Walking through town yesterday I spot a car pull up by the roadside.  Two women are in the front of the car, with the female passenger sat with a baby on her lap, being about 6 months old.  There is also a child sat in the back of the car - no seatbelt.  A passer-by politely informs the driver that the back door is not shut correctly. 

It was very fortunate that this woman stopped to speak to the driver of this vehicle, as I was about two seconds away from stopping myself and asking the driver why the hell her, or her passenger, couldn't care less about the safety of the children that were riding with them.

How can someone happily get themselves into a car, strap THEMSELVES in and then have a six month old baby on their lap?

I just cannot believe some people nowadays.  Clearly THEIR life is far more important than the life of the baby or the little boy in the back of the car.

Or is it just me?

They dont have the brains they were born with! Still I feel the same about people who have small dogs that sit on the parcel shelf!

Yes, I see that too :rolleyes:

how stupid can some people be!!! maybe the child needed comforting so they thought i'll put them on my knee.... would have been alot safer to climb into the back of the car and comfort the child in its seat.

i am always amazed at the stupidity of people where kids and dogs are concerned, it as thou there safety and welfare mean nothing to these people..... makes my blood boil

Yep, me too.  It really annoys my OH when I moan about it if I see yet another child not strapped into a car - I don't think he'll understand just how important it is until we have children together, where as I've spent all my life with neices/nephews and couldn't bear it if anything happened to them.  It winds me up the most when the adults bother to strap themselves in and leave the children jumping around on the back seat - how can they protect themselves but not their children?  I just don't understand how some people can be so selfish. 

Oh and this car didn't even have a child seat in the back, the little boy in the back wasn't strapped in to anything at all. 

It also really annoys me when I see people who bring babies into a really smokey pub/room.  I remember being at a party where a small baby was, couldn't have been more than 4 months old, and the smoke in the room was stinging the back of my throat and making my eyes water, yet this little baby was being passed around from one smoker to the next, with the parents obviously not giving a stuff

When me and Scott were our at a Chinese restaurant one evening (must have bee 8pm easily) this family comprising of man / woman / 2 girls at about 6 and 8 a lad of about 10 and a baby of about 6 months, this baby was clearly very ill, sounded like it had a chest infection of some kind and the poor thing was really coughing and spluttering bring up something not very nice which was lovely on a restaurant!  I was so angry that A) the kids and baby were up this late (they came in after us) B) the baby was very unhappy and ill and certainly should have been at home tucked up in bed but she just cried and whinged poor little thing!

So that really wound me up, and the fact that people let their kids run riot next to a road, imagine if you knocked the child over because it ran out from behind a wall, you would be tormented hey! 

God some people should learn to take care of themselves before bringing innocent children in to their warped world!

SHARON - is your email not working or are you ignoring me :)

Have PM'd you Kelly

Why were you angry that the children were up so late?

did it occur to you that perhaps they may have a siesta to refresh themselves before going out in the evening (as is the norm in many countries, especially hot ones) and/or they were out for a special occasion?

Also perhaps the baby did not have anything "contagious/infectious" but suffered from say, cystic fibrosis, a condition which would not be "better" if they were at home etc.................?

As for crying and whinging, afraid that is what babies do (and, it appears, quite a lot of adults as well) ;)

First of all I personally do not think a 6 month old baby that has a condition of some kind which could have been CF you are right but surely someone who has a child that suffers from this would be responsible enough to keep them away from a smoky environment. A siesta????? this is the Midlands in the UK and they were English!  I would not have my child up past 7 let alone 8/9 which probably added the reason for why the baby was crying and I am well aware of what a baby does, how it behaves and certain illness it can get - I just would not be stupid enough to bring a clearly ill child out in to the cold to sit in a smoky loud environment - regardless of a celebration.

Did I hit a nerve tohme????

No you did not hit any nerves, I just find it interesting that you expect everyone to fit into a "mould" as though there is only ONE correct way of raising children.

I was not aware from your post that the restaurant was a smokey environment as all restaurants that I go to are completely smoke free (thank goodness).

Are siestas geographically and nationality dependant then?  I must stop having them........ ;)

You have no idea why the baby was crying you are just jumping to conclusions and making assumptions, based on a one dimensional view.

You did not mention "cold", "smokey" or "loud" in your original post!

Tohme
considering the reply was in response to a gripe about smoky environments, I managed to pick up on the fact that the chinese restaurant was smoky!
You seem to be particularly argumentative, of course that's based on your posts, so purely a one dimensional view!!!!

I have never practised a siesta no and am not aware of anyone that does in the UK, a Siesta is a sleep in the afternoon out of the sun and because their day normally starts earlier, not because you want to take your kids out for a Chinese!  I am not saying there is one particular way to bring up a child but I do think they need a decent sleeping pattern and proper care when they are sick, if you had seen the little girl you would realised that it was a cry of I am tired, sick and don't want to be here...more of a whimper, her parents were paying little attention to her and she had snot running down her face so no I am not making assumptions it's what I saw and anyone who cares for the well being of ANY child would also have been distressed to see such a thing.

Do you have kids Tohme, if so I am assuming you would happily take them out to dinner late at night even when they were ill just to please yourself? 

Oh and BTW I believe the correct way to raise a child is with sense which clearly this couple did not have, people make such a song and dance of being parents when all you need is common sense - my parents never had the SUPER NANNY to help them and I have the up most respect for them both!

I take all five of mine out for meals late in the evening - not smoky places though.

All five of my children are up late as their dad does not get home from work untill 8pm - so we often dine out at 9-10pm.

