To be annoyed about the lack of seat belt?

[divafever24]

Pil brought dd (3 yrs) home last night in their car from their house. Granted we live maximum 2 minutes away in the car, I was quite horrified when dd walked in saying " grandma says I didn't need to wear a seatbelt cos we weren't going far!" Not wanting to cause a scene I kept my mouth shut but secretly I'm fuming. Dd has recently moved into the next group of seat where she has the seat belt across her. I've been trying to teach her how important it is for her to wear it and not press the red button whilst in transit.

1. should I say something to pil?
2. how do I explain to a 3 year old I do not think this is a good idea
3. aibu to think it doesn't matter how long you are in the car, accidents happen?

It really amazes me how so many people seem to think an accident would never happen on short journeys or on a 30mph rd.
Also it bugs me how so many also see moving out of a car seat some sort or wonderful milestone, I have always had comments made asking why my daughter is still in a high back booster when she is within the right height and age range and wants to sit on it. It does not help when she has a cousin who's parents don't think about child safety in a car just how grown up their child looks sitting in the front seat on no car seat when they are too young, I'm seen as the over the top mother.

I think they think that 30mph is so slow a crash would be no big deal - the reality is that 30mph is the speed at which car seats are legally crash tested. There is no guarantee that they will work properly at higher speeds, because the nature of crashes at high speeds is that they are too unpredictable to test in this way. Any car seat which is Which? tested or the German Öko-test (they often advertise this) has been tested at 40mph, and whenever seats have failed at 40mph, Which? release a press statement and the seats are usually recalled.

But really, by that logic, you should definitely be using a car seat at 30mph, and for faster journeys it's probably not going to make a lot of difference (but of course, people see the need on higher speed journeys since the idea of a crash is so horrific you grab any chance of being safer!)

We don't have a car at the moment but DH was surprised when I said DS needed one to go in his friend's car the other day, he is only six! And we're in Germany where the full 135cm limit applies - until he reaches that, which is a good 10-12cm away, he's using a car seat.

I would engineer a trip with BIL / PIL, there would be a bag on the passenger or back seat weighing approximately the same as your dd.

At some point where it was safe I'd brake harshly and when the bag hit the floor say something along the lines of it only being a bag, not dd.

I think like others said pil actually think a crash on such a short journey would never happen but the statistics show you are more likely to have an accident near home. Makes me wonder though how many other times they have done this and this time they were caught out by dd speaking up . They already have the correct seat for her in the car that dh has checked, it would have took seconds to sit her in it and strap her In. Good news is I think the importance of belt wearing is sinking in to dd after our little chat, this morning she asked me to strap her into the supermarket trolley as "we must always wear our seatbelt mummy"