Would someone please tell me what is the point of those yellow “Baby on Board” signs you see on cars, other than to make the parents feel they are being careful and protective super-parents?
More specifically, why is the death of a baby or a child any worse than the death of a young adult or a senior? But in many situations where dangers are being discussed, there is always someone who will start yelling “A child could be hurt or killed.” Or like Helen Lovejoy on The Simpsons, they will start up with “Won’t somebody think of the children?”
Now, I believe every life is valuable. Even that of a senior who is about a week from dying of old age.
But if you look at it from a purely economic point of view, the death of a baby represents a less serious loss than the death of a young adult. Most young adults are people in whom society has invested education, health care, etc. for over twenty years, and they are just beginning their productive, tax-paying phase.
The death of a baby is sad, to be sure, but most young parents can have another, and how much has society invested in that baby compared to the young adult? If you are going to tell me that the reason for the sign is that the baby is more delicate and vulnerable, why not put up similar signs for seniors?
So what is that stupid yellow sign supposed to mean anyhow? Don’t hit our car because we have a baby on board? Folks, I was not intending to hit ANY car, thank you very much.
The best satire I ever heard on this subject was when Marge Simpson shows Homer a “Baby on Board” sign and says “Now people will stop intentionally hitting our car”. I love that line!
So before you put that stupid sign on your car, ask yourself WHY?
In ancient times, a child could be left to die of exposure to the elements until two years of age. We should take up this noble and ancient tradition, and then sell the bodies to fast food restaurants.
In case of an accident, like the Tot Finder window decals, Baby On Board signs were supposed to tell emergency responders to carefully look for the wee ones.
I’ve seen them in the Netherlands for quite some years.
Being Dutch, any text in English sounds a little less silly and a bit more cool then it would in Dutch. “Baby aan boord”. But it is still tremendously silly, in an annoying way.
I think it’s just one of those things young parents do because they are young parents and want to do all the trimmings. Rites de passage. Same reason why they put a wooden stork in the front yard (if they are Dutch?). Or wear " father to B" shirts when they’re American. It is not meant as communication to other drivers, other then " Hey! I’m a parent!"
“Baby On Board” is a three word code for the true message:
This car is driven by a person who will never drive faster than 75% of the speed limit, and who will never make a turn without waiting for a break in traffic of at least two blocks, and even when that happens will continue to make 12 final shoulder checks. As well, this car will brake at the sight of any movement in front, left, right, behind or in trees off to the side.
I think the original idea was to alert the first responders to an accident that there was a baby in the car, who might get missed in the crisis.
Pretty weak rationale, anyway, since it assumes that the first responders are incompetent. Also, for it to be meaningful, parents would have to regularly take the sign down when they don’t have the baby in the car.
I had thought these had died out with the 80s, but like Valteron, I’ve been seeing them popping up again laterly. Could it be that the children of the 80s are now becoming parents and going out looking for the damn things, because it’s what mum and dad had in the car when they were little? :smack:
I don’t think it’s assuming first responders are incompetent, if it was a fire or other situation where the first responders would have to put themselves in harm. With a BoB sign the first responders might take a calculated risk to see if a little one was in the car, when they would not ordinarily otherwise.
Unfortunately this in not what it became of the meaning of the sign. It was a demand by the parents for special rights, on society.
In order to make this a debate, I don’t really agree with the above. My views on the elderly tend to be controversial especially when I bring them up among family. A senior a week away from dying is valuable in the same way that a car with 250,000 miles on it with a cracked engine block is. A baby is that shiny new Mercedes sitting on the lot with a full tank of gas. It is all relative but they are not the same.
I think the signs are stupid as well although I don’t think I have seen one in 25 years (is someone posting from 1987 again? shame shame). Still, having young children of my own makes me very aware that a laden parent does need certain kinds of room and courtesies just because of the nature of the situation. None of it should be extraordinary but I am more likely to push for the death penalty for someone that drives like a dick with my kids in the car as opposed to me alone.
I don’t blame the OP. The thread probably just got picked up by the server. I think I just saw a thread called Breaking News: Challenger Mission Reported “Highly Abnormal” get posted.
My ditzy glurge-merchant sister-in-law had one that said “déjalo nacer” - let it be born - for pregnant women’s cars. I’m pretty sure there was a double-meaning as an anti-abortion message.
They are more vague now. There will be a cutesy picture printed on thin plastic, attached to the backseat window via suction cups. I see a lot of scenes from Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, something like that.
I don’t think anyone’s going to drive less like a jerk just because there’s a BABY in there. There are living breathing fragile people in every car and the damn things are worth thousands of dollars but few people seem to behave like they know that. Is baby murder worse than regular murder?
Here in Montreal, I think Baby On Board signs just mean: “Don’t you dare honk at me and/or give me the finger, I’m entitled to cut you off at top speed while I chat on my cellphone because I have a precious bundle in the back seat.”
It is just a meaningless show of parental pride. Just like I have a window sticker on my back window that says “My son is a Sailor, US NAVY” Parental bragging, nothing more, nothing less. Actually the wife made me put it there, I was army, my dad was army, and he is navy. But we love the little squid all the same…
As to the claim of warning EMT’s to look for the little one, that is pure bull. As a former EMT I can tell you EMTs always look for patients. I know of a single case when a crash victim was ejected from a truck and landed in a corn field and not found until the next day, but if anyone having a cite to a case of a patient not being found in the car, please enlighten me.
