A family came into the store today to pay for their gasoline and wander around a bit. Father, mother, and adorable little gurgling apple-cheeked baby, maybe 4 or 5 months old. I watched them walk out and get into their car, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but the sight of that stupid half-wit mother plopping her fat ass down in the passenger seat with that baby in her LAP!
I thought to myself, “Oh, no. Surely not. Maybe she’s just going to sit there and nurse him for a few minutes before they take off.” But even as I was thinking it, Dickhead Daddy put the car in gear and took off.
I confirmed with my co-worker that my eyes weren’t deceiving me, watched to see which way they were headed, and called the highway patrol. They thanked me profusely. I really hope they caught them. There is NO EXCUSE for that. A basic car seat costs around $30 at Wal-Mart, and in my area, anyway, low-income families can get free car seats through WIC. And these were quite obviously NOT low-income people. Just stupid and irresponsible.
Oh, I’ve heard all the excuses. “But my baby hates sitting in the car seat!” Tough shit. Little dumplin’ will either get used to it, or you can find a baby-sitter, or learn to drive while wearing ear-plugs. You are the adult. Infants and toddlers are not capable of acting responsibly on their own behalves; YOU have to do it for them. “But I don’t like having him in the back seat where I can’t keep an eye on him!” What’s he going to do back there - build a freaking pipe bomb while you’re not looking? Two words: Visor mirrors. “But we’re on a long trip and I don’t want to have to stop the car every two hours to feed him!” Either plan ahead for enough time to make stops or enlist someone to sit in back and hold the baby bottle. Burp later. Do whatever you have to do, but DO NOT carry that kid in your lap! I know some cops who are pretty fucking tired of scraping little kids off the insides of windshields because Mom or Dad was using them for an airbag! And if there are people out there who still honestly believe that the kid is safer on their lap than in a car seat, then they are willfully ignorant to the point of perversity.
And if they come anywhere within my sight, they will be reported. People may say it’s none of my business, but when you are blatently endangering the life of a baby, motherfucker, you better believe I’m damn well going to MAKE it my business. I’ve done it before and I will fucking do it again.
GREAT!!!
I do the exact same thing! I believe strongly it is my RESPONSIBILITY to intervene when I see actions or behavior that is posing an immediate harm to a minor. I have gotten into confrontations, called the cops, followed people with a cell phone and gone to jail ( was released and patted on the back by the cops).
If you are a parent and don’t give a ratfucks’ ass about your childs’ welfare, I don’t care in the least if I embarrass you, inconvenience you, or get you in trouble with the law. you were big enough to make a kid now TAKE CARE OF IT!
grrrrrrrrrrrr…not many things really get me pissed off…
My roommate saw a little girl being beaten up by a teenage boy in the balcony of an apartment… he was strangling her and holding her off the balcony… other people gawked, he called the police. they showed up a short time later, interviewed the mom, who told them that it was just her nephew “playfighting” with her… so they didn’t do anything.
sigh… that little girl’s going to have a short unhappy life.
I once saw some little kids left in a running car in the parking lot of a grocery store late at night. I told the manager about it but he didn’t do anything. I should have stayed around but I didn’t, another couple said they would. But how do I know THEY were trustworthy?
I have kicked myself over and over for that, and even wrote a letter to the editor of our newspaper(it was published) telling about it. Sort of a confession. And I will NEVER do the like again. Next time(and I’m sure there will be one) I will call the cops no matter what. I felt like scum that other time and don’t want to feel that way again.
Maybe you’re too naive to realize that a baby does not have to go along on the shopping trip to pick a car seat. They’re designed to fit…are you ready? Babies.
So, they should leave the kid home alone, so some nosy neighbor can call the cops on them for that, too?
OK, they really have no excuse for not owning and using a car seat. When I had my daughter, we were required to prove we had a car seat in our car before the hospital would let us take her home.
I haven’t seen small kids in cars without car seats for quite a long time. I figured that people were quite used to them now (heck, I rode in a car seat when I was small.) Some people are starting to recommend that kids be in car seats until they are 80 lbs., though, and that will take some getting used to, especially if it becomes a law. I didn’t weigh eighty pounds until I was about twelve!
No, you dumbfuck! Leaving the kid alone at home under a certain age (the kid’s age) is a crime just as holding the kid in your fucking lap whilst hurtling down the road is. Either get a fucking babysitter for the kid or have the fucking carseat delivered to your fucking residence.
Or better yet, before the bundle of joy is born, buy the fucking car seat then!
So you already knew the obvious solution and posted that absolutely stupid stuff above? Good god, it staggers the imagination.
There are still stupid parents driving - that’s why cops around the country have what’s called ABC campaigns: enforcement of laws regarding Alcohol, Safety Belts, and Child protection car seats.
Maybe in your world babies drop down out of the sky.
But in the universe the rest of us are inhabiting, parents have some warning. Even in the most freakish case you could imagine, there’s time for Dad or somebody else to run out and buy a fucking carseat while Mom’s in bed after the birth. Most hospitals (at least in civilized countries) won’t let the new baby leave without a carseat these days, and they have cheap ones to loan or give away to parents who are flat broke or chronically disorganized.
There is no excuse for not having a carseat for a small child. NONE.
**
I love the lame excuses these people use.
He hates the carseat? Well, if you had used it from the day he was born, he wouldn’t know any different.
The visor mirrors are (amazingly enough) right there in the same freaking aisle as the carseats! Wow! How convenient! I think they cost a couple bucks.
**
Maybe you should have though of that before having a kid, lamebrain! When you have kids you have to change some things and make a few concessions. Get used to it. You could sit in back with him and feed him with a bottle. Otherwise you’re just going to have to stop. Is it going to kill you to get to your destination an hour or so later than normal? Leave earlier.
I though of something else.
There was an accident here a few years ago. Mom and her very young (3-4 months IIRC) were sitting in back, Mom holding baby, and not wearing a seatbelt. They were broadsided by another car. Mom and baby were both killed.
The dad’s reasoning for her actions were that the mom loved her baby soooooo much, she wanted to hold him all the time, and couldn’t bear to put him in the carseat, because then she wasn’t able to hold her precious little baby.
Apparently, she thought it would be okay sitting in the backseat.
Guess not.
I don’t know myself how heavy the Tzeroling is (she’s turning 8 in August), but Mrs. O is insistent on the use of seat belts and will not let her ride in the front seat until she is at least 12. Which works just fine for me, until the Tzeroling starts kicking the seat while I drive. A minor inconvenience, at best.
Marlitharn, please allow me to add my voice to the chorus of kudos. You did the right thing. Anyone in this day and age who would allow their child to sit unrestrained in a vehicle deserves to be smacked upside the head with a burlap sack full of fishing sinkers. I am not usually prone to violence, but on many occasions I have had to throttle back the impulse to reach into the car next to me and smack the crap out of a moron riding around with pwecious widdle baby dumplin’ on his or her lap.
This ain’t the BBQ pit. This is the fucking Summer of Love,
the Mutual Admiration Society, Do-gooders Anonymous and
Self-Righteous Pricks, Inc. all rolled into one. Get thee
to MPSIMS, O! foolish hand-wringers.
