To be shocked people are actually rear-facing their primary age kids

Pp's mentioning kids seen on the school run etc in the front seat or no seatbelt etc. I've seen this too and imo is far more shocking than a child in a RF seat! I've seen a YR 4/5 yo in the front passenger seat with no car seat, a 2yo in a car seat FF in the front passenger seat, kids not restrained at all when the car is still moving.

lol was at my idea of making cars with rear facing seats, but apologies if it upset you.

There’s loads of info online about why rear facing is safer. It’s the law in many other countries to be rear facing for far longer than it is here. My children are teenagers but we sat them rear facing for as long as possible. We’ve only ever had small cars, there wasn’t much choice on rear facing seats then but there were some suitable. I Hopefully there is more choice now.

Ask any health professionals who work with children in critical care or in rehabilitation how what seats they use. They will all have their children rear facing for as long as possible and in seats with 5 point harnesses after that. Boosters with normal seat belts will not protect in an accident.

There's no room for a lol on a thread about car safety

Our erf seats took up no more space than the other car seats..

There will likely still be someone on here decrying that you were abusive and that they should have been pretzelled in

Why aren’t cars just made with rear facing passenger seats?

On a car journey the other day, I looked over to see a primary aged child in the front passenger seat jumping about not even with an adult seatbelt. All other passengers in the car were adults wearing seatbelts. Now that is shocking IMO!

My youngest is starting school this week and is still rear facing. She isn't tall enough for a high back booster so will stay rear facing until she is, which will likely be around Christmas just before she turns 5. We did the same with her older brother.

Take a look at some of the Facebook car seat advice pages and educate yourself about the benefits of rear facing for as long as possible.

I don’t think you should be affronted at other parents keeping their children as safe as possible.

My 3 year old doesn't rear face.

I know a lot of people who don't take their babies in the car because the screaming is just relentless. Or, if they do, it's only if they can have another adult sat in the back to supervise/distract.

I was a child who really struggled with car sickness and my parents had me in the front seat as soon as possible, otherwise I would vomit every single time. I can't imagine how horrendous it would have been to be in the back AND rear facing.

The advised age is 17 when you get them driving lessons and their first car so they can go out with their mates

7?!?!

I rear face when I get the chance. Why wouldn't you?

Gosh, I bet you shiver when you think about how they would all have almost certainly been killed if you'd been in a serious accident. Thank goodness we have more information to make safer decisions now.

We swapped at 2, I’d have liked to keep rear facing longer but STBX wouldn’t and once he swapped to forward facing in his car there was no way DD would comply. To be honest it has helped her car sickness so it wasn’t entirely a bad decision.

I wouldn’t be shocked at 6 though, although I haven’t personally known anyone beyond 4 that has.

They could see where they were, omg

Wow !!!!!

That's a lesson for us all

Sorry to hear that xx

My kids did. They were rear facing until they outgrew the seats, at ages 8, 6 and 7 respectively. It never occurred to me to put them in a less safe car seat until they were too big (tall or heavy) for the safer options.

That was over 10 years ago. I'm surprised it's not more common by now.

Feels like the ridicule is coming from people who don't see the value in ERF. I've lost count of the number of times you see snide comments about facing the seat/looking uncomfortable etc. If ERF doesn't work for you, fine, but don't attack parents who want their kids to be as safe as possible in the car.

I think most parents do their best for their DC, according to the information available to them at the time. It is clear that many posters do/did not ERF, for many reasons - there's no need to be rude to them.

FWIW my DC were over 135cm by age 7/8. When I asked advice from a car safety expert about how to best keep them safely secured in a car seat, they just kept repeating they needed to be in a high backed booster til 12 - they couldnt compute my DC (unfortunately not with me at the time), could be that tall. At 12, DC1 was 160+cm - taller than many adults. I could not get a sensible answer.

I am surprised by that, most of the primary kids round here seem to be out of car seats entirely! I’ve seen quite a few in front seats too which I haven’t let mine do yet.

No mention of that at all my dear , and no I never considered consulting a car safety expert when I bought car seats. I consulted the staff at the shop where I bought them from and who trained in fitting the seats safely.

it’s obvious from this thread that times may have changed regarding advice on this , I understand ops shock as do many.

insinuating that I lol at internal decapitation is as sick as your suggestion itself.

Ha, yes! Mine graduated in 2017 so definitely not an issue for us!