I've scene this a lot lately, small and young children in the front seat of the car or not in the proper child seat. I think that the parents or drivers of the car should be charged with child neglect or child endangerment. The safety seats were created and the laws put in place for a reason. I wouldn't let my stupidity and idiotic behavior harm my child. Sometimes I think poor child if they got into an accident.

I agree that children should be properly secured in vehicles. I actually had the biggest scare when my son was only 3 months old, my partner and I couldn't get the seatbelt to tighten the car seat in to place properly, it was secured by the strap going up to the bolt really tight, but the seatbelt holding it down flat could have been tighter (it was tight, just not the tightest it could have been, so the car seat could be slightly wobbled). Anyway, this same day we ended up in a car accident. My first instinct was obviously to jump out of the front seat and grab my child! Thankfully, he slept through the whole thing, and he wasn't injured at all. It has DEFINITELY had an impact on how I check and secure his seat all of the time!

I don't like seeing children in front seats or without seatbelts, it makes me nervous. A few weeks ago I was driving in a lane beside an old van that started swerving a bit, I looked over in to the car and there was a young mother (earky 20s probably) driving, partner in the passenger seat and kids climbing around in the back, jumping up and down. I had looked away in shock, then looked back and saw the mother drinking a can of beer whilst driving! I was tempted to take down her number plate, but I didn't have enough time. It was absolutely shocking to see!

In the UK its a little different. We don't have many rules when it comes to carseats. We don't have all those incredibly strict laws/recommendations the states have, like a child needs to be rear facing till 2 (i don't know a 2 year old whos legs are short enough) or a kid needs to be in a booster seat till about 11 (that's just absolutely mad to me). As long as the kids are in the proper carseart all is fine. I do think we need some stricter laws.. I've seen infant car seats forward facing which I also find mad

I've never heard of a law that says 2-year-olds have to be rear-facing, haha. My parents did it so that once we grew out of the infant carseat we got a new carseat and faced forward, but none of us EVER sat in the front seat. We got booster seats when we were around...6, 7. My sister and I stopped using carseats when we were 9 or so, but I wasn't allowed to sit in the front until I weighed enough.

charlotte710 wrote:

QUOTE:
I've never heard of a law that says 2-year-olds have to be rear-facing, haha.

It's a relatively new law, they just passed it this year I think. We've had Aidyn rear-facing since he was born and just switched him to a rear-facing toddler seat that accommodates his longer legs better than the infant seat did. It can also turn forward-facing when he's ready to be turned around.

Shann, I probably would have totally flipped out if I'd seen what you saw. That's insane, and I definitely would've called the cops.

i see it all the time and it infuriates me! kids under a certain age aren't even supposed to be in the front seat, let alone not be in a child restraint seat! Do some people just seriously not care about the safety of their kids? I have done lots of babysitting that involved driving the kids places and i would not drive an inch unless they were both BUCKLED IN in the BACK.