To let my 11yo sit in the front seat on a long motorway journey?

[Amarette]

I have to take my DD on a long motorway journey this weekend. I have a one-year old car with excellent safety ratings for the passenger seat, with air bags etc. In fact, the safety ratings look like its safer to be in the front than the back, although they only seem to have tested child's car seats in the back so it's hard to compare.

Anyway, my friend said that she would never let her DC travel in the front seat on the motorway as its always safer for them to be in the back. Starting to question myself now as would never forgive myself if something happened to her and I had made a decision that contributed to it.

Curious what other people think? She is tall for an 11yo and an athlete so not a delicate child!

In other news, it's also much safer never to cross a road than to cross one. Have you ever seen someone who's been flattened by a bus?

presumably though you take measures to avoid being hit by a vehicle crossing the road? Use crossings, look left, cross when it’s clear..

same thing, yes there’s a risk but you take steps to minimise it.

I’ve literally never given this a thought

have you also never given a thought to any other risks? Lay on back as infants, researched the safest car seat, avoided smokers? Why think about one risk but not another?

No it isn't.
Not in England anyway.
May be in other countries.

@Clymene

Really? You didn't know that it's much safer in the back and that airbags can snap children's necks?

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Is it still safer in the back if a double decker bus pounds into the back of the car, or side of the back end of the car?

As long as everyone is sitting in a carseat appropriate for their weight and age/size, and airbags are switched off for those that it could be dangerous to, everything else is dependent on the impact and location of any potential accident.

@FrodisCapering it is as you say in Spain where I live. The child has to be 12 years old and at least 1.35 metres tall to sit in the front. Not complying is 200 euros fine and 4 points off your licence. The only exceptions are when the car has no back seats, the back seats are occupied by other minors in seats and one other I can´t recall. Maybe you´ve travelled in mainland Europe and that´s why you thought it was so in Britain.

Well...the passenger seat isn´t called the death seat for nothing, you know.

The safest seat in the car is the middle seat in the back due to being as far away from impact zones.

Totally up to you to judge risk and deem what you think is appropriate.

All my kids have sat in the back until they were in secondary school and they're all quite tall. DC3 is still in an isofix booster at 9 and I've a spare one for her friends who all balk at having to sit in one.

I've been in a fatal car accident though so am rather adverse to any risk.

My kids were both in the front seat for the first 2-3 mths of their lives as it was easier to reach for them. This is a non-issue

My immediate thought wasn't about safety but about behaviour.

My 34yo husband isn't mature enough to sit in the front seat some days!

He's a non-driver, and I had to give him a serious bollocking the other day for his habit of "helpfully" using my hazards to thank another driver. A) I had already done a little hand raised wave, b) not always possible to thank people and that's fine, c) it was a very bad spot to give a potentially confused signal, and it DID confuse them.

Countless other small bits of behaviour that are a much worse distraction when he's next to me that a non-driver wouldn't do.

So does your daughter know how to behave in the front?

I would be so angry if a husband of mine interfered with my driving in that way!

I hate having adults in the front of my car now (usual only drive with my dc present - 14 and 9). They do things like - spread a bit of leg or coat into the driving area (where the gearstick is), sit forward at junctions “to see”, thereby blocking the driver’s view, rather than keeping their head back as they should, natter to you at important points like at tricky junctions, tell you “it’s clear” or point out parking spaces that you’ve already either seen or dismissed for reasons.

Any way that’s all irrelevant- it makes me look like a nervous driver but I’m not at all, I’m just a misery guts!

Ive let my dc go in the front from a younger age, OP, because particularly the youngest gets sick in the back.

Well, those things also go on my husband's offence list - it's a miracle I haven't killed him. But as a non driver he is so much worse!

Don't get me started on him getting arsey when I shush him when he yaks on over the sat nav... Apparently I'm supposed to wait until he pauses breath, say, "sorry dear, I just need to listen to the directions". At 70mph when I need to lane change.

I think I'd prefer a 11yo to be honest.