..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?

My child has been in the front seat since she was new born and I only have one. I have a tiny car (citroen C1) and cannot fit the puschair in without having the back seats down. Hence she goes in the front with me. Hoping to get a bigger car soon and then she will go in the back, but until then...

My parents never told me I was too young to sit in the front! Used to sit in the front quite regularly as I would get travel sick, probably from all the clouds of cigarette smoke in the car.

I'm actually surprised posters weren't allowed in the front as children as I thought this was a more modern awareness thing.

Maybe it's because I'm an older mum I'm more laid back and also because I live in central London we usually drive at 25, max 30 mph.
I won't be putting my kids in car seats but having read this thread then I might consider a booster for the &yr old if we're going out of town. Informative thread op.

And my airbags are turned off

@tigertooth, yes. I have only just started allowing my 11 year old to travel in the car without the high back booster. I really don't care if anyone thinks that ridiculous, that is the safety guidelines...they are there for a reason! We were in an accident , several years ago, luckily nothing too serious but I driver pulled out of a junction and drove straight into the side of my car, hitting it square on in the back door. If my then 9 year old hadn't been in a high back booster with padded side panels I'd dread to think what could have been. Both cars were written off.

My 7 year old son sits in the front seat.

He can pass me my fags and booze because I can't reach them while driving.

Never ever let my son in the front seat while he was young. He's 12 now so he does now. Going off topic but why do parents let their child get out the car on roadside when dropping off at school. Why cant they get out pavement side which is more safer to do. Never understood that.

Wow what an incredibly arrogant post. Like the rest of us are not aware of how to properly secure our children in a car? Clearly anyone with a rear facing car seat in the front passenger side would have the air bag switched off! Common sense no? How about you keep your judgments to yourself

DC1 gets car sick
DC2 used to get sudden asthma attacks. It was normally a dilemma as to who went in the front normally DC2 until they became better and now it is DC1 pretty much all the time for long journeys.

If they are in a high back booster, should the passenger air bag be turned off? X

My 9 year old very occasionally travels in the front, if the back is full of stuff to take to the tip for example.
As for letting her out the pavement side, my passenger door sticks so she gets out on the drivers side if we are parked on the side of the road that requires it. I do supervise her though.

I have a 4 seat car and 3 children. Dh uses the big car so they all sit in the back in that one. Long journeys/journeys on motorways are in the big car but 3 mornings a week and 2 school pick ups they go in my car and dd1 sits in the front. She's 10 and not in a booster due to her height (came out of a booster age 9years and 5 months).

All parenting is about risk assessing. I co slept with dd2&3 for example (following guidance). I don't believe anyone is a perfect parent providing risk-free care.

DS2 is 5 and goes in the front in a high back booster sometimes, for no better reason than because he likes it.

There’s no official guidance that children should go in the back. I don’t always choose the safest possible option in my life or theirs.

Fastlane46

When I was a child, my parents had a car with a bench seat in the front, so we all sat there. No seat belts, no restraints - Nothing happened to any of us! Far too much protective fuss about kids these days.

Not very bright are you?

You don't think that perhaps while nothing happened to your small family in the front bench seats of that one car, maybe something did happen to hundreds of other unbelted car occupants? That's what the 'protective fuss' is all about. It's where we learn from shit things that happen. People died because they didn't wear seatbelts. Only an idiot would suggest it was 'fuss' simply because they were lucky.

I had my daughter in the front from when she was born, to be totally honest I didn’t know it wasn’t the right thing to do (it felt safer) but I did know to turn the air bag off. When ever she was in the back I had horrible visions of someone driving into the back of me & was constantly looking out my rear view mirror! It wasn’t until I went & had a new car seat fitted at Halfords that they told me in the back on the right hand side was safest, so that’s where she is now. I still check my rear view mirror a lot!!

I seen8 it all the time at my children’s school too and it drives me mad...

I think that, in many cases people just don’t know the risks.

I have 4 children but we have a 7 seater...I would never let them sit in the front. My eldest is 9...

I have seen the damage done to an adult by an airbag.

2 of mine get car sick but unfortunately it’s non-negotiable...

My eldest was 9 when I allowed him in the front. He was a cm off being able to ditch the booster and he found it easier to talk to me about what was going on with his school life. Glad I did as that’s when he found the courage to tell me how badly he was being bullied - he felt he couldn’t tell his dad and he didn’t have to look me in the face to do it. But a month later we ditched the booster anyway. I always turned the airbag off when he was still in a booster though.

1. my dds fight so much in the back it is easier to have the older one in the front. 2) dd1 gets travel sick, but is fine if she sits in the front.

What do people with 4 kids do?

Cant speak for anyone else but I bought a bigger car.....

I'm shocked at people not knowing children shouldn't sit in the front! It was known when I was a child more than 30 years ago!

I had a hard time sitting in the front as a teenager, so much had it been drummed into me that children sit in the back.

(On the other hand, I found it hard adjusting to urban taxis where customers go in the back - where I come from customers sit in the front with a driver, otherwise it's like you have a chauffeur.)

travel sick, boakes everywhere if not in front seat.

My mother didn't believe in travel sickness in kids. Until she put said child in the back of brother's brand new car (a week old!) and child decorated the whole of the back of the car.

If small children have to sit in the front airbags must be turned off!!

Not true busyhonestchildcarer