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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think that if you go to the trouble of buying a "Little Princess On Board" sticker, you might buy a sodding car seat as well?

54 replies

hunkermunker · 11/11/2007 23:25

Why do I keep seeing twats with babies on their laps in cars?

And recently, two cars with the ever-irritating baby on board type stickers, with tiny babies on lap of grinning idiot in back of car.

And once a little while ago a baby on the lap of someone in the front seat of the car.

OP posts:

OracleInaCoracle · 11/11/2007 23:27

because they are idiots from the "it'll never happen to me" school of thought.

mobileslostisitinthefreezer · 11/11/2007 23:35

Heh Hunker are you talking about my neighbour, she too has a little princess sticker and always has her lo one her lap.

Original poster

hunkermunker · 11/11/2007 23:37

Have you asked her if she loves her child? I have asked that of one man with small baby on lap in back of car. He simply looked at me blankly, so I think he was a true idiot.

OP posts:

mobileslostisitinthefreezer · 11/11/2007 23:45

No, but then she pisses me off in more ways than that and I try never to speak to her. Truly she is the one person in this world, that I am likely to end up chinning.

Original poster

hunkermunker · 11/11/2007 23:47

Yes, I can understand that...

Is she perhaps Britney Spears?

OP posts:

staryeyed · 12/11/2007 10:02

Dont even get me started on the topic my Dps family dont believe in car seats. They dont see the point. My dp obviously does and would never take Ds anywhere without one and tries to persuade his sisters the same. They are happy to go across country with 4 unstrapped kids in the he back. Makes me so angry. What makes me more annoyed is that they borrow DP car to do it sometimes. They pressurise him to drive without car seats in place. Makes me absolutely seething mad- not to only not take care of their kids but to get my Dp involved. I told DP that if he ever drives them without seats again I dont want to know him. Harsh but its pathetic all it takes is 10 minutes to put them in.

Pheeeewwwwww

Lazarou · 12/11/2007 10:14

It's also against the law! Where is this place where everyone can drive around willy nilly with kids hanging off them?
I've never seen anyone, except britney, driving round with kids on their lap.
Although, ds1 has just worked out how to undo his harness so maybe you will see me one day grinning insanely with a child sprawled across the front seat.

IntergalacticWalrus · 12/11/2007 10:16

I saw no less than 4 cars while waiting in traffic on Saturday afternoon in Bristol with kids jumping around the back seat.

Even without the obvious saftey issue, could you reallt dribve the car with small children rolling around the bcak seat like farts in a colander? I'd have a coronary within minutes of starting the engine.

Lazarou · 12/11/2007 10:19

I see, Bristol is it? I havent been to bristol for ages so that may be why.

hana · 12/11/2007 10:20

lots around hounslow/southall as well I see on way to work.

Lulumama · 12/11/2007 10:20

oh , you can be DHs new best friend hunker.. he regularly berates parents for the following:

pushing buggy out from behind parked cars

no car seat / seat belts

and gets looked at for being a total idiot

it is unfathomable that parents would risk their childrens' lives like that on a daily basis

TinyGang · 12/11/2007 10:26

Years ago before child seats were everywhere my dad was driving behind a woman. She turned a corner and my dad saw her child slide across the back seat and as he bumped against the door it opened and he bounced across the road All sort of in slow motion. Child was unhurt by some miracle my dad didn't drive over him.

Anyone who drives around with children inapproapriatly secured is an idiot and breaking the law.

lanismum · 12/11/2007 10:54

Do you live near me?
I see this so any times a day and it drives me insane, ffs if you can afford to run a car i'm sure you could stretch to a car seat! I also seem to see a lot of cars with the driver wearing a seat belt, with kids rolling round in the back......do they think a seat belt will help them if their 3 yr old flies into the back of their head in a crash?

