Fuckhead parents who don't seatbelt their kids!

The BBQ Pit
61

Philosophically Speaking

In my experience, these “idiot” parents appear to be 1)uneducated, 2)low-class, 3)uninformed 4){derog adj of your choice}. Please follow this short scenario.

…“Idiot’s” unbelted child dies in a collision, by drowning, by accident while wandering unattended in the street, from malnutrition, or abuse. The idiot gets convicted and gets a sentence, preferably jail. Voila! One less uneducated, low-class, uninformed, {" "} idiot for me (and you) to have to contend with…

If, by some twist of fate, the idiot happens to get off scott-free, the idiot still pays, as life will never be the same. The idiot has to suffer the ramifications of having maimed, handicapped, or killed that child or someone else.

Life goes inexorably forward (with or without a few souls) each day according to some “plan” and, pardon my presumptuousness, I don’t think any effort–thoughtful and kindhearted as it may be–is going to change anything one iota.

I dare say, we’ve all seen beautiful, innocent people suffer mentally and physically, horribly and needlessly–and not due to anyone’s neglect or abuse. Accidents happen. People die. Children, sometimes at the hands of their “caregivers.” …part of ‘the plan,’ …natural selection, whatever.

Realistically Speaking

I become incensed when I see a beltless child, but it’s definitely not my duty to spout threats, warnings, or recitations of the law unless I have taken law enforcement as my vocation OR unless I am prepared to “back up” my statements here in Gun-Totin’ Redneck Country. Law or no law, redneck or no, strangers Do Not tell strangers what to do.

62

I don’t see the seatbelt laws as being any different from other child protection laws. Our Lamaze classes showed educational films about child safety seats, and our instructor related an incident about people whose newborn was brain damaged because they were in an accident bringing it home from the hospital.

All three of my daughters were in safety seats and later booster seats longer than most kids, because of their being petite (as someone else had talked about).

I never had any trouble about the kids staying in carseats, but I know of other parents who simply would stop the car, or return home if their children refused to wear safety restraints. It usually only took once or twice, especially if the original destination was a place the child/children really wanted to go to.

The people described in the OP could be at more risk for having an accident because of the extra distraction from within the car, and in that case they would be putting other people in danger.

63

Yeah, you’re right. How DARE we shame parents into belting their kids. If the kids die, oh fuckin well, life goes on for the rest of us. :rolleyes:

What a load of crap.

The next time you witness a child being put into danger or harmed by their caretaker, why don’t you just stick your chicken shit, don’t want to get involved, pea brained head in the sand. After all, if they get hurt or die it is just “part of the plan”, “natural selection”, or “whatever”.

I’ll continue making my feelings known, even if one of those big, bad, scary, gun-totin rednecks “thainks I’s a beeech fer sayin et”.

64

Hey, at least I know what you think of me now. The guessing was driving me crazy. :rolleyes:

Opal, I’m sorry we have such a disconnect, but I do not for one moment mis-understand your good intentions. I’ll try an analogy:
Opal preaching to me through my car window abotu child safety
Fundamentalist preaching to me on the street corner about my eternal damnation

I bet you’d shut the second one up pretty quick, huh? So the only difference I see is the subject. That fundie feels just as strongly about his subject as you do about yours. I do not see the difference. I am not (for the last time) trying to be cute, or coy. Just telling you that as much as I agree about the use of seatbelts, I disagree about the role we (as members of society) play in each others lives.

Right. Got it. Next time I see a stranger with a joint (illegal and dangerous) I’ll be sure to put a stop to that shit!

How did welfare get into this? Anyway, the examples ou give are wonderful, I prefer to stay out of the villiage.

Yup, me being one of those. Only took a few times for my son to figure out that the car stops when his seatbelt is tampered with.

That is one point I could not agree with more. (I think I mentioned it earlier). Wreckless driving should be addressed as such - wreckless child endangerment also. I don’t hesitate to let a driver know that they are encroaching in my lane, or merging too close, or anything else that is putting them in front of me unnecessarily.
But it’s really difficult to draw the line, if the situation is out of hand, I think anyone would step in. If it’s someone driving down the street, kids in the back without seatbelts, no one should (except a cop if there’s a law…)

I know the feeling Diane. Please see example above.

