Found out that ds1 went out in car with too many passengers and no seat belt.....

[DrZeus]

Found out from ds1 (8) that he went in friends mums car today without a seatbelt on. He had gone to a playcentre and was gone for some time. He only mentioned the car over dinner this evening. Apparently there were too many in the back of the car and they were squashed in. I don't believe there was a booster seat either. I'm really concerned (and pretty pee'd off too) if this was the case. AFAIK it's illegal to carry passengers without seatbelts done up. Not sure how to bring it up with friends mum tho'. DH would have quite happily taken ds to playcentre in our car had we known it was an issue.

Personally, it wouldn't really bother me - I think our obsession with carseats etc is a bit out of sync with the actual good they do.

However, I'm aware that other parents would be bothered - the other mother should have run the arrangements past you first.

Wasn't there a case a few years ago where a woman crammed a load of kids in get car without seatbelts to take them to a party. There was a crash and iirc some of the children died. The woman was given a prison sentence and rightly so imo.

here here

Totally agree and you are NBU. It is all fine to say "when I was young" - yes and lots of children and other unrestrained people died - just because we were all lucky and didn't; others weren't lucky and died. I would much rather we have the system today. There is also much more traffic on the roads these days than there was when I was a small child.

I too have bought a spare booster for when carrying other children but not all do. DD was invited to a school friends the other week and I asked if she needed me to leave a car seat at the school for DD to use. I was told that it was fine, so I was quite surprised to find out from DD later that the other mum had put my DD in her DD's car seat and her DD was just buckled in using the belt (5 year olds, so not nearly big enough to be safely restrained using an adult belt). But, at the end of the day, that was the other mum's choice and she had put MY DD in the car seat - she can do what she wants with her child. I would have been livid if it had been the other way around, especially as I had offered to leave a booster for my DD.