Just say NO to shag

Shag rugs are making a comeback. They've got a lot of things going for them: they're an easy way to add texture to a room, and they're really soft to lie on or walk across in bare feet. But if there is any chance a small child will enter your house, don't buy one.
Here's what will happen: You'll buy the shag rug, and maybe it'll tie the entire room together. So your well-meaning relatives will have to come over and see it. Odds are good that someone will be bringing a small child. All very small children eat cheerios, because they're easy to eat when you don't have fine motor skills. All small children drop cheerios, or whatever small, crunchy food they're eating.
Small children are very good at running away from you. Give the slightest indication that you're chasing after them, and away they totter.
Cheerios have a particular quality where they're able to break down into their component atoms with just the slightest pressure of your foot.

To summarize: Small children WILL enter your home, they WILL spill food on your new shag rug, and it will NEVER be clean again.

This leaves you with the following dilemma: How do you tactfully ban small children from your home? Especially when they're family?

"Oh, come on," they'll say, "it's just a rug"

And that's just it. As funky as they are, shag rugs were never designed for the real world.