You break my heart. For all your good intentions, and stories, and emotional pleas, you must end with my asshole.

I do understand what you are saying, and I am not unsympathetic. I care about kids just as you do, and I don’t want any hard to come to any child for any reason. No matter what you and I think, or feel, parents/legal guardians need to take car of their kids. If someone asks for a hand, because they can’t manage, that is a completely different story. But most people don’t take well to preaching. Start your force feeding program, and they’ll throw it back in your face. Offer help where needed, and you will be a hero. Educate the stupid, but don’t for one moment feel that you are the keeper of all knowledge, and that it’s your place to enforce the law, or watch your fellow man and his offspring.

You hate my don’t get involved attitude? Fine. Need to tell me to shove it where the sun don’t shine. Good. Feel better? Hmmm.

65

I used to think only idiots didn’t belt their kids. Then I saw one of the other moms at my daycare run her daughter home clutched against her chest. Between herself and the steering wheel. She’s got an MBA from some ivy league place. Her husband is a doctor, graduated Duke. They were only going one block in a residential neighborhood, but I was so shocked I about passed out.

I’ve thought a lot about this, why I didn’t say anything to her, etc. I’ve concluded that parenting involves tons of risk trade-off decisions. I know Volvos are safest, but I don’t own one. I thought breastfeeding was best, so I did that past one year, but I know let my kid eat hotdogs. I’m fanatical about crib sheet safety, but I still haven’t babyproofed our house well. I almost never give my son cold medicine, but I agreed to have him on a very risky drug for the first three months of life. The list goes on and on. There are some things that I am willing to take a risk on. On others, I’m a paranoid demon of conscientiousness. I can’t always explain, logically, why one item falls in one column versus the other. It’s NOT logical. But on some things, it’s because there been a good PR campaign convincing me. Car seat safety falls into that category for me. I read an article graphically describing spinal cord injury in kids who are allowed to be forward-facing before 20 lbs and one year of age, and I’ll never forget it.

I presume that for some of us, this is a BIG risk, one we think no parent should choose to take. But there are parents out there who just don’t rank it up there very highly. I always assumed it was a certain “type” of parent who would buy into this assessment, but I was wrong. We judge parents who don’t belt their kids because we also assume that they blow off all other aspects of good care, too. But that’s an assumption, and we might be wrong. As sick as I feel when I see unbelted kids, I have to tell myself that for all I know that kid is breastfed until the age of 3, eats all organic food, and has parents who are there for it 24/7, etc etc. Then I look at my vitreous abode and put the brick down.

No criticism to this rant, BTW. Given the potential consequences of not belting (extremely graphic in my imagination), I have a hard time imagining why parents don’t do this. Also, it’s one issue that most parents can so easily be well informed about, unlike some of the others.

66

You’re not the stupid twat who saw me trip in the parking lot of the daycare and called family services and the cops (without getting within 50 feet of me) claiming I was driving my child home drunk, are you? These putzholes who stick their holier-than-though noses into other people’s lives get on my last nerve–and it’s already frayed. Either make sure you have the whole story, or keep your itty-bitty mind to yourself. Don’t you have enough trouble keeping your cats from being shot by BB guns, even though you don’t have enough responsibility to keep them from shitting in your neighbors’ gardens?

Hey, I’ve got an idea: y’all stay in your yards with your pets and kids and I’ll do the same. It isn’t your job to enforce the law, unless you want to do a Gomer and start standing on the street screaming “Citizen’s Arrayest, Citizen’s Arrayest.”

BTW, my 5 1/2 year old stays securely belted in the back seat at all times and reminds her forgetful mom as well. But, as either Ann or Abby says, MYOB.

67

Not necessarily. Bear with me a moment to explain.
I teach at a private school. We don’t offer bus service, so the parents have to come drop off and pick up their kids. We have a really small parking lot, but have a big circular driveway, where we do what we call “Drop Off” and “Dismissal” lines. The parents pull up, we get their kids out and off they drive. Just the opposite in the afternoon; the parents line up in their cars, pull up to the front and we get the kids into their car. Quite a convenience for the parents.

