Mumsnet on Jeremy Vine tomorrow talking car seat legislation - your views please!

That's just what my mum has said to me on the phone. I said well I guess we'll have to buy some more for you car. Then she swore something unrepeatable about pc correctness. I said I agreed. If I wanted to kill my children it was my business.
Obviously I use boosters and seats with all of mine, but it should be my business not the governments. They'll be telling us what to call our children next. Probably no good old fashioned English names incase it upsets other racial groups. Sorry, this government makes me mad, had you guessed!!

grandparent issue with seats is the main issue for me, and what happens if someone needs to pick up child from school other than yourself for some reason.
I love Jeremy Too!!

I don't really understand the objections to it. Keeping a child alive and as unhurt as possible in an accident is the priority and the idea that it will be difficult for parents to enforce because of kids not wanting to be laughed at says more about those parents than the law itself. Also agree with DC that the easiest way to make a carseat attractive to a kid is to put a Star Wars/ Batman/ Harry Potter/ Barbie cover on it.

Yes of course it's enforcable, like all the other laws that are enforcable but not enforced.

Haven't seen the leaflet, but then, I never actually needed the government to tell me that a child should be kept in a car-seat as long as it fits in one because that's the safest option.

No not worried about persuading 11 year old as don't have one (oldest is 7). But tbh was always intending that children should sit in car seats as long as they fit in them, whether they like it or not. I'm always astounded by how utterly uninformed so many people are about the dangers of not restraining a child appropriately in a car.

It isn't purely a Blair law though, but the UK Govt legislating an EU Directive which is based upon common sense. Whether the police and courts have the resources to enforce it I'm not so sure. Will be expecting to see police cars on the school exit gate come Monday afternoon!

mumofmonsters is bang on the money here. School runs are usually short hops.
But I wish someone would disagree with me that this is a Blairite "sending a message" law, rather than one that should be enforced.

only read the OP so, sorry if its already been said but i am glad there is a new law! Would rather my boys felt stupid sitting in a booster at 11 (they are 3 and 17 months at mo) than looked a bit dead on the road!

Hate seeing children without even an adult belt on. I don;t think that there should be an allowance for short journeys either, my boys know that no car seat means we don;t go/they don;t go.

I didn;t have a car when i was growing up but when i was in a friends i always had to sit in the booster until i was in high school so that the seat belt fitted properly. Assumed it was already law tbh

(as an aside i read the title wrong and thought MN was on Jeremy KYLE!)

Hey, saltire, I just read your post - I was a military policewoman until I had my ds!

I am horrified by the sight of any child (as opposed to a young person, which some 11/12 year olds are) who isn't in an appropriate car seat, so therefore I don't need this legislation. The people who do need it are sadly the ones who apparently couldn't give a toss anyway, and so will ignore it.

Haven't read the whole thread but my take on it is this: if you have an older child who is now used to travelling without any kind of child seat (Sobernow's "cool, streetwise, 10 yo") then, yes, you are possibly going to have a fight on your hands to get them back in a car seat. I kind of think well, tough - it's the law, you're the parent. If, like me, your child at 10 is still in a car seat and thus you've never had that argument as it hasn't occured to him there's an alternative..well, then you get to feel all smug and "told you so"

It's got to be a good thing - if younger children who are in a car seat now just grow up knowing they will be in some kind of child restraint until age 12/135cm then it takes the element of choice out of it. Up til now it's been a completely grey area as to when they stop using a seat.

I hope it's enforced - I hope that an under 12 travelling without a car seat becomes as unacceptable as travelling in a car without a seatbelt is (and I'm old enough to remember when that legislation was brought in - and how many people didn't wear seatbelts before it - and how many moaned about the new legislation too...but I rarely see adults without seatbelts these days; it's just become the norm to buckle up).

There were leaflets in Asda.

I managed to egt 3 into my proton persona, the existing Britax for the little one amd some Graco seats for the DS's. They weren't impressed until they realised they now have cup holders

Cost quite a lot of money though, and if we hadn't been given it as a gift then I don't know how we'd have managed. DS2 gfoes up to the next seat type in january and there was a serious temptation to resist, in the end we made it universal and we know it's worth it.

best friend of mine is 4' 4". DS's want to know if she needs a seat (she's 34 LOL)

Have to say that older, but smaller children really do need car seats. As a shorter than average adult - I am 5 feet exactly - I find adult seat belts, especially in the back of cars, way too high. They cut into my neck and do not fit as they should. If it is like that for me, as an adult, I wouldn't want my child put in a similar situation.

Space cadet, I think there is a separate law dealing with overcrowding that is coming in to force either May 2007 or 2008 (can't remember exactly) so that should stop that, but I have to say I always thought it was illegal (or at least invalidated your insurance) anyway.

