Um, they’re a target?
However, people don’t usually remove the signs when the baby is not on board. So if you hit a car without a real baby in it, it’s less points. but keep trying anyway.
Paraphrased from Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law :
George Jetson : “I’m your great, great, great grandson.”
Harvey Birdman : “This means . . . at some point, I’ll actually get to have sex !”
George Jetson, looking uncomfortably from side to side : “Ummmm, no. There are other ways.”
Why are people driving around with their babies tied to boards, anyhow? That seems needlessly cruel, and a proper child seat would be much safer.
No debate and too mild for the Pit. Off to IMHO.
[ /Moderating ]
It makes them easier to discipline, using the Cheney™ Humanitarian Child-Rearing Interrogation System.
I had never heard of the first responder thing.
I always just though that those were for people who liked to advertise what’s going on in their and their children’s lives (in case you hand’t heard from them personally).
“Baby on Board” begets “Parent of Whitebread Elementary Student” begets “Parent of Whitebread Junior High Honor Roll Student”.
When it changes to “Parent of Whitebread High School Cheerleader” a parent is saying that they are so proud that they want to make sure any convicted sex offenders know where to find their daughters.
I’ve seen “ex-smoker on board” That’s for folks who can’t get by on the health benefits of quitting; but the approval of strangers makes it all worthwhile.
According to Snopes, the first responder rationale that I outlined earlier is an urban legend. My apologies for spreading it.
They say that the signs were meant as a safety measure, to encourage people to drive more carefully when near a car with a baby. Frankly, that strikes me as even more tenuous a rationale than the suggestion it was aimed at first responders. People are going to drive more cautiously near a car with a yellow sign in the back window, but go wild and crazy as soon as they’ve passed it?
They also mention that the company that started it was a Candian company, bought out by another Canadian company, so that might explain why there’ve been recent sightings up here.
(And, I can’t highlight Snopes’ article to cut and paste. Anyone know why??)
Thus endangering the life of the baby with all that sudden, panicky braking.
Mark this day on your calendar, folks! Tomndeb and I agree on something. I was tempted to put my OP elsewhere and I now realize that IMHO makes more sense!
Not seen very many of the BoB signs of recent.
One sign that tickled me was “A Turkey is for Christmas, not for LIfe”…a parody on the “A Dog etc etc”
I clicked and went directly to it. I am especially amused by the self-righteous indignation of the original manufacturer of the signs who feels that the parodies like “Ex-wife in trunk” are denigrating his noble safety effort. Yeah, right :rolleyes: I can’t tell you how often I have seen one of those signs and decided not to crash into that particular car.
The link works, yes, but I wanted to cut and paste a bit of the text from their article here - not the whole thing, obviously - within the “fair use” thing. But I couldn’t mouse over and select text on their site.
Unfortunately, I have sunshades with baby on board signs - two of 'em. Someone got them for me at my baby shower about a year ago. And I hate them with a rare and special passion, which is why I’ve bought two plain ones. I’ve just been too lazy to install them. They weren’t necessary when the kid was in a snap-in child seat with a canopy you could pull over to shade him, but now that he’s in a convertible seat, he doesn’t have a sun shade.
Regardless, I’m not sure why people still use or buy these things except to annoy other drivers. I’m glad I read this thread - now I have the motivation I need to toss them and install the new ones.
They are absolutely* everywhere * here. Some in English, some in Japanese, all with goofy cartoons on them. You would think it’s illegal to have a baby in a car without a sign declaring the baby. I would say one out of every five cars has one. Also, said babies are never in child seats. You regularly see very small children bouncing around cars or sitting in the driver’s lap. Is this everywhere in Japan or just this island?
I like the idea of the parody sign. Does anyone have a link to where I might buy one?
Sorry, but from a *purely economic * point of view (and I stress that I do not, in my personal morality, base the value of human life on this criterion) a baby is NOT like a shiny new Mercedes sitting on the lot with a full tank of gas. It is more like the raw mineral ore and petroleum used to make plastics, etc. that have been delivered (or liberated) from the womb of mother Earth and must now be worked upon, changed and refined through a number of processes before thay can be made into a Mercedes.
A young adult who has been taught eveything from how to use the toilet to how to control his emotions and not murder people who anger him, and has been formally or informally educated in hundreds of skills from how to buy groceries to how to program a computer, and who is now ready to take all his acquired knowledge and skills, enter the workforce, and start paying taxes and contributing to society. . . . . . . now THERE is your shiny Mecedes with the tankful of gas.
But I agree that the senior who is very old and ill is the exact equivalent of a car with 250,000 miles on it with a cracked engine block.
Luckily (I AM pushing 60 you know) we generally do not base our valuation of human lives on such economic factors.
But how about “Taxpaying, productive and fertile young adult on board”.
Those signs were a hit with the moms that thought you’ld be less likely to hit them tailgating or driving poorly, when they let you know a baby was in the car. Those little suction cup signs and bumper stickers were the in thing back then, and the sign was one of many like My Other Car Is A Cadilac. You’ld see in half the cars with that sign in the window that the kids were rough housing and not belted in. The occasional child sleep in the rear window area with the sign next to them. I always wished that police would have zeroed in on those cars for safety violations. I’d tell passengers to get the liciense so we can report them for child abuse. Straping a child to a board in a car in child abuse isn’t it. Wisconsin launched a safety campain at about the same time. They put up signs with a seat belt and a smiley face. The sign said something like “Smile. Buckle Up” It was super irratating, in that yuppie feel good way.
If the First Responder thing is an urban legend, it’s an old one; I recall the local news citing them for that use when they first became popular, which is why I mentioned it.
I hope that second one is available as a bumper sticker.
I always thought they were a slightly insulting way to say to other drivers "since you all normally drive like an idiot, I thought I’d let you know that I have an infant, so please contain yourself when driving near me.
Those aren’t so much “Baby on Board” signs as much as they are just sunshades to keep light out of the baby’s eyes. At least, that’s how they’re marketed at the children’s store I work at. Many of them are plain, but I, too, have seen the cutesy cartoon-y ones. They’re not as popular around here. Our manager loathes Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, or any of those other gaudy characters. We won’t take clothing with them on it, but sometimes a sunshade or accessory will slip through.
I’ve also never seen a single “Baby on Board” sign come through our store, nor do we sell them new.
My mother thinks it’s a road rage thing: look, you can blow your top and ram your car into me in a fit of rage all you want, but be warned; there’s a baby here who had nothing to do with my being a jerk.
So yeah. “I’m a jerk but I have a baby, so neener neener” about sums it up, I would suppose.