With summer sports starting up this week families are madly arranging shared transport to and from training and games. Parking is at a premium in our area and my car has the capacity to seat 7 so I often find myself as Parent Most Likely to Be Primary Taxi Driver.
TECHNICALLY I could take six kids but I seem to be the only parent left who will not let their children sit in the front passenger seat. I think that five excited kids in a car smooshing pieces of apple and SAOs into the carpet is more than enough anyway.
By the way, we are talking age group 6-9 here.
It is not illegal anywhere in Aust. to have a child in the front seat if they are "properly restrained". However, the most commonly reported recommended minimum age for sitting in the front of a car with airbags seems to be 12, although some say 10. Some US-based reports say 14. And that it is not a size but an age-related issue (muscle/bone development/tone etc).
Anyway, what do you think? Am I truly the only parent left whose primary school-aged children are strapped into the back seat? Am I over-cautious? I know I rode in the front seat all the time as a child, but we didn't have airbags then.
*image from here
10 comments:
Oh my! I share the same concerns about front seat passengers but reading the comment about the US research worries me. NOt a size issue but age related muscle development/tone issue may rule me out of being front seat passenger. My muscles are non existent and toned body - forget about that!
I think, S, that even in your more delicate state that you would meet the development requirements stated in the report ... it was implying that you needed to have the bone/muscle development reached at puberty. :-)
Unfortunately my husband of the "two useless cars" (only two seats) started a trend of using his car when out and about with our elder girl. Thus, she now pesters me CONSTANTLY into letting her into the front of my car. I have relented on a few occassions but have now put a stop to it as it only has to be "that" one time she's in the front and we are involved in an accident.....
Love your birkenstocks by the way :-)
I don't allow my kids in the front. We have air bags. The safest place is the backseat and that is where they stay. I also still have J.T. in a booster even though he is almost 7 and pretty tall for his age. Abby is still in a five-point harness and she is three. I am flexible on some things, but not safety. I read a blog by Danielle Broadhead, who lost her 3.5 yearold daughter in a lowspeed car crash.... her only injuries were sustained by her adult seatbelt.
Oh, that's terrible about the 3.5 yo. Both my kids still use the built-in boosters that our Volvo has. They are 7 & 9.
No riding in the front of the Fairlie-mobile for under-agers. And now you've passed on that information about being 14, I'm going to have to upwardly revise my ruling about when it will be okay. I still have The Impossible Princess in a 5-point harness.
After our talk yesterday and reading this blog you have boosted my existing opinion about kids in the backseat - there won't be any more relenting under pressure with the 9 year old.
Anyway, it's bad enough being back-chatted from the back seat let alone from the seat next to you.
;-)
Front seats only in extreme cases, like having to transport lots of kids. Otherwise, back seat all the time. I don't even have airbage, I just think they're better off in the back.
I'm sorry I haven't been round. I thought you were on a blogging break! Must have mixed you up with someone else.
Hi Stomper Girl! Yes, well I WAS on a blogging break...but, well, I just can't stop talking (online) I'm afraid.
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