Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Am I thinking this through too much?

34 replies

zelda1982 · 13/08/2011 13:50

We're going away tomorrow on a 3 hour drive. I have a zafira and 3 kids and will need 1 seat down in the boot. So how do you normally decide which child has the back seat? Obviously the back seat will take the brunt of a rear collision (touch wood) but i dont want to think of putting either of my girls at a higher risk than the others. The middle seats only have a lapbelt in the middle so thats a no go, and Dp cannot fit between the 2 middle seats (and is quite tall so couldnt really sit in the boot. Am i thinking about this too much? Would you put the oldest in (in my case 7 year old)?

OP posts:
LessonsinL · 13/08/2011 13:52

You're thinking about it too much.

scurryfunge · 13/08/2011 13:52

Whoever is likely to moan the least. Grin

LunarRose · 13/08/2011 13:55

Whichever one is more likely to try beating up the others Grin

WheelsOnTheBike · 13/08/2011 13:59

I don't think you are thinking this through enough.

I mean, what about a side impact? Or a full frontal impact?

Or, you could velcro them to the roof, to keep them out of harm's way.

Alternatively, you may be overthinking it, and play eeny meeny miney mo to choose.

My kids used to love being the back and would fight to be the one in there.

LunarRose · 13/08/2011 13:59

but what about if there's a side collision Shock

CurrySpice · 13/08/2011 14:01

This way lies madness Zelda! Shock

AgentZigzag · 13/08/2011 14:06

'Whoever is likely to moan the least.'

I was thinking whoever is likely to moan the most Grin

You'll hear them less if they're further away.

LunarRose · 13/08/2011 14:07

have you considered the risk impact the seating arrangements in light of asteroid attack on the driver? Grin

Seriously I would have been another fighting for the space of the back seat when I was a kid.

squeakytoy · 13/08/2011 14:09

You are most definately over thinking this.

slightlyunbalanced · 13/08/2011 14:15

WAY too much - are you not confident in the driver? Is it one of the kids?

LuceyLasstic · 13/08/2011 14:19

dont go, its way to dangerous and risky

LynetteScavo · 13/08/2011 14:25

You are under thinking.

There may well be a side collision (on the left of your car) if a foreign lorry doesn't see you and pulls out.

For this reason I always put DS2 on the left of the back seat, for various reasons including he still has a car seat, and would fuss less in hospital - defiantly not because I love him any less!

WheelsOnTheBike · 13/08/2011 14:27

Really? you put your son on the left of the car, to keep him safe from foreign drivers? Are most of the drivers -and most of the risks - from British drivers?

I think we are safer never going out again.

Beamur · 13/08/2011 14:28

We used to have a Zafira and thought how useful it would be to have the extra seats but I used to get really worried about being rear-ended when the kids were in them! We've got a different car now - got a Picasso as there are 3 good sized seats in the back.

CurrySpice · 13/08/2011 14:33

What about if some crazy guy hides under your car and stays there all the way to your destination like Robert de Niro in Cape Fear. Have you considered that?

CurrySpice · 13/08/2011 14:34

WheelsonThebike no she puts him on the left because he is the least likely to whinge if hit by foreign driver!!!!

LynetteScavo · 13/08/2011 14:36

No, I put DS on the left, because it's most at risk from foreign lorries.

Friends of ours had their car written of on the motorway when a foreign lorry over took, and didn't see them in the middle lane.

DH was Shock when I explained this.

WheelsOnTheBike · 13/08/2011 14:39

I still think though that there is more risk of you being hit by a British lorry, that's the logicla bit I don't get.

I do understand your little one being the least moany though Grin

ballstoit · 13/08/2011 14:45

It makes me so relieved that other people think like this too Blush...none of my DC go right in the back.

I put one of my DC in the front on the basis that I drive more carefully than other people on the road, and also (can't believe I'm admitting this) that if they are injured in the front, I would be as well, so the guilt would be less.

Put DP in the back.

Also consider how you arrange the things in the boot...I put my pushchair sideways as my over active imagination foresees it being shoved through one of the DCs carseats and through their bodies if the car was rear ended.

[hangs head in shame at my own ridiculousness]

LunarRose · 13/08/2011 14:45

Oh no, worked in insurance, foreign lorry's are the worst. However cows are also a serious danger consideration....

snoopdogg · 13/08/2011 14:48

Get the train Grin

MrsPotatoHeadsStylist · 13/08/2011 14:51

Zelda I don't think you are over thinking it at all, I think it'd be crazy not to give some thought to the safest way to all travel together.

In your position I would probably make my DP go in the boot seat, he would complain and his legs would ache but unless he couldn't physically fit I would insist. Failing that then I would put the eldest child in the boot seat.

wakeupandsmellthecoffee · 13/08/2011 14:51

just to really upset you the front passenger seat is known as the suicide seat .

ballstoit · 13/08/2011 15:00

Thanks wakeup...now I'm going to have to chosse which DC to leave at home alone every time we go out Grin

ballstoit · 13/08/2011 15:01

or else teach DS to drive (6 is old enough isnt it)

Swipe left for the next trending thread