To think my brother's wife is a lunatic

[acornfed]

So far around the enforced family dinner table I've heard she thinks car seats are largely unnecessary and are a result of intense lobbying by the car seat manufacturers. She regularly will pull out her 1 year child from the car seat and feed them in the back seat..on the motorway..she seems very proud of this

She also dismisses the Health Visitor advising her about finger food as "middle class advice " due to the waste generated with food being thrown on the floor. Safe to say SIL is the epitome of "middle class", living in a very "middle class area" and undertaking a very "middle class" job. Weird.

You didn't say the slow lane. You said the outer ("fast") lanes.

There isn't a "slow" lane!!

The "outside" lane is the one nearest the centre of the motorway. The "inside" lane is the one by the hard shoulder.

You are meant to drive in the inside lane and use the other two lanes for overtaking only.

So if you cruise at 60mph in one or both of the overtaking lanes, you are at risk of causing an accident as people have to manoeuvre to overtake you.

You said the outside lane. The inside lane is the slow lane.

You should tell her about the many babies and toddlers who die in the middle east because parents refuse to use car seats. Was traumatized by a very minor (non-motorway) accident in Saudi once where everyone was alive except for the two babies (one in each car). One baby had broken it’s neck apparently, the other had flown out of the window and was pronounced dead by paramedics. The wailing of the mums was heartbreaking

Why wouldn’t those who thinks this is absolutely fine, not just stop on the hard shoulder? Surely if it is such a serious situation that you need to remove a baby from a car seat, it would be considered an emergency.

A friend of mine was killed when she had to stop on the hard shoulder (we never found out why) and a lorry driver, who'd fallen asleep at the wheel, ploughed into her car.

Her 2-year old son was with her. He had life-threatening injuries and ended up with some brain damage. At the driver's trial, the judge commented on the fact that he would have died too, were it not for his car seat. Her husband was at the trial, and some of the jurors cried when they saw the pictures of the car seat.

Anyone who thinks they're some sort of scam should be forced to look at pictures like that.

Oddly, I still feel guilty when I drive past neighbours who are waiting at the bus stop in the pissing rain and I can't offer them a lift into town because they have the kids with them.

Obviously car seats are needed now because we all do motorway driving at very fast speeds and totally ignore the slow down warnings

How anyone pre car seat legislation survived into adulthood is baffling, but speeding was rarely an issue then as most people struggled to get to 70 mph in their cars.

Your brother is married to a lunatic? I bet he would have words to say about that.

Stopping on the hard shoulder is one of the most dangerous things you can do.
Much better to just suck up the fact that babies cry. It doesn't kill them.
Dangerous driving practices can do.

How anyone pre car seat legislation survived into adulthood is baffling
Many didn’t. That’s why we have legislation.

Ahh sorry my mistake - I think of the inside lane to be the one closest to the middle.of the motorway

I'm usually pretty chilled/ slack (chocolate for breakfast, biscuits for dinner type thing) but I will never take s child out of a car seat. I was caught speeding as I was distracted by screaming infant, so it is a very tough call. But such a tiny being must be strapped in at times. It's my only non negotiable.

Missbax, all I'll say is, you aren't alone. I would argue that the screaming of a baby is more likely to cause a crash than the slight danger of a crash occurring whilst a baby is being held for a 10 minute feed.

bax you criticised the poster who said you were doing 100mph but you said yourself that was the speed you were doing - 25 miles in 15 minutes, so you owe and apology there.

Then you criticise posters for saying you’re not in the ‘slow’ lane (there’s no such thing) but you said yourself you drive in the outside lane - that is the right hand lane used for overtaking. Another apology due from you.

Why do I think no one will get their apologies?!

Anyone who takes their child out of the seat on the motorway is very seriously risking their child’s life and their own long term happiness. If you can’t cope with crying and drive then you shouldn’t be driving your infant on the motorway.

I am aghast there is more than one person who can justify taking their baby out of the car seat on the motorway. Who knows how many idiots are doing this? It sends chills through me. I sincerely hope the people doing it get pulled over by the police and that nothing worse happens.

I've looked after adult men and women who have had injuries from restrained and unrestrained car accidents - ranging from vomiting profuse amounts of blood due to a GI injury, to needing 7 hour spinal surgery, to being classed as having a disorder of consciousness and being unable to make any purposeful movement or sound.

If a car can do that to a 13 stone 6 ft man I dread to think what can happen to a tiny baby.

Anything that reduces risk is worth doing, even if you avoid long distance driving with a baby and take the train or something instead. I won't even go on a bus or taxi for 15 minutes without a seatbelt. It isn't worth the potential consequences at all.

MyKingdomForBrie

Sorry I didn't work out the maths, it was obviously a rough guess at times. Apologise for not being as precise as you'd have liked.

Then you criticise posters for saying you’re not in the ‘slow’ lane

Did I?! I'm pretty sure I said "sorry, my mistake" and corrected myself.

There are articles where people say their crying kids are more distracting than mobile phones and claim it causes accidents.

But I'm not sure how accurate that is. Frankly if you can't cope, don't drive. I didn't drive for more than a v short trip with DD unless DP or I were in the back seat with her (not least because I was paranoid about her head flopping forward and reducing her oxygen; I've spent many a long journey holding up her tiny head!

Captain, those are the kinds of people who cause accidents.

MissBax, you need to go back and read your Rules of The Road. You don’t pick and choose which is the “inner lane” or “outer lane”. There is no slow lane on a motorway

My DS had a screaming fit in the car and we were 20 minutes from a stop and we let him scream and left him in the seat. Five minutes later a car went in the back of us.
No all about your driving really is it

She'd get on well with my nephews Mum. Photos I have winced at so far include him aged 18 months holding onto her on back of moped no helmet (she was wearing one), playing with plastic bags, on his own at top of very steep drop and painfully close to what I hope was a heavily drugged tiger. He refuses to sit in the car seat my Brother bought so doesn't. He's not 3 yet and sometimes I wonder if he will survive long enough for me to fly over and meet him one day.

Many didn’t. That’s why we have legislation.

Care to provide statistics for that? I don't recall many of my peers perishing on motorways because of a lack of car seats.

I do remember some dying because of a lack of uptake on vaccinations though, sadly. Others were left disabled for life.

You don’t pick and choose which is the “inner lane” or “outer lane”. There is no slow lane on a motorway

I think you're being a bit pedantic - I said slow lane because you will all know what I mean by that, not because I drive 5mph on it.
And I don't choose which is inner or outer. I just I obviously don't think you overtake in the lane closest to the hard shoulder, so regardless of how I describe that lane, it doesn't change the way I drive.