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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Babies and cars

59 replies

blhbkah · 23/11/2019 22:48

Not quite an AIBU but really keen to understand everyone's thoughts....

I mentioned today to a friend how I was dreading a long journey with my very young baby. She responded to say that if I sat in the back I could pick them up and feed/comfort them and loads of people do it.

Do they? I would never have considered it before, but it would help. Although there are obvious safety concerns AIBU to be thinking this is a possibility?

OP posts:
mummyh2016 · 23/11/2019 22:49

I don't know anyone that does that sorry, it would be a big no from me.

bonjourbonjour · 23/11/2019 22:51

I would not take my baby out while the car was moving.

TORDEVAN · 23/11/2019 22:52

I have never heard of anyone doing that and would be gobsmacked if I did. There is good reason babies are safely cocooned in their seats rather than held.

I have sat in the back with my babies on longer journeys but only to be able to comfort them whilst they are in their seats. If they needed holding/feeding we stopped at the next available safe location to do so.

dementedpixie · 23/11/2019 22:53

If you need to feed or comfort them then you stop the car first. You dont take them out of the carseat when the car is moving

Flev · 23/11/2019 22:53

If your baby will take a bottle, you could feed them in their car seat. We often have one of us in the back for journeys, and you can soothe to some extent by holding hand, stroking their face etc. Definitely a no-no to actually get them out whilst moving - but you'll need to be stopping pretty regularly anyway as they shouldn't spend too long in a car seat if very young.

Trumpleton · 23/11/2019 22:53

YABVU !

raspberryk · 23/11/2019 22:54

They probably did in the 60's, in the 80's I was only in a Moses basket in the backseat.
But now we know better??? Very very bad idea!

Whatsername7 · 23/11/2019 22:54

I definitely sat in the back, in the middle seat. Baby stayed strapped in to the car seat and I stroked her face and made coo-y faces. SIL bottle fed dn so she could feed but not something you could do if bf. Id never, in a million years, unstrap a baby in a moving car.

dinosaurjumps · 23/11/2019 22:55

What the actual fuck! Back in the 1920s maybe.

Please don't do that op!

ViaSacra · 23/11/2019 22:55

Sitting next to them? Fine.

Taking them out of the car seat while the car is moving? Not fine.

Another vehicle could plough into you at any moment. It isn't worth the risk.

Bibijayne · 23/11/2019 22:55

I've sat in the back to offer distraction/ comfort/ bottle of expressed milk/ teething toys/ regency Hey Duggee on the phone...

But not to take out while the car is moving!

Bibijayne · 23/11/2019 22:56

*emergency not regency! Though I bet Duggee could pull off a Prince George outfit.

57mama · 23/11/2019 23:00

I often put my DC in just a Moses basket for short journeys when they were babies in the late 00s. At the time I thought nothing of it, and nothing bad ever happened, but looking back DH and I were being bloody ridiculous doing that...

ferntwist · 23/11/2019 23:41

I would never, ever do that. What happens if that was the moment of impact in a crash?

angelikacpickles · 24/11/2019 00:01

Absolutely not. I have never heard of anyone doing this, but even if they do, I certainly wouldn’t.

MissRabbitNeedsAHoliday · 24/11/2019 00:03

I always sat in the back with dd but wouldn't never have taken her out, and don't know anyone who would! I'm actually really Shock at the thought someone would do this.

Fatted · 24/11/2019 00:04

Nope, nope, nope.

I used to sit in the back seat to comfort my DC as babies, give them back a lost dummy etc. But never, ever got them out in a moving vehicle.

It's madness.

isabellerossignol · 24/11/2019 00:06

That's a ridiculous idea. They stay in the car seat and if you need to get them out you stop somewhere. It's the law apart from anything else

Sashkin · 24/11/2019 00:06

Sitting next to, absolutely (DH doesn't drive, and has spent every car journey for the past two years sitting in the back with DS to stop him screaming for us).

Out of the car seat? Your friend is insane.

GrumpyHoonMain · 24/11/2019 00:09

Your friend is an idiot. By all means sit at the back to comfort your baby but only thickos take them out of a carseat while the car is moving

ParkheadParadise · 24/11/2019 00:15

No i wouldn't do that.
The only time i sat in the back with dd was coming home from the hospital. I was worried her head would get hurt when DH drove round a corner 😂😂😂😂

Heartburn888 · 24/11/2019 01:08

Another vote for no.

Quebeth · 24/11/2019 01:11

Aww this has made me think of the journey home from the hospital with DD1. DH drove at approx 20 mph the whole way and I barked “be careful!” from the back seat every time he drove round a corner Grin

managedmis · 24/11/2019 01:27

Definitely sit n the back to entertain /reassure baby. Can have a bottle too, etc, replace lost dummy.

Big no to getting him out of the seat.

firawla · 24/11/2019 01:32

Definitely not. Heard of someone did this, carried their sleeping baby in their arms in the back of the car, they were on the motorway and the car crashed. Child didn’t die, but was injured and taken out of the parents care as it was said the parents have shown they can’t keep the child safe as they hadn’t been in a car seat. Don’t know 100% of the details of it but the lady was posting on Facebook asking for support that she was fighting to prove she was fit to have her child back...

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