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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To loathe Baby on Board

110 replies

BellaMagnificat · 02/03/2011 19:45

Even though, yeh,yeh, I understand it's all apparently about, if you're in an horrific accident, the rescue team can search for the baby ( if the sticker was still visible and the car seat was not...)

Actually it's a bit of smugness like 'we are pregnant' that makes me froth at the mouth and want to vom.

I have dogs in transit.

So there.

OP posts:
Sparkles23 · 02/03/2011 22:26

Toerags Me too, worse bit is definitely v early stages when no one knows! Many a journey squashed against the doors nibbling my Natural Confectionary Co jelly worms (only thing stopped me feeling faint!) ha ha on second thoughts maybe a Baby on Board would have made me look slightly less of a freak!

Dylthan Good point-the sign actually is always falling down anyway in the car, I'm forever re-attaching it! So a crash I'm sure it would be nowhere to be seen, hmmm maybe I'll take it down altogether so!

thefruitwhisperer · 02/03/2011 22:32

I was overtaken by a knobface doing 80mph in a 40 zone!!! He cut up about 3 other people!!!

And yet I'm the one who is meant to be careful in case I hit his infant filled sporty BMW!!!

thefruitwhisperer · 02/03/2011 22:33

What sort of knobface puts a baby on board sign on a sports car anyway?!?!

lurcherlover · 03/03/2011 00:01

I always hated them before being pregnant and swore I would never have one...now DS is 4 months old and last week I stuck one in my rear windscreen. It is not at all to alert the emergency services or because I'm showing off - it's because I find when I have DS in the car I'm more paranoid than I would be otherwise, and tend to take longer to make sure the road is absolutely clear before pulling out to turn right etc - I got fed up with cars behind me being rude, revving up etc so I thought the sticker might at least give them some idea of why I'm being extra-cautious. I have to say, I think it is working so far.

Absolutely hate the "little princess on board" and "grandchild on board" style ones though. Tacky in the extreme.

spidookly · 03/03/2011 00:46

Having one of those signs won't stop someone crashing into you. They will just make someone think you are a dick.

You shouldn't be driving differently when you have a baby in the car. If you are too tired or distracted to drive, please stay off the road, there are other people out there all, of whom are somebody's precious baby (ffs) and who would prefer not to be crashed into by you.

You don't need to be extra cautious with a baby - either you need to take more care all the time because you are usually a poor driver, or your "ultra-caution" is slowing progression, which is poor, incosiderate and potentially dangerous.

If you think a bumper sticker keeps you are your precious baby safer, you are an idiot.

mayorquimby · 03/03/2011 00:46

They fill me with rage.
It's the smugness and also the assumption that if I was going to have an accident it would be because I had decided to have one and was carefully selecting who I should plow in to.

sofaqueenie · 03/03/2011 06:35

Oh my God spidookly - you sound sooo hate filled!!!!

Tis nothing but a sticker, yes?!

:)

Bunbaker · 03/03/2011 06:58

I am not a fan of car stickers of any kind. The only time I have used one is when we are on holiday and I put the National Trust one in the window so that we don't have to pay for parking at National Trust properties.

I couldn't care less who is in the car in front or what other car they own, as long as the driver is driving safely.

spidookly · 03/03/2011 07:22

Exactly - it's only a sticker. It doesn't have any magical talismanic powers to keep your ickle baby safe in a crash.

The only power it has is to make other drivers think you are an arsehole. Although, from the evidence if this thread it is very powerful in that regard

mousesma · 03/03/2011 07:22

Done to death, perhaps you could start a thread about parent and child spaces next or child free weddings or dogs on leads blah blah blah

BaronessBomburst · 03/03/2011 08:17

My husband insisted buying one of these when DS was born. He seemed to think people would back off, slow down, not park so close so we could get the pram/ car seat in and out, and that it would explain any crap driving (like an L-plate Smile ).

I was a bit Blush and Hmm.

Fortunately the winters here are so cold the plastic went brittle and the thing disintegrated. Result! Grin

You can get them in Halfords BTW.

BigHairyGruffalo · 03/03/2011 08:42

Completely agree with spidookly

A baby might be the most important person in the world to its parents, but that doesn't actually make it any more important than anyone else. I would find it very strange if people had to advertise their 'human worth' in this way to avoid being crashed into.

