To ask why car safety doesn't exist on holiday...

[PeasOff]

... In some people's eyes.

I really don't understand it.

I've noticed people with tiny babies, toddlers and younger children jumping into a car numerous times whilst on holiday (over multiple years/holidays) without a car seat or booster seat for their child(ren).

Yabu - it's not a big deal
Yanbu - I don't understand it either

I’ve no idea. We treat holiday transport the same as we do at home. If there are no car seats then the kids don’t go in the car. It’s not generally an issue for us though as we use public transport rather than taxis.

I don't get it either. We've avoided abroad holidays that require a car or taxi transfer for this reason. We're going this year and taking our massive car seats with us. I wouldn't have them unrestrained or in a shit seat here so why would I on holiday?

My 8.5 year old is still in a HBB and we rear-faced til 3ish so we're relatively safety conscious but when we got a taxi as part of a complicated holiday transfer it just hadn't occured to me til we opened the car door that my 5 year old (and indeed 8 year old, but was less concerned about her) wouldn't have a car seat. Luckily the taxi driver had a booster. We don't travel abroad without our car normally and it just got missed.

You don’t need to use a car seat in a taxi in the UK so it’s more consistent than it seems.

.sometimes it’s overlooked, other times people trust the car hire or taxi company only to regret it. We always took our own but mostly did road trips in our car

Stand outside a primary school and you’ll see how common it is to not bother with car seats.

I used to have a friend who didn’t make her 2 year old sit in his car seat “because he doesn’t like it.”

I stand by my view that if you don’t ensure your child is suitably restrained in a car then you don’t love them as much as you think you do.

Most of us use them when going in a private hire/Uber/motorway/carriageway.

The car seat in taxis law is based on practicality not safety.

Its like people think holiday means nothing bad can happen. So they are careless around the pool, use a motorbike in shorts and tshirt, dont worry about car seats, have a pint at 10am..

Ok, I’ll bite. Name changed for this. I’m one of those people who occasionally use a taxi without a car seat while on holidays.

At home, I use a car seat because I think about the cumulative risk of an accident across hundreds of journeys.

On holiday, I tend to think about that one taxi ride. The probability of an accident on any individual journey is very low, although of course not zero. Given that small probability, the inconvenience of bringing a car seat can feel disproportionate.

Ultimately, it’s a question of risk assessment. The safest option would be never to travel by car at all, with or without a car seat. But we all accept some level of risk in life. The question is what level of risk we’re willing to accept.

Yes but what I’m saying is that in the uk people take their dc in taxis with no car seats quite often so there is precedent. It’s not like in the uk everyone belts their kid in every single time they go in any form of transport and then abroad goes “oh well fuck it”.

Like if you decided to go to Singapore or HK on holiday you’d either need to not use taxis at all or just not use a car seat because what are you going to do with the car seat(s) at the other end if you’re going sightseeing or whatever.

I do agree that people are a bit more casual on holiday but I just don’t think there’s such a big attitude gap as implied. I think some of it is due to practicality.

Most people you know maybe but I doubt most people do because this only works if you’re doing a journey where there is somewhere to store the seat(s) at both ends, so fine from your house to someone else’s house. Not as convenient if it’s say, your house to a hospital/ shopping centre/ crowded restaurant/ country park.

I agree with the PP, look at any primary school - so many in the wrong seat, or no seat.

These are the very parents that are terrified about unlikely events- such as kidnap- but risk their children every day

But I do agree with the holiday observation - lots of sense goes out of the window on holiday - see also valuables - people leave there phone/handbag unattended on sun loungers and then are surprised when things get nicked.

Most of anyone who anyone knows. But there are travel options and many people do use them. I'm not getting in a car accident with my infant/toddler unsecured.

Anyone over 50 (maybe younger?) travelled without car seats or seatbelts, so probably it doesn’t strike fear in their hearts the way it does for younger people.

We pretty much only holidayed in the UK or drove to Europe when our kids were car seat age, partly because of this. If we did fly then we took the car seat or hired a car with one although I never felt completely comfortable with the latter, we only did that once. It’s just not worth the risk, either take your seat or don’t fly, it’s not exactly a hardship either way.