I also admit I would take a child out even if he had 'snot' as most kids allways have 'snot'!!!

The kids enjoy it - yes the baby does cry somtimes but he would be the same at home.

Some people are just born stupid, i also get really annoyed when i see a baby sitting on someone's lap in the front of the car with no belt on.....i saw a child aged around 18 months old......sitting on the drivers lap holding the steering wheel, it will only take 1 accidient :-(

some people are so stupid we dont even normally let the dog in the car without his harness on nevermind a child!

I see this a lot too and what REALLY gets me is that most of these people are driving expensive cars!!!  (ie. Over a few thousand ££)

I've never been able to afford an expensive/decent car, I've always had old bangers (paid £300 for the one I drive now, looks awful but great car :) )  but I've always been able to afford a baby seat/child seat and insist on using them, no seat/seat belt = no travel!  So how come these people can afford the decent car but not the safety of their children??

Well that brings me back to my title of the post - do they even care?  I think the answer is most definitely 'no'.  Anyone who cared/worried about their child coming to harm would most definitely put them in a car seat or put a seatbelt on them.  I don't think there's any excuse, even if you're just popping 30 seconds down the street, and no matter how careful the driver is, it's not always the driver that causes the accident - could be a simple little bump and that poor child's life could be over.  I find it amazing that I see it so often

I agree Keeley, I'd like to see the police doing more about it and much stricter penalties.  After all, if you dangled your child head first over a motorway bridge you'd be in BIG trouble, I fail to see the difference.

"I don't think there's any excuse"

In a normal everyday situation like popping to the shops or to see Grandma, then I absolutely agree, however I have once held my son in the car with a seat belt on me and nothing on him. He had been at my mother-in-laws house while me and hubbie were there, someone made a brew, and somehow (as these things happen) my son (who was 2 then) managed to pour a fresh cup of coffee over his head and shoulders. :( The first thing was him in the shower whilst his dad wet a towel, wrapped him in the wet towel and bundled him into the car. We couldn't strap him into his seat, because of the burn, and if I had sat him on my lap with no seat belt on either of us, I could have squashed him, and if I'd have put the seatbelt around us both again I could have crushed him, so the safest way was for me to wear the seat belt and have him on my knee in the back. Believe me it was scary, not just because he could have had awful injuries from the burn, but obviously we couldn't even go as slowly as we could, because we were 'rushing' him to hospital. Thankfully we got there in one piece, and he hasn't had any scarring or anything so there was no harm done. It does really annoy me when I see kids jumping around on the back seat, but I do always try to think that there might be a very good "excuse" for it.

Hi Natalie, sorry to hear about your son, and yes, I can see your point of view.  Unfortunately though this scenario would be one in several thousands, and 99% of children that are not strapped in a car is due to careless and uncaring parenting.  For eg, you took your child immediately to hospital, the car I saw the other day was simply parking up in town, ready for a day's shopping.

Sorry just realised my post sounded like I was having a go at you, I really wasn't. I used your quote just to show that sometimes there are reasons for it. I'm sorry I didn't mean to cause offence.

It is awful when you see them jumping around, or even worse when you have a family of 5 kids a mum and a dad getting out of a van!

Edited to add: Someone earlier mentioned about people being able to afford good cars but not a car seat for their kids, when we were bringing our son home from hospital when he was born, before we even left the ward the nurse asked us if we had a car seat in the car, which obviously we did, but she said there were a few people who didn't have a car seat, and that the hospital wouldn't let the baby go home if s/he wasn't strapped in properly

Don't worry Natalie, no offence taken.  My statement was rather sweeping I suppose, but then it is difficult, except for cases such as yours, to think of any times when children should be put at risk when the parents are safely tucked in!

Just noticed this topic.  Im cabin crew and have in the past had stand up arguements with parents to try and get their children strapped into their seats or on the parents laps due to turbulence. They normally dont want to wake the baby in the bassinet we give them. But you can bet your bottom dollar the parents seat belts are fastened.  I now in a loud voice state that their child is the only person on the aircraft not being securely held by a seatbelt and if we do have a severe drop the child will hit the roof as many of my crew friends have during turbulence.  Still they dont do it!!!!! madness.

I think people can never quite understand how strong an inertia force can be.  I saw a program once when the seatbelt law was just being introduced some people where strapped into a little rocket thing that was stopped suddenly at just 20mph.  Afterwards they were interviewed and to a man they said how shocked they were by the force forward they had expected it to be very much less at that speed.  I think they imagine they will be able to just hang onto baby but of course their arms would just fly open.

Children under the age of around 12 shouldn't be travelling in the front seat of a car either unless the passengers airbag if the car should have one fitted has been DISABLED.  This can kill
And that includes those baby seats for the front as well.
Incidentally if you are one of those drivers that pull your seat forward and sit real close to the steering wheel you'll have more chance of survival in an accident if you disable your airbag as well. 

LOL,

Thank goodness I have an old banger then, I would be killed by an air bag doing an emergency stop

Thanks for that Lara :d  I am one of those people who does drive with my seat right up even though I'm fairly tall !!  I actually can't drive any other way, don't know why, just don't seem to reach the pedals.

I remember years ago on TV on David Jason's Detective Frost, a woman had been killed and he said that he knew that she had been because the drivers seat was right at the front and the woman was 5ft 7" and she couldn't possibly drive it that close.  Well I'm the same height and I do :d

Certainly food for thought!

Sorry to sound daft but is the 'parcel shelf' the bit at the very back of the car by the rear window where the car speakers usually are?

yes it is frodo :-)