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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that "Baby on Board" signs in cars are ridiculous?

85 replies

ktbeau · 13/01/2010 09:38

Why have a Baby on Board sign in your car?

Do people think it creates a protective force field around their cars?

Will other drivers really think "well I was going to crash into you but now I can see you have children, I won't"?

I have heard the argument that they are there in the event of a crash to warn emergency services to look for a child but people don't take the stickers out of their cars when the kids aren't in it, do they?

Isn't the child car seat larger and more conspicuous any way?

Really don't see the point.

OP posts:
Portofino · 14/01/2010 22:56

I don't understand why people get stressed about these. If they are their in case of accident, or even if just for showing off (not that i have a Princess on Board one or anything).

Drivers don't pay any attention to them, and if they save 1 life in event of an accident....they are not hurting anyone.

Unlike the owner of the car i parked next to recently who had a full screen print of his ds on a sunblind in the car window, which totally freaked me out when i got out of the car.....

Portofino · 14/01/2010 22:56

Cold staring eyes......

Clither · 16/01/2010 22:44

OP....agree, but probably for different reasons. Having been deemed "unlikely to get pregnant", started to see them as examples of people just flaunting their fertility.

Post-IVF, with dd now 10mo, I still see them that way. Wouldn't have one even if someone gave me a new car to put it in.

Call me irrational...but it makes me angry with driver in front, not less patient!

Clither · 16/01/2010 22:46

Oooops, meant to say MORE patient, not less....

scottishmummy · 16/01/2010 22:54

yawn and done that answers are so lame
try harder

ronshar · 16/01/2010 23:03

I worked for Ambulance service and I cant categorically state that at NO time in my training or the 5 years I spent scraping drunks and smackheads off the streets of Brighton, was I informed of a sign to be placed in a car window that would make our lives easier in the case of an RTC!

It made life a nightmare to be honest because you waste time looking for someone who isnt there. I have had to stumble down dark banks looking for a baby that wasnt there. A car that turned over with three seats in and signs in all the bloody windows. The driver was unconscious. It took us longer to get the driver to hospital because we were looking for children!!!!!

So get the signs if you want to but please do not labour under the impression that they serve any real purpose.

ronshar · 16/01/2010 23:04

Pants. It should read I CAN categorically state

WidowWadman · 16/01/2010 23:08

Shouldn't the child still be strapped in the car seat, which is strapped to the car, anyway?

I'd have thought that'd be much more of an indicator of the presence of a child than a stupid "Look, I'm fertile"-sign

ronshar · 16/01/2010 23:11

Not all parents strap in thier children unfortunately. Especially while DUI!

scottishmummy · 16/01/2010 23:12

i know what you meant!

WidowWadman · 16/01/2010 23:15

Ronshar - fair point, didn't think that anyone would do that.

I'm still surprised by how common driving without seatbelt seems to be over here - I remember an email at my first workplace in the UK going round warning people of police being out checking, so to put the seatbelt on today.

I was really confused by it, as I never met anyone not using them when I was still living in Germany

ronshar · 16/01/2010 23:16

Thank you. It is late and I have eaten too much cheese on toast. Been dairy free for over a year while BF. Cheese overload

ronshar · 16/01/2010 23:17

Same as the amount of people who use phone while driving. Obviously a stupid thing to do but still so many drivers risking peoples lives.

LadyintheRadiator · 16/01/2010 23:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Flibbertyjibbet · 17/01/2010 00:05

Oh fab.

Yet another opportunity for me to mention that I once was behind a car with one that said....

SIGNING BABY ON BOARD

Presumably with 2 fingers stuck up at any road hogs!!

Flibbertyjibbet · 17/01/2010 00:10

Sponsored by the local pfb baby signing classes that is.

Surprise · 17/01/2010 00:12

They're not to warn anyone, they're just to show off that you've got a new baby. I find them pathetic, pointless and self-indulgent. As lots of posters have said, you're entitled to have your opinions, and that's mine.

