at the wrist.