Imagine, 'Neuro surgeon on board', 'Particle physicist on board' etc. Hmm

emptyshell · 03/03/2011 08:52

I hate them. I don't drive differently when I see them, I just mentally rewrite them to "Smug wanker on board."

Came across a pair of corkers yesterday though that did make me raise an eyebrow.

"Brothers on board... Connor and Craig"
and
"Devoted siblings on board... Kirstie and Freddie"

Names changed because I can't remember them but I do remember thinking - do you really really want to advertise all your children's names to any random person... especially parked at a park like it was where there's the potential for someone to see you getting out of the car, clock the kid's names and then go chat to them when you're distracted getting ice cream or what-not.

I've currently got a tenner bet on my sister-in-law having one - I think it's a dead cert £20 for me.

Mammie81 · 03/03/2011 08:55

Theres a car downstairs that has the following sign on it :

Lily Rai on board.

Theres a boy one on it too but I cant remember the specific name, it was obviously so BLURGH that my memory refused to suffer it.

MissVerinder · 03/03/2011 09:05

Mine says-

"I am a nurse. I have an IQ of 158, a mortgage, a partner and a daughter. please don't kill me with your shite driving." Grin

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 03/03/2011 09:13

Agrees with Spidookly also... but laughing at some of the witty responses too. Grin

sunnydelight · 03/03/2011 10:35

I'm loving the sniffy "I've got more important things to worry about" responses from people who obviously have them Grin

roulade · 03/03/2011 11:10

I have one and it has my children's names on it but only because it was a gift when my baby was born. I can't stand it as I think they are tacky but I think it would be rude to just bin it. I will have to engineer a way to damage or lose it Grin

HeidiKat · 03/03/2011 11:13

I was behind a car yesterday that had no fewer than 5 of these "Baby on board" "Small person on board" "Little Rangers fan on board" etc, how they could see out the back window I have no idea.

Pixie83 · 03/03/2011 11:19

God what a load of miseries you are! I am starting to find more and more posts moaning or bitching about very harmless and pretty pointless subjects - baby on board signs? What harm do they do?

Do they really spoil anybody's day, really? I loathe people who think it's funny to joke about ramming cars with babys in, personally.

Am signing off from mumsnet, me thinks, as it is full of miserable, bitter, bitching old witches! And I'm not going to hang around to read your bitchy remarks about me, so bitch away - ha ha!

HeidiKat · 03/03/2011 11:27

BaronessBomburst, I can see how your husband thought that way. When I am parking in a car park with no parent and child spaces, or there are none available, I usually park in a quiet part of the carpark with a space on the passenger side to let me get the car seat in and out easily. I was hoping that the baby on board sticker would alert people to the fact that I need space to get the baby in and out and hopefully they would park in another space or at least not 3 inches from my car but unfortunately it hasn't worked, I have often had to squeeze in through a miniscule gap. I think that people who don't have kids just don't think about this, but to be fair before I had one I didn't realise what a faff bloody car seats are either.

ginnny · 03/03/2011 11:31

Its like cuddly toys in a car, all lined up on the parcel shelf.
YOU ARE A GROWN WOMAN WITH A DRIVING LICENCE FFS - NOT A 5 YEAR OLD GIRL.

emptyshell · 03/03/2011 12:37

What harm do they do?

Apart from the fact there are a few cars around here with so much stuff "on board" in the back window that I wonder how they see what's behind them...

They actually can really really upset people who can't have babies on board. Some people have mentioned this on the thread already and been conveniently ignored. On the worst day - and I've had a fair few in the year of supreme shit that was 2010 - they can seem like they're sat there, all yellow and diamondy shaped, taunting you and laughing at you. I did give more than fleeting thought to an ebay venture selling "infertile woman on board" stickers as a counter response - then gave it up because I'm a lazy bugger to be honest.

Plus the "little princess on board" shite just makes me want to vomit anyway - I'm allergic to pink and sparkly.

As for the toys on the parcelshelf - there's a Corsa around our way that has the entire collection of the cuddly toys from the Corsa advert which is a bit daft.

ZombiesAreClammyDodgers · 17/03/2013 19:32

Surely parents who adopt or use a surrogate can also have a baby on board sign? So in what way is it an affront to people who can't biologically have children?
Genuinely puzzled.
Amongst all the arguments I can see the merit in the parking space one.

gordyslovesheep · 17/03/2013 19:39

wow you must have searched hard for this thread!