To expect a childminder not to break the law

[Reallytired]

My son who is 5 years old and 111cm high told me that the childminder made him sit in the front seat of a car with just an adult seat belt. I believe him because I don't think he has any reason to lie. He has no idea what the law is on children and car seats.

I am furious because we always use a booster seat when my son goes in a car. The law states that children who are under the age of 12 and under 139cm tall should use a suitable child restraint.

My gut feeling is that my son is not going to that childminder again.

Do you think that I have grounds for a formal complaint to OFSTED?

what exactly did she say? didnt realise your son was unhappy there as well.

madamez: It comes across in several postings on this subject by various people that they are fed up with the hassle of carrying around seats. I am sure that must be a pain but surely you will have a bigger pain if an accident happens?

"But even a booster seat is a heavy, bulky object to carry around just on the offchance that an emergency car journey might occur."

funny that - DS1 and 2 both have booster cushions - and they are both capable of carrying them around - so I can't see it's a huge deal for an adult to carry one!!! And for £10..really no excuse

Get the bus

NAB3: that's what we generally do - use public transport. My objection to the law on compulsory car seat use is that it is not possible or practical for the car free (and we are the ones not poisoning the planet with endless uneccessary car journeys BTW) to comply with the law every single time (ie about twice a year) that we might go somewhere in a car.
QOQ - so your DCs carry their booster seats around all day, every day, just in case they get offered a ride in a car? Really? Along with everything else that you and they might be carrying? Either you're raising a family of superheros, or your DCs are perhaps slightly older than mine (3 next week).

I do see your point but I don't understand why people think it is ever okay to travel in a car without a seat.

NAB£ FFS people travel in a car without a seat because they have no access to one yet no other alternative apart from travelling in a car on a single specific journey.

Either that or they are aware that the odds of actually having an accident on any car journey are not that high and that all life contains some element of risk (despite increasingly more demented rules and regulations that seem to suggest that as long as you obey your betters, nothing bad will ever happen and if it does there will always be someone to sue...). WOuld be interesting for a statistician, actually, to work out whether children are safer in-car-with-car-seat or using-public-transport-instead.

no they don't carry them round all day - but although I'm no genius I've generally got a good idea if we're going somewhere where they could end up getting a lift.....not very often - so if we were going somewhere that a lift may be offered then I would carry their booster seats (as my point was NOT that my DS's could carry theirs but that they were fairly easy to transport for the few times we could "suddenly" find ourselves in a car).

and is £10 each (so £20 for 2) really that big a deal for some basic booster cushions - something is better than nothing!

QOQ: my point, which all the car-happy mundanes seem to keep missing, is that it is not always possible to predict that you will have to travel in a car, and not reasonable to be expected to carry a car seat (or, indeed, a range of carseats, as not all car seats fit all cars) at all times, on the off-chance.
I am not opposed to the use of car seats, I am opposed to stupid, badly-thought-out laws that do not take into account real life. And real life includes people who are car free but have children.

madamez - I DON'T drive - and because of the hours DH works I rarely travel in the car with him driving - and we have been "carless" several times in the past 7yrs. As has already been said for emergency one offs you can put a child in a car without a car seat. However, in most cases where a lift is offered it's usually an "optional" lift - so not having a carseat shouldn't be an issue.

If you're travelling away from home and think you may have to use a car a £10 booster seat (which are very light I can actually fit DS1's into DS3's changing bag! which isn't that big) isn't that big a deal IMO.

We couldn't afford to buy a bigger car for when DS3 came along - we could have just had DS1 (just turned 7 but still 6 when DS3 was born) in without a car seat and kept DS2 in his big high back carseat.....but decided a cheap booster seat for DS3 and passing on his old booster seat to DS2 was the better option - DS2 despite being not quite 4 is heavy enough and tall enough to fit the "minimum" for such cushions.

I honestly think you're making an issue out of nothing.

my dd was once transported standing with no seat, let alone seatbelt in a taxi, whilst in the cm's care

BUT the point was the cm's minibus had broken down on the way to school, and cm's wife was at a community centre with several other childen getting ready for a party.

CM made a snap decision to call a taxi to pick up the six or seven kids who were waiting at school to take them to the party. He booked the only seven seater available, and when it arrived, it only had 5 seatbelts. CM had to go in the taxi too, it wasn't an option to leave any child behind, or for cm to wait while strange taxi driver took some kids, then came back for the rest, so dd travelled without a seat or belt.

not ideal, but as a one-off forgiveable, as any alternative would have been a lot worse for dd.