To think car seats until 12 is a bit OTT?

[ConvenientTruth]

I just looked up the actual law on car seats. Here it is: www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/using-a-child-car-seat-or-booster-seat

Apparently children have to use car seats until the age of 12.

Am I alone in thinking this is a bit ridiculous? Parents of 11.5 year olds, do you all truly honestly still use a car seat?

ost children will be 135cm well before secondary school though. My 12 year old is 158cm and he's among the smallest in his class.

Really? That's taller than I am now at 44.

My Mum was very critical of me keeping the DDs in their 5 point seat until they were 6 (at 8 DD1 is still just 20kg and the shortest in her class - she wears 5-6 trousers and is very proud that she looks younger than she is.) and before that for keeping them rearfacing until about 18 months. DB and SIL had their kids out a lot earlier but at least they have tall children.

DD1 is 8 and I'm finding I have to check parents are going to put her in a booster when they offer a lift because some don't use them now.

I'm tiny, I had a boyfriend when I was 12 ( very innocent) I used to go and meet hime at a local cafe and my mother would come and collect me - thank god there were no care seat regs then, might have been very embarassing ahving a peck on the cheek as goodbye and getting into my car seat!

Not all modern cars have adjustable seat belts - mine is 5 years old (so not brand new but not ancient) and the seat belt in the front doesn't quite sit right on me, and I'm about 5 ft 6/ 168cm! It's a van style 7 seater and I think it's designed for male van drivers... the seat belts are fine on 6 ft 4 DH! Didn't really think about seat belt positioning when buying it!

So for our car it's fortunate that local law requires car seats til 150cm.

I gave DS1's 8 yo friend a lift yesterday and he chose my nearly 5yo's high backed booster - he has one himself, though he is 15cm shorter than my 8 yo, who no longer fits in the hbb and has a booster cushion. There is no embarrassment factor for primary age kids here - they expect them. DD still uses hers even with friends in the car and her same height friends expect to use them too - the ones tall enough not to have generally hit puberty and the difference in body shape and size is obvious - you don't need a car seat to notice the massive range of sizes, from 100% child to adult woman shape, in early secondary age girls!

my ds has been 135cm since he was 8 so he's never used a car seat since then

imo even if a child has reached the right height, a hbb is safer that just a booster seat or no seat at all.
our hbb goes up to 150, so dc will stay in until they outgrow them.
also, we drive a lot in europe where a child seat is mandatory until age 12 or after (until they reach 150)

135cm is really still quite tiny to use equipment designed for an adult.

I suppose that once a child has reached the legal minimum height the parent/ driver should just look critically at how the seatbelt sits on a child each time they get into a different car and use their brain...

Maybe in a small car with adjustable seat belts the seat belt could sit correctly on a 135cm child without any kind of booster ... in many cars it won't though!

My 8 yo is 143cm tall and my 10 yo is 142cm (tall 8yo, averageish to slightly short 10yo) and the seatbelts don't yet sit right on them without boosters in my car, but they might in the back of DH's small car I suppose...

You can get something called a 'seatbelt adjuster' which is a clip that connects to a vertical belt that ensures the seabelt sits snuggly on the shoulder of the child keeping them in place. My 10 yo (about 133) has used this for a while as does my taller 12 yo.

It's really sad how lax many parents are about car seat safety - you don't have to put them in the exit stage seat just because they've reached a certain age/height/weight! My now 2yo had reached 15kg before he was even 2, so he'd be legally allowed to sit in a booster seat. But would it be safe? Of course not! Guidelines are one thing, common sense is another.
My 6yo is 128cm tall and in a high back booster. So many of his friends are only in those tiny booster cushions, just because the parents think it's 'easier' and takes up less space in the car.
I really don't get how you could place convenience above safety, but it would appear lots of people do

Children already don't have to use car seats in taxis - or 'still' don't have to, and not 'already'. In Switzerland for example you also have to use a car seat in a taxi, no exceptions.

It's easy enough to get a booster seat for your own car but it means that the grandparents, other parents who regularly drop DC off, rentals etc have to have boosters for the first 12 years of life... do people really stick to this every single time?

For the sake of their safety, yes. You just buy a couple and distribute them as necessary. Friend has one in their car, we have a space at home "just in case" - it isn't rocket science. No booster, we get the bus instead!

I am just under 5 foot and seat belts can rub. A few years ago I read an interesting article that I wish I kept. The writer said we should look at boosters as safety equipment not something for children and that he hoped in the future they would be equivalent products for shorter adults so the safety features of cars like airbags worked for us rather than put us in danger.

Yes, I think I need a booster seat. And I am an adult.

just musing on an earlier car I drove back in the day - I am 5 ' and had to use a cushion in the front seat to get me to the right height to ensure belt was fine and I could see past the bonnet. Fortunately adjustable seats more or less solve this.

people really stick to this every single time?

No.

SansaClegane totally agree. Get the face when giving other children lifts. Yet on mn it's all about backwards facing till 5, just bizarre parallel universe.

There's a mixture at our school, a few people still have proper car seats for 6 yr olds a few have those booster cushion things for 4 yr olds who are tiny. Likewise in my friendship group. But I won't give a child a lift without a seat, nor will I let my children go in a car without a suitable one. My mum has a high backed booster for my eldest who is a tall 5, but she only uses it for pottering around the Island. If they were going on a longer trip I would fit her proper Britax into the car.

Thing is, with an age 12 guidelines or 135 you do see more older children in them. Granted only up to about 8/9 - but before the law change I saw many 5/6 year olds off seats. There's been a marked difference round here which has got to be good?

3yo DD1 is on the small side and we'll be using a car seat in some shape or form until she's big or old enough. I don't see the rush, it's her safety that's most important. MIL reckons we will be moving her onto the next stage car seat this year (a hbb), but she's still well below the weight and height limit for her current seat. Same with DD2, she will remain in her infant carrier until she gets too big for it, rather than when she hits the minimum weight to be moved onto the next stage.

My 11 year old is only 142cm tall. Some of you have giants!

OvO my 11yo is 138cm and I thought the same. She seems tall to me but actually she must be quite short!

ShadyMyLady I always think my 142cm tall 10 yo is short, but that is because her 8 yo brother is taller than her! I saw her in a school performance this morning and was surprised that 3 of her classmates are noticeably shorter - in fact I thought they must be younger siblings initially, until they took their places to perform (which would have been weird as she is in the youngest year group in the school and the performance was in school time)... DD is the youngest in her class - some of her class mates are up to 2 years older than her (abroad where kids repeat years fairly commonly) and some are taller than me though (168cm ish!).

Sorry I meant to say how tall or short our DC seem to us seems to depend on our frame of reference and often be a bit "out" - I sometimes see people on here referring to kids as tall for their age and then quoting a height that sounds average to a bit shorter than average! I had a friend I rarely saw who always refereed to her DD, the same age as mine, as being very tall where I referred to DD as little for her age, and when we finally met up again after not seeing each other for ages it turned out my DD was taller :o Her DD was the oldest in her school year though so fairly unsurprisingly one of the taller ones in her class, where mine was the youngest in a class with a wider age range so one of the smallest...

i need to get taller more, i need some Advices Please

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Wouldn't it have been better to actually read what you posted before commenting on it?

As everyone has said, its 12 years old or 135cm. A great number of children will be that height well before 12.

But since its about safety and height, I don't see why age should come into it at all. If you are under a certain height it is far safer for you to sit raised up, no matter what your age. If you are 40 years old and under 135 cm you should really be on some kind of booster seat if you want to be as safe as possible in your car.