Advice needed - baby car seat questions (merged)

inkie

I have been aware of this for a while - ithas been publicised in press. If you actually look at the description of booster seats, they say that they are up to the age of 11/or a particular weight, this is regardless of the new law, and so have always been indicated for use on older children. It never ceases to amaze me that some parents can't take child safety in cars seriously - I am thinking of the particulalry scary cases when we see children as young as 4 or 5, bouncing around on the backseat of a car (usually with parent on mobile to boot!).
I know kids can get stroppy , but i'd rather have a sulky child than a dead one.
Seatbelts are height adjustable in most cars now anyhow. My 10 year old have only just stopped using the booster seat, but our 7 yr old will carry on unitl she leaves home - well, maybe until she's height exempt.!

jellyhead

monty if i didn't have a baby i wouldn't have been aware of this rule at all, apart from boys brigade but not every child attends groups like that. your police etc. are taking it more seriously than anyone in my town.

my ten year old has a booster in our car, he is almost 1.35 so is very small for his age. up til now we haven't transferred it from car to car so he's been without the booster if he goes in another car with his gran, aunt etc. and boys brigade take kids out in the cars belonging to all the helpers.

i'm glad of this law really. nobody i know over the age of 3 uses a car seat at all. my sis has bought the seats now for her boys and the 9 year old gets teased a lot. my ten year old gets teased too. having a law will mean more parents will feel comfortable keeping their toddlers in seats, and won't go without just because 'nobody else has one'. older kids are still too short to be safe in an accident and the law acknowledges this. once it's in force then 'nobody else has to sit in a seat' turns into those not using one breaking the law.

moggins

Mine have always had a car seat and a booster seat and the oldest is now 21. The things I have seen in other cars where children are not strapped in and allowed to wander round the car or stand between the front seats are shocking and make me wonder why these people bother to have children at all if they are so willing to kill them off.

I've had people say "oh he just won't sit in a car seat or undoes the seat belt" I just taught mine that if they ever undid the seatbelt then I stopped the car and we didn't continue driving until it was done up.

looby75

I'm lucky, my ds loves his booster seat, it means he can see out of the window better and he hates it when we go in my my sisters car without his seat, he says it makes him feel little LOL He's only 5, how big does he expect to feel

Janepig

When I was a child I never had a car seat or anything (other than when I was a small baby) and I used to hang out of the window and bounce around etc... but now there's no excuse because we are so much better educated about these things. I think I was about 10 when the seatbelt laws were introduced and I didn't take much persuading to wear one. Now I wouldn't go down the road without one, but I see so many people who are belted up themselves and yet their children are "untethered" in the car. I can't tell you how annoyed I get by that.

Jxxx

mclaren_2

this has not been advertised atall. the question i have to ask, what about small people? do they have to have a booster seat? reason is that people could get of on this tenocality if they are small and are not in a booster seat.


Good law though - can see it makes sence BUT what i dont understand is why we really need a law like this now - why not 5 years ago?

inkie

Good law though - can see it makes sence BUT what i dont understand is why we really need a law like this now - why not 5 years ago?

Probably because a lot of people do not have the common sense to see that children are not protected otherwise, and have to have someone to point out what is obvious to a lot of people. It can only be a good thing as some little one's lives will be saved - pity parents can't do this themselves though eh?

jellyhead

yes, but how many parents do you know who actually do insist that their child uses a booster? i really can't think of anyone at all within my acquaintance. and although we use a booster in our car we don't insist on it being transferred into different cars. husband's parents and sister use it in their cars but my mum and my sis don't. it used to be so awkward for me because i wanted him to have one but how do you insist on a ten year old having a seat if the others as young as six aren't using one? his school friends all laugh at his seat, it's only a booster so they don't see it unless they are actually getting into the car with us but it is the subject of sniggering in the playground, that mollycoddled baby ciaran uses a car seat. i'm glad of this law because it allows lily-livered parents like myself to insist their child has a seat now, and rather than making the child look overprotected and baby-ish it now suggests that the children without a seat are not loved. if that doesn't sound too harsh!

mclaren this law only applies to people under 12, i assume that anyone over 12 who is too short can make their own minds up or find suitable restraints.

Rachie_B

jellyhead wrote:

monty if i didn't have a baby i wouldn't have been aware of this rule at all, apart from boys brigade but not every child attends groups like that. your police etc. are taking it more seriously than anyone in my town.

my ten year old has a booster in our car, he is almost 1.35 so is very small for his age. up til now we haven't transferred it from car to car so he's been without the booster if he goes in another car with his gran, aunt etc. and boys brigade take kids out in the cars belonging to all the helpers.

i'm glad of this law really. nobody i know over the age of 3 uses a car seat at all. my sis has bought the seats now for her boys and the 9 year old gets teased a lot. my ten year old gets teased too. having a law will mean more parents will feel comfortable keeping their toddlers in seats, and won't go without just because 'nobody else has one'. older kids are still too short to be safe in an accident and the law acknowledges this. once it's in force then 'nobody else has to sit in a seat' turns into those not using one breaking the law.

really ?!!! OMG thats shocking !

who teases your son etc

as for the whole my child wont sit in a carseat etc :rolleyes: when its a matter of safety you just do it regardless !! no carseat / seatbelt no trip out in car !

yes its hard wrestling with a heavy toddler who goes rigid and wont be strapped in :rolleyes: but if you "give" in to them you arent doing anyone any favours

ive threatened to leave my son at the side of road before now if he wouldnt sit in his seat :rotfl:

arnie&caseysma!

I have seen this being talked about on the news and in local papers. It has been well publicised as far as I am aware - certainly in Scotland anyway.

The kids who are laughing at 9 and 10 year old having to use a booster will soon not be laughing when they are made to sit on one themselves after the parents get done for not having them on one.....

My sister is currently 10 years old but is at least 10cm taller than the height restrictions so mum doesnt need to buy a new seat! Sometimes pays for 10 year old kids to be wearing 14 year olds clothes since they are so tall!!!