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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Would you report a kid in the boot?

76 replies

Bigoldsnitch · 30/12/2025 14:58

Just curious! My neighbour is reliably putting her kids in the car and one (8 ish) laying just in the boot under some coats.

I was discussing this with friends about how common it used to be. I haven't yet reported it, a friend told me I should. Weirdly I'd probably be more likely to do it if it was a baby without a car seat.

Its a weird line I know. What would you do? Would you be reporting it to police or social?

OP posts:

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 30/12/2025 15:51

francii · 30/12/2025 15:06

Yes. What happens if they’re crashed into from behind? Everyone unconscious and nobody able to tell emergency services there’s someone in the boot? Sounds extreme but you should be thinking in extremes when it comes to child safety.

What one needs is a 'Baby in the Boot' sticker.

Kibble19 · 30/12/2025 15:52

Yes I would. The fact that they’re putting the kid under the coats shows they know they’re doing wrong. With that said, if they didn’t know it was wrong, there’s no way they’d have the cognition to drive.

As others have said, if someone hits the back of their car, the kid is done for. Crushed to death between bits of metal.

Ignore the people saying that it was fine to do it back in the olden days. Seatbelts weren’t compulsory either, smoking was allowed in cars with kids. Do they still fasten their seatbelt when they go out? Of course they do.

butterdish93 · 30/12/2025 15:54

Yes report it. It’s seriously awful. Not just the safety element. I just can’t imagine treating my kids like that. It’s very sad.

snoopyfanaccountant · 30/12/2025 16:06

Loveapineapplepizzame · 30/12/2025 15:39

On a further note - I had a 7 seater car up until fairly recently with the boot seats that popped up. Despite being forward facing and I’m fairly sure they had been crash tested, I never ever felt safe having either of my children in those seats. To put a child loose in a boot is just utter madness.

I had a Vauxhall Zafira with pop-up seats in the boot but I can count on one hand the number of times I used them in the 7 years I owned the car. A couple of years ago I was helping to take a group of young people from our church to an event and I got the organiser to swap around who was going in which car so that I wasn't going 15 miles up the motorway and back with someone else's child in my boot.
I bought the car for the boot space.

Whizzingwhippet · 30/12/2025 16:14

I reported a baby being held on a lap to the non emergency line and they upgraded it and treated it as a 999 as I could tell them the number plate and which way it was driving. They took it very very seriously. I'd definitely report it.

AdoreTheChaos · 30/12/2025 16:24

Look at the website police.com where you can contact your local neighbourhood team, give them the details. They may just have a chat. If they were caught they’d be looking at the offence of ‘Use a motor vehicle on a road (number of passengers/manner passengers carried) would be likely to cause danger.’ I remember local officers to me stopping a van with a pregnant woman travelling stood up in the back of the van with a buggy and child in the buggy.

Thedogscollar · 30/12/2025 16:24

robinsinthesnow · 30/12/2025 15:44

Why?
It's illegal, highly dangerous and for a parent to think this is in any way ok is shocking.
You are dicing with your child's life.
Moronic behaviour.

somanychristmaslights · 30/12/2025 16:24

100% is report it. If that car got rear ended and that child was seriously hurt or died, imagine how awful you’d feel knowing that you knew and did nothing about it.

sweeneytoddsrazor · 30/12/2025 16:26

It was fairly common when I was younger. We would go on day trips a couple of times a year, with the neighbours. 2 men in the front the 2 ladies and youngest child back seat and the 4 oldest kids sat in the back of the estate car facing the car behind and usually seeing how many of them would wave back to us. This was for a journey that was about 30 -40 minutes. But it was a different time, seat belts weren't a thing, neither were children's car seats, there was nowhere near as much traffic on the roads as today and I maybe wrong but I don't think the cars went as fast as they do today. I do know that none of us would dream of doing it now. Just because something was acceptable in the past it doesn't make it ok now. But if you do report it, not sure what the authorities can do unless they catch them in the act so to speak. Maybe a visit from them would be enough of a deterrent to stop it happening in future.