MaureenMLove · 12/11/2007 11:15

You just can't drum it in to some people. Even approaching them, won't change them. They will just have to learn the hard way. God willing, nothing will ever happen to them, but they'll have to live with it, if it does.

claireybraxtonhicks · 12/11/2007 12:31

This makes me so angry too! Saw a couple driving on the M5 with baby on lap in front of car on Friday- I was tempted to lean over dh and beep and shake fists at them but for the fear that I would cause an accident and it would then be my fault that the poor unsecured baby died.

I also keep seeing tiny babies with floppy heads in forward facing carseats and also a toddler of about dd's age (17 months) sat on a booster seat.

I am someone who puts the carseat in a taxi though, even though its not legally required and have had taxi drivers complain about having to wait while I fit it, just because the one time I had to take dd in a taxi unexpectedly (so without carseat) I spent the whole time hyperventilating convinced something was going to happen.

homerton · 12/11/2007 13:33

I hate those stupid signs anyway, what is the point of them. Oh you have a baby on board so I won't ram into you? They are a waste of money and I feel pointlessly cross when i see them...especially when there are no children in there anyway!

pukkapatch · 12/11/2007 13:36

eh? i thought that was illegal now?

seeker · 12/11/2007 13:38

Our friend is a fireman, and he is always saying that he wishes people would take the sticker out of the back of the car if the "little princess" isn't actually on board. If it's there, a firefighter might risk his life looking for a non existent baby thinking it must have been missed on the first search.

pukkapatch · 12/11/2007 13:39

i once drove a car in pakistan with my three in the back seat. in england they are all buckled up, with the younger two in car seats. there, the car didnt have seat belts in the back.
was a really sacry drive for me.
fortunatly, because of the road condition, i didnt get beyond second gear. 15 miles per hour tops! so probably not as unsafe as i thoguht it iwas!

EmsMum · 12/11/2007 13:44

As seeker implies, the original purpose of those stickers was to alert emergency services that there was a baby in wreck.

Or, it would seem, flung out of it.

irises · 12/11/2007 13:46

I've noticed a lot in High Wycombe who do this and wonder if it's a cultural thing, as the drivers I've seen have all been Asian.

(don't bother flaming me, it's just an observation!)

Eddas · 12/11/2007 13:59

I was when i came out of my local shop the other night to see a car pulling up(parking on double yellows) with a child sat on what must've been it's nans lap with it's mother driving. I think i was staring a little too much If I was a little braver I would've said something but with the area I was in she may have thumped me

It's shocking that parents don't strap their children in. Doesn't matter how short the journey is When I was little and we took of our seatbelts my mum would stop the car ans not move until they were back on. That message has stuck with me. DD, even at 3, tells everyone off if they don't have a seatbelt on. DH often gets told off because he upclips his belt when we pull up to the house DD has acutally cried if i've mistakenly turned on the engine without putting her belt on. Bless her.

Blandmum · 12/11/2007 14:09

pukkapatch you say

'i once drove a car in pakistan with my three in the back seat. in england they are all buckled up, with the younger two in car seats. there, the car didnt have seat belts in the back.
was a really sacry drive for me.
fortunatly, because of the road condition, i didnt get beyond second gear. 15 miles per hour tops! so probably not as unsafe as i thoguht it iwas! '

Even at 15 miles an hour an 8 pound baby will have the momentum of en elephant. It is a physical impossibility to hold onto 1n 8 pound baby in a 10 mph accident, let alone anything faster

homerton · 12/11/2007 14:11

I know the original reason, but with some cars now sporting cheeky monkeys, little lady and cutest baby on board I hardly think it is something that the emergency services are going to be busy scanning before going in..it's not exactly a sensible way to make a rescue decision is it? I think they are naff.

NAB3littlemonkeys · 12/11/2007 14:25

I saw 2 women in a big van and the passenger had a little one on her lap. I was too angry to do anything but glare. Next time I am going to take reg numbers and report them.

Forget what the law says you have to do - do the right thing by your child!!!!

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