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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you put coats on to get from your house to your car?

107 replies

PatterPitter · 05/12/2017 06:55

We have to drive to school and are usually parked within 100 yards of our house. Obviously the DC can't wear coats in car seats so we just walk quickly to/back from the car and leave coats in it. Our NDN and her son always put theirs on and as we all currently have colds, it's left me wondering whether I'm doing the wrong thing.

OP posts:
Original poster
PatterPitter · 05/12/2017 07:11

No, they don't get damp in the car. We have blankets to use during the journey. Our drive is down a bendy country lane where people often speed Mumsy so keeping coats on isn't an option- it could mean the difference between life or death in a crash.

OP posts:
steff13 · 05/12/2017 07:11

Don't the coats get damp if you leave them in the car overnight?

Why would they? Nothing I've ever left in my car had been damp the next day.

I don't wear my coat unless it's very cold; it's just an extra thing to have to deal with when I get wherever I'm going. I always make my kids put them on though.

Slartybartfast · 05/12/2017 07:11

what a stress

Slartybartfast · 05/12/2017 07:11

condensation in the car causes dampness

Bummybum · 05/12/2017 07:13

We warm up the car 15 minutes beforehand. I've seen these road coats sold that kind of undo and do up over the belt which I may get.

To ask if you put coats on to get from your house to your car?
PandasRock · 05/12/2017 07:13

What stress?

Not wearing a coat?

More stress getting them on the dc, surely Grin

Mumsymcmumface · 05/12/2017 07:14

It isn’t recommended that people wear bulky coats with seatbelts either, for the same reason - it stops the seatbelt doing an adequate job in the event of a crash.

Yeah I know that, but like everything it’s about assessing risk and still living a life.

Worry about this sort of shit day in day out would drive me nuts.

The chances of having an accident is very small, the chance of that accident causing any injury is even smaller. The chance of if being injury that would be sustained with a coat on, but not without it is almost non existent.

I just can’t see it even being. A consideration for normal people.

CiderwithBuda · 05/12/2017 07:14

Never knew you weren't supposed to wear coats with car seats. We lived in Eastern Europe when DS was little and everyone wore coats in cars and car seats. And given it was frequently minus temperatures in winter I can't see anyone taking coats off.

steff13 · 05/12/2017 07:15

Nothing in my car has ever been damp, unless I left the windows open in the rain. Which I have some in more than one occasion. Blush

Bummybum · 05/12/2017 07:15

@CiderwithBuda it gets to -30 here and I don't know a single parent that puts their kids in the car with bulky coats on.

PurplePotatoes · 05/12/2017 07:16

It is a faff I agree. Mine are still in 5 point harnesses and it's a right pain choosing a coat which is warm enough but not too padded. I have a fluffy hoody for baby DS which he wears to nursery and I put his proper coat in his bag. I'd rather have a little faff though than what could happen in an accident with a big puffy coat on. There's been loads of publicity about it so it's definitely not just on MN.

Bummybum · 05/12/2017 07:16

Saying it's silly to bother is the same as saying it's silly to bother with car seats back like people did years ago.

Or silly to not smoke around kids.

There's not much chance of a crash? Why bother with a car seat then? HmmConfused

IfYouDontImagineNothingHappens · 05/12/2017 07:18

Yep. Coats off and blankets until we get to nursery.

PurplePotatoes · 05/12/2017 07:18

There was a video mumsy about what could happen with a bulky coat at just 30mph so just every day stabdard driving not just big crashes. But I agree it's something you have to assess and see what you're happy with. I think it is mainly for little ones in a 5 point harness anyway.

PandasRock · 05/12/2017 07:26

I don’t worry about this shit day in, day out.

I found out 13 years ago it wasn’t a good idea, and ummm, made a choice and that was it.

Can’t say I deliberate over it every day before breakfast, or worry at home time etc. It’s just what we do.

If it is pouring with rain then we need to wear a coat, but otherwise, it’s a short walk to the car and then it either warms up enough on way to first school, or dc are into the warm soon enough.

Dd1’s school journey is over 30 minutes - we’d be roasting before we were even halfway there if we were wearing coats!

Crashes are, of course, more likely when it is cold and icy out, so I’d rather not take the chance, thanks.

