I guess I’ll be the sourpuss to point out that 99.999% of all children born in the US in the 1940s through 1970s survived to adulthood w/o a child seat at all.
While the mother’ behavior is not optimal by 2006 standards, it’s not like she’s encouraging the little tyke to forage on paint chips or play with matches.
Cite for that one. Because even with carseats, car accidents kill more than .001% of kids right now…
Or is that one of those statistics people just make up to prove a point, which backfires…
Your point is good - there is a risk continuum at work. No carseat = bad - but its possible your child will never be in an accident where the carseat is needed. Old carseat poorly fitted, new carseat poorly fitted, old carseat correctly fitted = better. New carseat, correctly fitted = best, but no guarentee it will save your chld’s life it a bad accident. With carseats, we try and increase the odds of surviving an accident that may not happen.
Personally, I think if we spent half the energy we spend on making sure other people breastfeed their babies, don’t leave them in a car unattended for 3 seconds, and making sure their carseats are properly fitted on reducing the amount of corn syrup and chemicals in the diet of the average five year old, we’d end up better off as a society long term.
You know, families used to just have one car, too - I bet kids didn’t used to ride in them as much as they do now.