When my class dismisses (morning Kindergarten and the preschool) I see LOTS of kids getting in cars and not being belted in properly. Lots of my kids (ages 5 & 6) just buckle into the regular seat belt, and then stick the shoulder strap behind their back. It makes me crazy to see them do that. How much does that adjuster thing cost? A couple bucks? Also lots of pre-schoolers getting in carseats that are obviously NOT installed correctly (because they wobble back and forth), and lots of little ones (under 40 pounds) not even in a carseat.

We had one last year that used the type of carseat for an infant up to 40 pounds (not a booster - it was the type that is buckled into the car with the car’s belt and then the kid gets the straps on the carseat buckled around him), but the carseat buckle was broken, so she would let her child (age 4) get in the carseat, and then buckle the car’s seatbelt around him and the carseat.

These parents are definately NOT uneducated or low class. Uninformed, yes, but this is a nice school…all the dads are doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. and nearly all the moms stay home. It’s not like they can’t afford to buy a new carseat. I really wonder what some of them are thinking with their kids not being buckled in properly.

[minor hijack]
Another problem are these moms in their enormous Expeditions and Excursions and Suburbans and Navigators who have NO IDEA how to drive such a large vehicle and always run up on the curb. They can’t even turn a corner without hitting the curb. I think they should have training classes for people to drive those really big SUV’s.
[end hijack]

68

Well, I guess the debate is over. Ann or Abby says MYOB and therefore, we must. :rolleyes:

by the way, EVEN Ann and Abby recommend intervention when a child’s safety is at stake.

69

Yet AGAIN, I will restate what Opal has already said, A = A, then B, C, D and E does NOT also = A. Why do you fail to understand that? First the diet now you are bring fundies into the debate?!?!?

Ahh yes, there must be a very good explanation as to why you toddlers are standing on the back seat playing peek-a-boo with me as we are flying down the freeway. How dare I make assumptions! :rolleyes:

You know, I think the wiring in your brain connection has a short. Slap yourself upside of your head a few times and see if you can get it to work. Just make sure you hit really, really hard so you can get through all that mush. Maybe a baseball bat will work.

HELL-FUCKIN-OOOOO - WE ARE DISCUSSING IRRESPONSIBLE PARENTS, NOT IRRESPONSIBLE CAT OWNERS! I am certain if you look hard enough you will find a Pit thread that you could offer your BB gun vs cats comment, until then, try to keep up with the current topic, eh?

I’ll tell you what, if you don’t like my comments when you put your kid in obvious danger because you are too stupid to protect them, then don’t let me see you do it, simple as that. You don’t like the fact that I don’t turn the other way and pretend I didn’t see anything? Oh well. I guess it is something you are just going to have to deal with, because I’m not going to stop no matter how many times you tell me to mind my own business.

Don’t like it?

Too fucking bad!

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OMG, a Dear Abby and Ann Landers reader. . . .

hee hee

Hee Hee Hee

HA HA HA

Ahhhhh . . . .

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

HA HA HA HA :::snort::: HA HA HA HA HA

AHHHHHHHH HAA HAA HAA HAA HAA HAA

:::Peeing pants:::

Oh. . .

Hee Hee Hee

hiccup

70

Now it’s a pit thread!

Apologies to Diane and Opal, for turning this thread into a debate. Sorry, wrong forum.

I guess we just fail to connect here. I know what you’re saying and feel the same way when I see people (especially kids) in bad situations, we just will not agree on when and how to step in.

Chiaou

71

Trade - You’re giving up because I pee’d my pants, aren’t ya.

Sure, you SAY it is because we are just seeing it from two different sides and you apologize for debating in a Pit thread, but I know better.

:smiley:

72

Hey, I wasn’t even thinking of getting into your pants, but I do have some spare diapers and talcum powder. :wink:

Giving up is not in my nature, I do, however, feel that it is better to step away for a moment, and perhaps I’ll start a GD thread about it. Now, how to word it a little better than ‘fuck head parents…’

Sili

73

I do believe the person who brought up yelling between cars was talking about stoplights.

