Mum at school not using seat belts WWYD?

[PiggeryJokery]

I have seen a mum arriving at school more than once with her kids not belted in in the back seat (they are 5 and 3). I also think she is not using the seat belt for her baby, but putting the seat on the front seat. It doesn't have a belt round it, but could it be on an isofix in the front passenger seat? I didn't have isofix in my car, not sure how it works.

WWYD? It might be that the kids are just undoing their seatbelts as they arrive, the baby might be isofixed. I don't want to get all judgey and bossy, laying down the law to her, cos who made me boss of the school run? She's not from this country but her country (EU) has the same laws as UK, but there is a language barrier to get over too. Do I butt out or wade in??

I would butt out, fwiw. Perhaps down the line if we became friendly I would just ask her about it. The Brits are particularly indirect though; odds are that her culture is much more direct & wouldn't take any offence if you said you were concerned that her children seemed to not be using seat belts.

At the end of the day it is her choice and her family so I would leave her too it....

Speak to the school if you don't want to speak to her. My DH used to work in car safety and the unrestrained child dummies in crash tests are thrown all over the place. Too big a risk, IMO.

Really?

Someone gets to put her children in serious unnecessary danger of being killed or having life changing injuries, and it's "her' choice, seems she isn't bright enough to make the right choices.

Just tell her if you see her children unbuckled again you will phone the police, then tell the school they need to an education drive on car safety with the children as certain parents(tell them which one) don't seem to understand why seat belts are in cars.

Life is not a popularity contest,

just do the right thing and shame her into giving a monkey elbow.

"At the end of the day it is her choice and her family so I would leave her too it"

Really? Putting children at risk isn't a choice someone should be left to make

I think I'd probably either try to strike up conversation with her and drop in something about having kids safe in the car or I'd talk to the school and hopefully they'd talk to her.

What quoteunquote said. Though I'm more of a coward and would get the school to raise it and get the council road safety team in one morning to be waiting for her...

Without being too pearlclutchy, I think if their own DM isn't ensuring the kids are safely strapped in, then another responsible adult should give a nudge in the right direction so that the kids travel safely in the future.

It takes a village, and all that...

It's a child protection matter, talk to the school. They will be able to be impartial about it and explain how serious it is. In some EU countries they just don't get it.

Get your facts absolutely straight first though, you don't know whether the children are unbuckling the seatbelts first.

Agree with quoteunquote's advice.

Re. baby car seat - I have isofix points on the front passenger seat, so can put a baby car seat there, although you have to make sure passenger side airbags are disabled for rear facing baby car seats. But, if this mum is happy to let her older kids unbuckle seatbelts before the car has stopped moving (assuming they're wearing them for most of the journey), I wouldn't be entirely confident about her having bothered to disable the airbag.

Speak to the headteacher - they can either keep an eye out for her or send out a general letter to all parents to ask that they ensure that they, and anyone else collecting their child - grandparent, child minder etc, ensure the children are belted in when in the car.