Baby on Board sign?

[Mamawell]

What is wrong with a baby on board sign?

I've seen this come a lot on another thread, that it annoys people.

Why?

It’s the ‘little prince’ and ‘little princess’ on board signs that annoy me. Your child ain’t royalty. Unless you’re William or Kate on the school run.

I’ve heard that too. Babies can get overlooked in serious accidents.

If the accident is so serious that you can't see a car seat/child and don't have the brains to look all around the crash site for passengers who may have been thrown, you're unlikely to see a small sticker which is likely now on the road amongst the remains of the glass it was formerly attached to, or covered by crumpled metal. And how many people remove them when their baby isn't on board?

Having kids is not an excuse for shit driving and endangering other road users.

It's not but, tbf, that's the best reason I've heard for having a sign. I don't buy the 'in case of a crash' line, myself.

I used to think they were BS as well until I read the history.
It stems from a car accident in the US where both parents were killed. The authorities realised the next day that they had a baby who was in the car during the accident.
When they returned to the scene the baby was dead as he or she had been throw a distance from the car and had remained un noticed.
It has morphed into an entirely different message from the one originally intended.

They are stupid and gloating - who the hell else cares that you’ve procreated?

We were given one and binned it

Highfield21

That is an urban legend and utter www.snopes.com/fact-check/baby-on-board/

‘Babe on board’ is far more annoying!

Utter nonsense.

@sarge89

A police officer told me they're useful if you're in a crash then they know there may have been a baby/child in the car too. That's why I have one 🤷‍♀️

But do you take it out when your child is not in the car with you?

I think they are helpful. Not in saying that there is a baby on board, but that there is potentially a very sleep deprived parent driving the vehicle with a big distraction in the backseat. I'm cautious driving near a car with a sign because I've been that mother.

No emergency service professional worth their salt would ignore the car seat and the other baby paraphernalia in the event of a catastrophic accident which would have to involve everyone else in the car being completely incapacitated, the infant thrown from the car seat but the baby on board sign being miraculously unscathed. If that were remotely true you’d have to removed the sign whenever you travelled without the baby.

Exactly. And nobody who has them removes them when travelling without the baby so even if they did serve the purpose of alerting emergency services to a baby (which they don't) then any time there was an accident where there was a sign but the child wasn't present on that journey they would be wasting their tie looking for them.

www.snopes.com/fact-check/baby-on-board/

In the early 1980s, the highways and byways of North America became the showcase for America’s latest pet rock, the “Baby on Board” sign. The five-inch, black-on-yellow diamond-shaped signs which became an overnight sensation were usually placed in corners of vehicles’ rear windshields with suction cups.
Unlike what is implied in the gruesome folklore that has come to be associated with these advisories, their purpose was not to alert rescue workers to the presence of babies at accident scenes; they were instead supplications to other drivers to exercise additional care, reminders that they shared the road with vehicles carrying children.

Though the backstory about an infant who died in a car crash because he wasn’t found in time is one that would chill any parent’s blood, how these signs came to be is far removed from the lore. There were no dead babies, no horrific crashes.

My god, this is not exactly a lovely mum forum.

I see @allplayedout got there before me.

My god, this is not exactly a lovely mum forum.

Why? Because I posted a link that refutes the urban legend you mentioned? Why should it be? Why are Mothers and women in general supposed to be all sweetness and light?

Snopes looked in to the evidence that they were originally an aid for the emergency services, and was unable to either prove or disprove it.

If there had been an awful crash such as described about, I'd have thought there would be some sort of record of it?

They're useless for that purpose nowadays though, because people don't remember to take them off when they don't have the DC with them, and the emergency services don't pay attention to them any more (even if they, possibly, did somback in the days when they were new)

A slow cross post with @FleshLiabilities!!

The ones that list all of their children's names and and sex, sometimes with their surname and even ages especially confuse me. Why would you want to advertise that much information about your family?

Trying to image a crash do horrendous that it ejects the baby plus seat from the car but leaves the back window and baby on board sticker intact. Failing.

@sarge89

A police officer told me they're useful if you're in a crash then they know there may have been a baby/child in the car too. That's why I have one 🤷‍♀️

That's why I have one ☝️

I thought they were to make the police away if there was a car accident.

How can that be smug? That's why I have one... 🥴

My god, this is not exactly a lovely mum forum.

Why? Because we don't simperingly go along with whatever other people write? That people have an opinion and voice it? Surely it is helpful to be told that the information you are giving to other mums is demonstrably untrue so that you can do a bit of research and post something more helpful in the future...

@Mamawell do you not think the police would see your baby?

I find it hard to believe that people actually think they’re there to alert the emergency services to the presence of a child.

Common sense would dictate that if the impact of the crash is so severe that it renders all adult occupants unconscious and manages to expel the car away a significant enough distance from the vehicle so that it can’t be seen, then a four inch yellow sticker is hardly going to be merrily still affixed to the back window

That's why I have one ☝️

They don't work for that purpose though. For the reasons mentioned throughout this thread.