Note same topic that compares pets to kids. Note same assholes that yell at parents get their various underwear in knots about people bitching about their pets.

Read the rest of the post before you wedgie yourself trying to hit the reply icon. Really. That vein in your forehead isn’t at all attractive and you’re making an ass out of yourself when you don’t keep your shit together.

**

Well, we do have a sense of humor. Too bad no horse sense.

74

when I read through some of the posts, I get the idea that some people consider parents to be the owners of their children, so that they, and only they, have the right to decide what to do concerning everything about those children. I am more of the “it take’s a village” mentality, also. In a way, all of us who reside within modern civilization tacitly agree to this. Some of us have disagreements with the fine print, but I don’t think anyone discussing this here wants to see children hurt in any way.

I recently read someone quoting this verse from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (it may have even been one of the VanBuren sisters; sorry), and I think it may somewhat apply here (and I think also that it is beautiful).

Not much of a pit post, I guess, so if anyone starts a thread about this in GD, I’ll visit.

75

Well no shit Brainiac, just in case you missed it, there are more than a few of us in this discussion and although the “yelling between cars” was mentioned it was not the only example given.

Go back and peruse the thread one more time, m’kay?

Note the fact that my underwear stayed intact in the thread about pets. Note the asshole who is having a hard time grasping the fact that there are two separate threads. Note the fact that I don’t give a flying fuck whether or not you approve of calling parents onto the carpet when they blatantly put their kids in danger. Note that I will continue doing so whether or not you like it. Note that you are a dumbass.

. . . . and what the fuck is “various underwear”?

My shit’s packed just fine and maybe I like wedgies.

Don’t give yourself too much credit, Snookums, it would take someone with a lot more talent in flame generation to even raise my eyebrow. Of your big whopping 33 posts in the last couple of weeks since you registered, I’ve yet to see anything that has impressed me one way or another, flames included, but hey, your effort was noted.

Keep practicing Junior, and maybe one day the big kids will let you play. Until then - SCAT!! (Don’t make me cap a BB in your ass).

BTW, what the hell was your point or do you even have one?

What I think is funny is that you darken the doorway of a site meant to fight ignorance and then reference Dear Abby and Ann Landers.

HA HA HA!!!

Next think you know, Pookie here will be cracking Gallagher jokes!

76

Spider Woman - not so much someone who belongs to me, but someone who I am responsible to, and am responsible for. Not so much ownership as guardianship (until that point when they are ready to stand on their own).

There is of course an expectation that society has something to say about it, and yes, we all agree to be part of it just by virtue of living in it (as long as it’s a free society, and one is free to leave). But since we already have a system where children can be taken away from parents who don’t take care of them, assuming the fuckhead parent in the car without seatbelts is not one of those, I say leave 'em alone, others say no. That’s the story.

77

I guess I wouldn’t go to the extent of taking the kids away from the parents in the OP, but I see nothing wrong with writing the parents a ticket. Which is, apparently, the issue of disagreement, right? And in that case, I guess I’ll just agree to disagree with you.

[see ya at that other thread]

78

That last one was a real nice flame, Diane. I’d give it a 9.6.

79

(italics mine)

that I guess is where we part company. I think that the fuckhead parent in the car with unbelted child ** are ** proving themselves to be in the classification of parents who “don’t take care of them” .
Diane, please be advised, that I hereby and forever more, never want to piss you off. thank you.

80

That would be panties, boxers, whitie-tighties–you know, the non-sexist version of knickers.

[QUOTE]
Of your big whopping 33 posts in the last couple of weeks since you registered, I’ve yet to see anything that has impressed me one way or another, flames included, but hey, your effort was noted.[/QUOTE}

So, what, you have a bigger penis? Discovering this board makes you better? Oh, yeah, and you’re the one who got the Epstein’s mother joke.
Get a license to practice law enforcement, get a writ to stick your nose in everyone else’s child-rearing philosophies. Until then, fuck off and worry about yourself.