How fucking stupid do you have to BE to let your kid run around inside a car with no seatbelt?? I saw one kid, probably 6 or so, on I-Fucking-95 climbing all over the backseat of his family’s car as they zoomed down the road. What the fuck are these people thinking??? “Nothing” I know. But do they just not care if their child is injured or killed? I mean what the fuck?? I’d really love to just kick the shit out of these parents!!!
I want people like to get in accidents. Nothing major, just very minor fender benders. That way, maybe the scare would shape them up, and they’ll learn what the seatbelt is there for.
People who drive around with their baby/toddler in their lap… Well let’s just say there’s a special place in hell for them.
Hawaii had (has? Help me out, Audrey) a hotline for people to call to report un-secured kids. Give them the license plate number of the car and the organization would send a reminder to the parents.
It’s one thing if a ‘rational’ adult doesn’t use one; for kids it’s another thing entirely - the ‘adult’ is supposed to know better.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for bring this up Opal. I can’t tell you how often over the years I’ve seen idiots do this to their children. Don’t they realize that in a collision going only 30 miles per hour they could walk away but their child could be toast?
I have called people on this behavior only to have them give me some pissy assed excuse. I once caught a car full of people leaving Comiskey Park with about 4 kids standing up in the car and unseatbelted. When I pointed out them to the Cop on the corner directing traffic(he let them go through the light), he stated I could go catch them if I wanted to. I called them a bunch of morons to their face, it did no good.Why do “loving” parents do this to their children??
My daughter is 3 1/2, and still in a carseat. I was under the mistaken impression, for the first three years of her life, that she had to be in a carseat until she was four. I found out just a few months ago that that was not correct. Well, it wasn’t correct when I found out about it, but it was going to be correct. They just passed a law here that requires mandatory carseats until the age of four.
Maybe I’m psychic or something. I don’t know. But I feel safer with her in a carseat. She’s a petite kid. Small & slender. A regular seatbelt would cut in to her neck so badly. When she’s old enough, I’m going to have to get one of those thingies to put on the belt so she can wear it comfortably, because I will not have her slipping it under her shoulder.
I see kids bouncing around in cars here all the time. Man, it pisses me off. My stepson’s mother is not a big seatbelt enforcer, either, which really pisses me off. If my stepson ever gets hurt in a car accident with her because he wasn’t belted, I swear I’ll do my best to get her prosecuted for something, if it’s within my means.
I stayed in a carseat until I was 4, and then I was in a booster seat until I started Kindergarten.
Not as fucking stupid as the idjits who put their kids in the back of a pickup truck with the dog.
Here in Texas, kids are SUPPOSED to be belted in, or in a carseat, but you see a lot of them just sitting loose…or worse, riding in the back of a pickup truck! I used a carseat and seatbelt on my daughter, when she was a kid, and now she buckles herself in when she drives. Not only is this a safety measure if you’re in an accident, it keeps the driver a bit saner if the child(ren) are safely secured in one place during a trip, even just down to the grocery store. It’s a good habit to get into.
My son graduated from car seat to booster seat at 4 and a half years. He’s staying in the booster seat til he is too big for it. Period. The law here says they have to have a seat until they are 40 lbs, and while my son turns 5 this month, he is still only 36 lbs. Hey, his booster seat makes the seatbelt fit better, it’s more comfortable, and it has pockets for his toys. It’s a win-win situation.
I just got our other car back on the road and first thing I will be doing tomorrow is installing the car seat. I only have to drive the girls about ten blocks to get to the sitters but moving the car an inch without having them secured is just plain irresponsible.
Hail lunasea! The jerk wits that drive around with their child sitting in their lap are merely unsuccessful murderers (as of yet). Whenever I see someone doing this, I pull along side at a stoplight and yell over to them;
“Kids make great airbags, don’t they?”
As difficult as it is, try to remember that at least these morons are chlorinating their own gene pools. It’s just sad to think of their kids footing the pool maintenance bill.
Hug your kids at home, and belt them in the car!
Well said Zenster, well said.
Oooh, I like that! Now I just need a bullhorn!
Persephone wrote: She’s a petite kid. Small & slender. A regular seatbelt would cut in to her neck so badly. When she’s old enough, I’m going to have to get one of those thingies to put on the belt so she can wear it comfortably, because I will not have her slipping it under her shoulder.
You’re absolutely right that you don’t want her putting the shoulder part of the belt under her arm or behind her. The belt does not work properly that way. I have an otherwise intelligent, thoughtful friend who allowed her son to ride that way. She also allowed her 5 year old to sit in the center, lap-belt-only seat. I was unable to convince her that she was endangering her children’s lives.
I, too, have a petite 5 1/2 year old still in a booster. She will be in it for at least another year. It’s not just the “shoulder” belt going across the neck that is a problem. On a young child the lap part will go across the soft tissues of the abdomen rather than the bony part of the pelvis, where it is intended. Ill-fitted lap belts can, in an accident, cut right through to the spine.
Well hopefully here in North Carolina they won’t be doing that any more. A new law went into effect September 1, if you are caught with your kid not in a carseat, booster seat, or seat belt on it’s an automatic fine of $250.00 on the spot, no excuses accepted. Of course we also have a mandatory seat belt law, which is also an automatic fine. It was enforced when the law first went into effect, but now it’s kinda gone by the wayside. You will still get a ticket if you are caught but the law officials aren’t noticing it as much. I hope this doesn’t happen with the law for kids being buckled in.
Last Spring when my son was in the ICU for an illness, he had a roomie for a night another 16 year old who’d managed to get a concussion from an accident that happened in a parking lot. Yep, no seat belt. after the kid left, my son said “you know mom, that’ s one thing I have to give you credit for - you got me to the point that I don’t feel right if I’m in a car without a seat belt.”
Okay for infants and toddlers, but what about once the kids are old enough to take the seatbelt off by themselves? My sister used to get extremely frustrated with her daughters and their habit of waiting until mom was on the freeway, then unfastening the belts and jumping around in the back seat. Threats didn’t work, and by the time she would find a place to pull over, they would be be seated and fastened back in. She was by no means alone in this. Many of her friends with children the same age (usually the 5-10 year-olds) did the same. Most of them have been pulled over at one time or another and ticketed, which only seems to give the worst of these kids a feeling of power - “Bribe me, or I’ll make the policeman give you a ticket”. Even the best kids are constantly pushing the envelope, and unless you can put an adult in the back seat with them all the time, you can end up at their mercy. Could almost make you long for the days when it was okay for dad to reach behind him and swat whatever kid was causing touble in the backseat.
What do you mean, “almost”?
I say that if you can’t control your kids well enough that they keep their fucking seatbelts on, they might as well fly through the windshield during a collision. Saves you the embarrassment of having to visit them in prison later.
If my kids did that, hell yeah I’d swat them. I’m not usually a spanker, but some things require putting your foot down.
If your kids are threatening you with a ticket, I think that’s indicative of larger problems.