When the dc were tiny, I had snowsuits that did up over/around the car seat straps, but they are all old enough to bear being cold for a few minutes - they are going from a perfectly warm house, to a car that will warm up within 5 minutes. No one is going to unduly suffer.

Mumsymcmumface · 05/12/2017 07:28

Well. There is risk in everything.

“If” you roll your car into a field and are either trapped or knocked out, the kids without coats are more likely to get hypothermia waiting for someone to find the car and get them out after their blankets have gone flying.

We will just stick to wearing coats, as I have never met or heard of anyone who has suffered injury wearing a coat who wouldn’t have without it.

Bummybum · 05/12/2017 07:30

Have you met anyone that's died from second hand smoking?

Do you smoke around your kids?

Mumsymcmumface · 05/12/2017 07:34

*Have you met anyone that's died from second hand smoking?

Do you smoke around your kids?*

No, but I have read about it. Mainly seems to be people exposed to very high levels (Think Roy Castle, taking in huge gulps of air to play a brass instrument in smokey environments for years)

I don’t smoke, but wouldn’t stress about my kids occasionally being in a room where someone was.

Tippz · 05/12/2017 07:39

I never do it, but then my car is generally in my garage when I get out of it! Or on the driveway, less than 20 feet from my door! So I would be bonkers to put my coat on to go into the house! Even if it's raining, I'd get more wet faffing around putting the coat on than I would just running into the house!

And no I don't wear my coat in the car. It takes 2 minutes for the car to warm up in the morning! Plus, I can't get comfortable in a coat in the car. If I put my coat on before I got in the car, I would be stopping the car a mile down the road to take it off as I would be sweating!

I also don't know anyone who puts huge bulky coats on children before putting them in a car seat. It only seems to be people born before 1940 who think everyone should wrap up in 5 layers and a bulky coat, and look like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters! Sometimes even when it's May/June and 22 degrees C (72 F.)

@mumsymcmumface

We will just stick to wearing coats, as I have never met or heard of anyone who has suffered injury wearing a coat.

Yeah I am pretty sure having a cosy thick coat on in the car, will totally protect you and save your life if you have a head on collision with a 10 ton truck, or run into a brick wall at 60mph or go flying off a bridge onto the motorway below! 😂😂😂

Please tell me you are joking? You HAVE to be! Wink

whiskyowl · 05/12/2017 07:42

Yes, because I am a southerner and super-nesh.

Tumbleweed101 · 05/12/2017 07:43

Depends on journey length and how far I’d be walking at other end. We tend to for short journeys but leave off for longer ones.

I don’t use car seats with harnesses now though.

ferrier · 05/12/2017 07:46

How have I lived all this time and not known this?
So no, I always wear my coat in the car and adjust temperature accordingly. Otherwise I would be bloody freezing for the first 5 minutes of the journey and unable to control the car.

KenAdams · 05/12/2017 07:48

Seriously? I can't believe people are putting their children in car seats with bulky coats. It takes seconds to put it back on when you get out of the car. I could never live with myself if my child was seriously hurt or injured as a direct result of me not taking an action that takes seconds.

Mumsymcmumface · 05/12/2017 07:48

*Yeah I am pretty sure having a cosy thick coat on in the car, will totally protect you and save your life if you have a head on collision with a 10 ton truck, or run into a brick wall at 60mph or go flying off a bridge onto the motorway below! 😂😂😂

Please tell me you are joking? You HAVE to be! wink*

See. I can’t tell if you are joking? I assume you are and that you obviously realise wearing a coat or not would make difference to the level of injury sustained (probably death) in any of your examples.

That’s the point I am making. In the very unlikely event you have a crash, the chances of sustaining an injury which you wouldn’t have sustained regardless of the cost situation are minuscule.

Stickaforkinimdone · 05/12/2017 07:48

DS carries his coat to the car (which is parked on the driveway so no more than 10 adults paces away) and the coat goes on at the end of the journey

The car takes no more than 2 minutes or so to heat up once the engine is on and a couple of minutes being a bit chilly won’t hurt anyone-we’re in the south east so even in the depths of winter it’s never usually below freezing

Unless you live in arctic temperatures there’s no need to have them in coats going a couple of steps between a house and a car