JjandtheBeanisaTwislut · 17/01/2010 00:51

can i add another side to this,

where dps parents live there is a HUGE 'boy racer' community, dp has only been driving for 3mnths, he is 23 and im 21, we have a 2 and 1yr old dcs, our shitty little car is one associated with these knobs teen/early 20s who basically drive around like idiots, 'race' etc.

Our children were strapped in the back of our car one evening when we were leaving my in laws, at some traffic lights dp pulled off slightly quicker than the 'lads' next to us (how ill never know we only have a 1.0) so they caught up and rammed our car 3 times before we managed to safely pull over, having seen us in the front looking about there age and NOT our children, they turned round and came back, i cannot describe the look of horror on one of there faces when i retrieved my screaming baby from the back, this kind of thing has happened repeatedly, when i began driving the car i placed a free child on board sign in the rear drivers side window and ever since it hasnt happened.

Therefore im not PFB, not smug parent and so on, it makes my children safer imo, and it gives me peace of mind that the twats out there see that and leave me the fuck alone.

Oh and i ALWAYS remove my sign when my children arent in the car, although this is very rare!

LittlePeanut · 17/01/2010 00:56

I do find them anoying, and perceive them to be just "showing off" about having a baby.

However, ronshar your post bothers me.

You said "It made life a nightmare to be honest because you waste time looking for someone who isnt there. I have had to stumble down dark banks looking for a baby that wasnt there"

This implies that if there had not been one of these signs in the car then you would NOT have bothered looking? Doesn't that in fact support the argument for having the signs?

LittlePeanut · 17/01/2010 01:00

x-post with Jj - seems very sensible to have a sign in your specific circumstances.

mrsmarzipan · 17/01/2010 09:21

I have one of these, the main reason being that when i park in a mother and child space then its obvious that i have a reason to be there. The infant car seats don't always stay in the car and therefore not easy to tell who has a right to park there and who is abusing it.
I also have it in the hope that some idiot who is tailgating me thinks twice and backs off.
I do not have it to excuse any bad driving as i may be distracted or tired. If i have my kids in my car believe me i am paying lots of attention to the road to make sure they are safe.
I think this is the point of the signs and why most parents use them.

p.s i used to hate them when i was trying for DD1!

Ziggurat · 17/01/2010 10:30

Any kind of decor in a car is tacky in the extreme - whether it's soft toys, nodding dogs or Baby / Princess / Babe (err, if you say so) / Twonk Who Likes Spending Money On Novelty Tat On Board signs.

And tossers who drive dangerously are not suddenly going to redeem themselves on clocking one of these signs...

ronshar · 17/01/2010 22:29

Little peanut. If there are car seats then you expect to look around for small people but no seats and a sign in the window is very misleading!
Obviously the emergency services try 100% to make sure that all are accounted for. I never wanted to be the one who had to live with the knowledge that I left a child by the side of the road.

The signs are not for the benefit of the emergency services, thats all I wanted to point out.

LittlePeanut · 17/01/2010 22:56

Thanks for the reply ronshar.

Chezgb · 13/02/2025 12:54

Some of the posts on here are very defensive. In addition, showing off a baby is a very twisted way of 'loving' your kids. Parenting and self glorification do not mix. These signs are a self entitlement. I saw a hand written sign stuck in a driver's back window once saying 'grandchildren on board'. If people are being belittled for not agreeing with them, then OK, why don't we all have them... man on board, woman on board, 17 year old on board, transgender on board.....etc etc I think tax payer on board would be a good one. Surely it would be more beneficial, if this 'in case of an accident' reason is valid, for people with illnesses or disabilities to display these, which I have never seen. I don't see why advertising a baby on board is more important. If the defensive brigade are dictating to others not to notice their baby on board sign then why put it there??? You have said you want it to be noticed incase of an accident. Huge contradicting yourselves here,with a whole load of arrogance.
Please just be honest and admit that you're using your child to prove whatever, worst of all without the child's knowing. The baby is an individual human being not an extension of your ego.

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