Tattiana · 30/12/2025 16:28

People are so fucking stupid 🫣 I mean what a stupid and unnecessary risk.

My daughter was friendly with a little girl at nursery/P1 (so ages 3/4/5) and her mum used to let her sit in the front seat without a car seat for short journeys. It drove me mad! And it also caused a load of tantrums from my own daughter who didn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to sit in the front seat like her friend.

I dont get it! How can people be so relaxed about this sort of thing. It’s so risky and so unnecessary!

MummaMummaMumma · 30/12/2025 16:29

Not sure what way you voting is.
Yes, I'd report it!

LemaxObsessive · 30/12/2025 16:33

Are you absolutely certain that it’s not 7 seater SUV? Some of them have seats in the ‘boot’ and you don’t even realise from the outside that it’s a 7 seater. The Skoda Kodiaq and some of the Nissan Qashqai & some Range Rovers, have 2 seats in the boot. I can imagine if so, that they’d be in there along with a few coats etc as well.

BootsandCatss · 30/12/2025 16:35

Having seen the damage it can do yes absolutely. It’s okay to say it happened in the 90s, things change.. cars didn’t have seat belts at one point, does that mean we shouldn’t now wear them?

catpigeon · 30/12/2025 16:35

Well, it's illegal

Notmyreality · 30/12/2025 16:38

Yes I would report it.

LostittoBostik · 30/12/2025 16:38

Yes I would report it if I saw it more than once. A one off at Xmas with lots of cousins to fit in etc I’d probably overlook but a regular occurrence is a
massive safety risk to those children

youalright · 30/12/2025 16:44

Am I misunderstanding like a tiny dark carboot that they are laying them in.

Natsku · 30/12/2025 16:55

I used to love riding in the boot when I was a kid but there's a good reason people don't do it any more, it's just not safe. So unless she's driving a volvo from the 90s (those are built like tanks), I'd report it.

TheNightingalesStarling · 30/12/2025 16:59

If the worse was to happen and they were involved in a crash leading to the death of one or more of the children, would you be happy knowing that you could have reported it but decided to ignore?

Same with drug or drink driving, or no license, or an unsafe vehicle etc...

Livpool · 30/12/2025 17:24

I’d report it - if it was one off I wouldn’t but doing it all the time is asking for trouble. He’d die if someone goes into the back of the car

caringcarer · 30/12/2025 17:35

If report this. If speak to neighbour first though pointing out how they are putting their child's life in danger. If they continued then I'd report them. I might try to get video evidence too so they could not just deny it.

Changename12 · 30/12/2025 17:54

Yes, I would report them. It is against the law and it is very dangerous for the child in the boot.
Nobody I knew put children in the boot in the 80s or 90s.

InveterateWineDrinker · 30/12/2025 18:02

Tattiana · 30/12/2025 16:28

People are so fucking stupid 🫣 I mean what a stupid and unnecessary risk.

I dont get it! How can people be so relaxed about this sort of thing. It’s so risky and so unnecessary!

When my DC was in reception class, I noticed that one of her classmates was regularly (3/4 times a week) picked up from school by a grandparent who put him in the front seat with no booster. I made an anonymous safeguarding disclosure via the school and I'm glad I did, because when the police stopped them it also turned out that the grandparent was in fact banned for drink-driving, and was drunk...

InfoSecInTheCity · 30/12/2025 18:07

We used to do this all the time when I was a kid in the 90s but car safety information wasn’t as well known so it was very different. I wouldn’t do it now and neither should she.

it was bloody good fun though, we were a family with 3 kids and a mum with a very very small car so whenever we had friends round it meant excess kids would be crammed in the boot and we’d argue for it.

LlynTegid · 30/12/2025 18:11

I would.

Given how bad drivers are and the consequences there would be if someone ran into the back of you.

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