..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?

@PoesyCherish because in the back her seat sometimes slips (like 1 inch) to cover the seat belt clip. This means sliding the chair back over (not that heavy but more awkward) so the seat belt can buckle up. The front seat is more moulded so her chair doesn’t move, and the belt clip is in the centre console. Does that explain nicely? My words aren’t working well today!

Travel sickness here too. He does sit in the back for shorter journeys but anything over 30 minutes and he goes in the front.

DD also went in rear facing w me at front as it was the seat that fitted. No airbags. Seat pushed back.
Wouldn’t do it now but that was 16 years ago and was deemed relatively safe.

So many judges

can’t get over those photos of extended rear facing. That girls legs are all folded up, surely any real impact and she’d have 2 broken legs?

Better than a broken neck?

Does anyone know whether the very back seats of a small 7 seater are safer than the front seat? So in a family with 4 children, and by necessity one sits in the pop up boot seat or the passenger seat, which is the safest option?

We don't have a choice at the moment. Government decided dc2 wasn't disabled anymore so took his 7 seater mobility car away. So now dh takes dc1, dc2 and dc2's wheelchair to school in our tiny 4 seater car with dc1 in the front seat. Then he comes back and takes dc3, dc4 and dc5 with Dc3 in the front seat. We are saving up for a 7 seater but it's taking ages because I've also lost my carers allowance.

Your child is not going to be hurt unless your in a crash...
If the crash is so bad your child gets to the point of being hurt I don't think which seat they were in would be that relevant..

I'd be quite surprised if the front passenger seat were significantly more dangerous than the rear seats of a car. It's about in the middle of the safety cage and as, a pp pointed out, right next to the strongest transverse members (the bulkhead and scuttle).

But perhaps somebody has some some actual evidence, maybe from EuroNCAP or something?

Personally I'd never put my children in row 3 of a 7 seater - these seats are never tested on the statutories, or by NCAP, and are and over the rear axle, in the fucking crumple zone.

To the pp who called the front passenger seat the "death seat" - this phase comes from the motor trade, and refers to people like me who have to sit there while idiots customers live out their Lewis Hamilton fantasies.

Travel sickness. we also forward faced from 9 months as he would otherwise vomit, inhale vomit, choke.

Get a life. Do whatever YOU like, then mind your own business.

We have two adopted children who have experienced extreme trauma in their past life, have ADHD and other behavioural problems. Believe me the only way to travel for some years was to have older one in the front, diagonally opposite his sister who was behind the driver.

I have 3 kids - three seats don't fit in the back of my car

YABU. Your don't know family individual situations. What if they have 3 kids but can't fit 3 seats in back? What if is old enough to be on a booster and wants to sit in the front? My boys sit in back of their dad's car but if it's just the oldest 1 (9) then we can lift his booster chair from the back to the front. Just concentrate on your own kids.

My DD is 16 now, as i was a single mum from when she was a baby she was always next to me in the front passenger seat, it just felt safer to me, i could get to her quicker if we needed to get out in a hurry or in a accident ect, always had the airbag turned off, the seat push back as far as it could go and bought child car seats that were rated as safe by Which? and never second hand. Do I not care about my childs safety?

We once had a car with the instruction on the passenger visor that no-one under 12 should sit in the front, so the 2 DC that have been under 12 since then have stayed in the back.

Most of DD's peers have been in the front on the normal car seat (no booster) since about Y3, despite the new laws. I hate having to pick up other kids by car because they always comment about DD still being in her HBB. She was perfectly happy in it until then.

www.safekids.co.uk/what-age-can-children-sit-front-seat-car.html

Because I’m capable of making many and varied risk assessments on a daily basis. Some things I do other will deem too risky, some things others do I will deem too risky.

This ^
Everyone makes calls every day about all sorts of things, taking in to account the specific circumstances of their situation at that time. I'm not going to repeat all the circumstances already mentioned, where one in the front makes a whole lot of sense.

Yes you are BU. I have four children and the cars designed for larger families are not the safest, so we have to make compromises, the same as some parents who use the front seat may be doing. It's none of your business unless they're giving your child a lift using the front seat

But you could apply this logic to anything. Do you put a safety helmet on your child every time they walk down the stairs? I’m guessing not. But there is a good chance they could fall from the top and get a nasty head injury or worse.

You do realise you’ll have mum’s seriously thinking about this now! There’s always another level you can go with safety... When my two were very little, they didn’t wear helmets when pottling on their scooters in the pavement at low (less than running) speed... now helmets are a thing. I expect we’ll have posters berating families for not living in bungalows before long!

My 9 and almost-11 year olds often sit in the front. They are both over 135cm tall and they fight in the back.

When did the guidelines come in? I’m in my late 20s and can’t remember ever not being allowed to sit in the front, no matter who I was with.
I remember my grandparents having one booster seat that all the grandchildren used to take turns sitting on. But as a child I never used a car seat after I grew out of my toddler seat (one of my earliest memories is of sitting in that seat). I don’t remember any of my friends having them either.

Like, it wouldn’t even occur to me to put a kid in a car seat who was 5+.

I always sit my 4yr old in the front. He Insists on playing on the phone when in the car and the charger won't reach on the back. He also won't travel without a coke and the only cup holders are in the front.
It's quite tricky for my husband to squeeze in the back as we've got a mini but DDS insists. What can you do?

Leontine you’d be being quite ignorant then, wouldn’t you? I assume before you where in such a position you would check what current advice is not just do whatever happened “in your day”. Being young doesn’t mean things haven’t moved onwards!