I am only aware of the new laws because I have younger children, and have recently moved dd up to a seat/booster and ds into her old car seat, ditching the baby seat along the way. As we are currently getting a new car the potential to get three car seats/ boosters in a row has been a consideration and so have deliberately bought a car with a flat row of seats for this purpose.
Have also seen news items but can completely understand why some people might still be unaware of the changes.
BIL is a policeman and said he was fed up of "New Labour" laws. So he won't be getting a booster for his 9 year old dd. I think that is completely ridiculous and while I can see the financial considerations involving compliance, I cannot understand why people would not agree that a law aiming to reduce injuries to children is a good thing. I only hope that the police actively use their new powers to on-the-spot fine but am not holding out hopes that they'll be tough enough to change the minds of steadfast refusers - after all, the law against driving while talking on your mobile phone seems not to have dissuaded many drivers I see daily carrying on regardless.

I think the law is quite a good idea. I also think it's enforceable, but I don't think it will be enforced. Cod has said that as a magistrate she's never dealt with a case relating to a breach of the existing child seat and seatbelt legislation, yet we all know that that is regularly flouted. And there doesn't seem to be much enforcement of the mobile phone rules, which would be pathetically easy to enforce properly. Why would this be any different?

Like the idea of cool seats for older kids with integral MP3 players and DVDs - like first class airline seats! I want one!

i wonder if this law will apply to the people i constantly see who pack the whole family into a car, with every adult having a small child on their laps.

Oh and i forgot to add, i haven't seen any leaflet, or even been aware of any TV campain, if there was one

Your Ds sounds like mine Tinker, legally =mine doesn't need one as he is just over 135cm, however he shall be staying in it. Although he is tall he is also very skinny, so still fits in it, and an adult belt just doesn't look right on him anyway

Thanks for this thread, I've just emailed details of the new laws to my school, and requested that they send out a memo to all parents 'reminding' them of the changes. I only hope it sinks in. We have a lot of car travellers due to the nature of the school, and I'm always shocked at the lack of restraints in some cars. The confusion on this thread also shows how bad the publicity has been, especially considering we've been discussing this issue on MN for at least 18 months If we can't get it straight, what chance have Mr and Ms Average got?

TBH I have no real anticipation that anyone will get done for having inappropriate restraints, except as an add on charge after an accident but if it makes parents reconsider their current arrangements surely that's got to be a step in the right direction? It might not be as good as it could be, but that doesn't make it all bad. I do acce

My Ds are 8.6 and 6.9 respectively. They both use booster seat, even though the 8 year old is the height of an average 10 year old, and before this legislation came out, it was always our intention to keep them both on their booster seat until they were at least 11, or 12.
My older Ds has children in his class who don't use booster seats and seem to jump around over the seats, and yet DS1 has never once commented on why he is still in his seat. He just accepts it, and even refuses to go with his grandparents for "a quick run in the car to the shop" if his seat isn't availiable.

However i wasn't aware of this legislation until i read it on mumsnet ages ago, and have been making all my CM parents aware of it as some of them seem to be unaware of it.
I think they will have problems enforcing it, and Dh is a military policeman and he said they aren't sure how they are going to enforce it with service dependants coming onto base, as technically they can't "do" anything as far as civilians are concerned

I think it's fine to ask parents to have carseats in their cars BUT what if I get on a train with my two young children to go and stay with their grandparents for a week - should they too be forced to shell out for booster seats? Incidentally, for me this wouldn't be an issue, happily my parents would do this and are financially able to, but what about families that are already strapped for cash. Or what if my car breaks down and I need a hire car for a week but my car seat doesn't fit properly?

The law's a good idea in principle, in practice I'm not sure, I'd prefer to see cycle helmets made compulsary.

Thanks serenity

Tinker, legally no.

Do you think they should have introduced a law?

Yes I do. It is there for a very good reason - to save chldren from being killed or injured in case of a crash, Everyone things it won't happen to them, but sadly children are killed way too often because of not being properly secured in cars.

Do you think it's enforcable?

Sadly no. I think people will flaunt it and I don't think there is any easy way for the police to monitor it and catch offenders. There are too many get out clauses and exemptions.

It meeds to be the parents taking responsibility for their own children. Sadly some don't seem to want to.

Have you seen the leaflet and is it clear to you what you need to do?

Not seen the leaflet. I think the whole law has been very poorly advertised, and I actually don't think I have seen any campaign prior to it going law at all. It needed a hard hitting advertising campaign on TV, cinemas, newspapers, magazines, etc.

Are you worried about persuading your child that they have to go back into a car seat?

My little one is only 4 so no applicable. However, the answer is simple - no car seat, no car ride. IMO the adult is in charge here. The child might not like it, but he or she wouldn't be that impressed with horrific injuries or death either I imagine.

Oh, I'm confused now. Does my 9 year old who is way over 135cm need one or not?