..to ask why you allow your child to sit in the front seat of the car?

[schooltripwoes]

By child I mean one small enough to need a car seat / booster (under 11s or thereabouts).

All safety advice I've ever read clearly states that children are generally much, much safer sat in the back of the car if there were to be an accident.

Passenger seat safety features such as airbags are designed to protect an adult body, and as such may not work well for a young child.

Yet many of the children arriving at my children's school / hobbies travel sat in the front of the car (I notice this mainly for ages 5-8). In some cases it's because the rear seats are occupied with several siblings / lift shares, but in most cases it's not.

If you let your child sit in the front, why?

Airbags can be turned off? We always turn ours off when we have all 3 kids in the car and one needs to sit in the front. If you are hit from behind it’ll be the back that gets crushed so is just as dangerous? Not an expert but it’ll always be a risk getting into a car.

Who the hell honestly cares??! People have the right to parent as they choose. As long as child is fastened in and in an appropriate car seat then it is their buisness/choice. We are a family of four children and two adults, we have one seven seater and one five seater car - it's way it goes. It's very harsh and tbh a petty thing to be judgy over.

Exactly us and our situation and also, my stance on it

@theimaginationcantakeyouanywhe no, not all airbags can be turned off, it's totally dependant on the car.

This has some useful advice on airbags and children in the front:

www.childcarseats.org.uk/choosing-using/airbags-and-child-seats/

@Coached Thanks for sharing. A really useful article.

I have 4 children, I generally prefer the biggest and oldest to sit in the front but I still let the others occasionally - it's not illegal, if it was deemed to be that dangerous it would be surely? I often put the newborn in the front with the airbag switched off as per guidelines because of the screaming/distracting issue.

Parenting is fucking hard @schooltripwoes
I assess everything based on balanced facts and information, rather than gut instinct (that comes in to at the end). Both links have facts and it’s then up to you as a parent to decide what you do next.

I hate these judgemental posts

The closest I've ever come to having an accident with my kids in the car was when they were fighting in the back seat.

When I was a kid, we had one accident. My sister and I were in the back, strapped in with 5 point harnesses, before car seats existed. A car pulled out of a side road straight into the side of our car, crushing the door pocket I'd just taken my right hand out of completely flat.

Putting kids in the back seats of a 7 seater seems dangerous to me, especially on the motorway. And they're so far away.

Both my babies yelled blue murder in the car, and at least if they were in the front I could comfort them a bit. An inaccessible screaming baby in the back was as distracting as kids fighting. And horrible for the baby.

I was car sick as a child. I'll take a minutely increased minute risk over inflicting that misery on my kid. Turning up at school covered in puke wasn't really an option either.

I was a skint single parent. My kids are grown up now and the only reason I've got a car with a passenger air bag is that they're old enough now to be very cheap. Still no side airbags.

There's something about being in a car next to someone that makes it easy to talk. I'm a taxi driver now; people sit in the front if they want to talk, in the back if they don't. It was the same with the kids; we had some of our best talks in the car.

I was a far safer driver without fighting kids or a distressed baby in the back seat.

She gets more travel sick in the back.
She goes in the back on long journeys, but around town i let her go in the front

I put the baby in the front for long journeys. My family live 3 hours away so I only make the journey every few months but if I don’t put her in the front she screams the car down and wakes/upsets her sister - then they’re both crying and I find it very, very stressful when driving. And there’s only so many times I can pull over. I turn off the airbags.

The rule for a booster seat is up to 125 cm and 22kg which ever comes first.

Therefore the average child will be approximately 8/9 years old when it is no longer a legal requirement.

When my DC were younger the rules differed a little but I was happy for them at this stage to sit in the front. I also adjusted the seatbelt height and seat for them.

I'm aware others will choose to keep their DC in boosters for longer than the law advises.

You mean, longer than the law requires not advised. Advises sounds like it becomes unsafe. Unless they are actually too big for it it is still safer. I was intrigued that the rules in some other countries in Europe are for a higher min height and chose to use that with my dc.

Sorry, yes required.

This has been an eye opener for me, thanks!

The rule for a booster seat is up to 125 cm and 22kg which ever comes first.
I thought it was 135cm or 12 years old?

Isn't 125cm/22kg when they can use a booster cushion instead of a hbb?

Ahhh yes that's right!

So you stopped using the a booster when they were big enough to actually use a booster, rather than when they legally weren't required to anymore?

Aside from the specific reasons such as severe sickness I imagine some people just don’t know about the risks. And then there will be some people who just don’t think it matters, as there always are, who will be all bent out of shape at the suggestion there’s anything wrong with it.

My DD Is in the front. I like the company, she likes to chat and look out properly.

Perhaps there would be less collisions if instead of looking and making judgments about at where other people's children are sitting, drivers kept their eyes on the road....

"But really there isn't a reason, apart from they've decided their child's safety isn't the top priority."

This

I veered from 'is this really insulting to parents who choose the front seat' or 'has this poster a point'. Depends if involved in an accident or not, if airbag on or off, if child is very small, other factors.

Personally I find parents that park all over the pavements so others have to walk in the road to pass much worse

@boulty the choice of cars for larger families is already limited, I have a zafira as I have 4 kids, so are you genuinely saying I don't care about my children's safety because I feel the front seat is safer than one in the boot? Watch the Top Gear video of a zafira crash on YouTube then stick your judgy opinion somewhere uncomfortable

Because I feel like it.