Speed awareness course - sex discrimination?

[MrsFionaCharming]

This is just theoretical pondering I’m not actually planning on making a complaint. Also, I know speeding is bad and I’m happy to face the consequences of my actions, this isn’t about that. Just interested to know others thoughts.

I’m doing a virtual speed awareness course tomorrow, lasting around 3 hours. When I signed up, it specified you must not be caring for children at the same time. I have a breastfed 6 week old. Now, my husband works flexibly and baby will happily take an expressed bottle so it’s not a problem. But what about women who don’t have a partner or with a bottle refusing baby? That woman wouldn’t be able to do the course and would be forced to accept the points and the rise in insurance etc that comes with that. Given a man wouldn’t be in that position and made to accept the points due to his biology, could this be considered sex discrimination?

Was your new born in the car when you were speeding?

No, a baby isn’t harmed by a couple of hours with only one feed, despite what you may have seen on YouTube.

No, the offence was in April. And as I said in the OP, it’s not an issue for me and I’m happy to accept the consequences. But feminism isn’t about me, it’s about all women and for some this could be a problem.

OP don't bother answering because you're going to get berated for either:

Speeding with a baby in the car
Speeding while heavily pregnant
Complaining about not being able to breastfeed while you're on the course but being able to go out for a drive without baby

You can't answer this question correctly.

I’d imagine so. It’s only when facing the consequences that suddenly their well-being becomes so important.

Too late

Clueless

If it's Drivetech, you are allowed to breastfeed- they just don't want you doing the course while being in sole charge.

You do have a window of several months to book it.

So knock yourself out. Don’t attend, explain why, and take it to court if you believe that you are suffering through illegal,discrimination.

Or feed your baby in the break and pay more attention to the speed limit in the future.

hat a course participant who is breastfeeding is able to attend a course.

Requirements should be discussed with your course provider prior to the commencement of the course in order that the appropriate arrangements can be put in place.

Speed awareness courses are usually an optional alternative, so you have the option of paying the fine and taking points. 3 hours is not so very long, either. Also, you wouldn't be breast feeding while driving, though obviously you have more choice about when to take breaks if travelling with children.

You didn’t Consider your unborn baby when you were speeding

nor did you consider the breastfeeding mothers that were also driving that day

How would it actually work in practice though? If your looking after children you wouldn't be concentrating on the course

So many people are so moralistic. I bet you're not all perfect and don't make perfect decisions every day.

OP this was always going to happen, people cannot resist the opportunity to appear morally superior on a forum when they're anonymous.

I hope you sort it out. If I were you I would contact them and ask when / if there are breaks and sim to feed just before you start and in each break. Not ideal if feeding on demand but better than points and then the course is done.

So many people are so moralistic.

because many of us have suffered the consequence of a speeding driver

I have recently done the online course, and I don't think our instructor would have had an issue with you breastfeeding during the session, so long as your face remained on camera (doesn't need to go lower) and you were obviously paying attention to the topic. What they don't want is for you to be disturbed by playing toddlers or older. In addition, should you have an emergency that means you need to break off from the session, you do get one further attempt to comlete the course online, because they accept that emergencies will happen.

I actually had this, I spoke with the course provider who said I could nip out at breaks to do a feed, but I wouldnt be able to bring the baby in as too distracting, baby was 6 months ish at that point.

The inability to take a speed awareness course offer afaik isnt discrimination, loads of people have different problems accessing unexpected appointments - its just this one is particularly unpalatable.

DH had to fly back to the U.K. to do his, but not being a special little princess didn’t feel that this was unreasonable.

So many judgemental, nasty people.

I got caught speeding on a Sunday morning a 7.30am going to the hospital after my daughter attempted suicide.

I was doing 30 in a 20, but it hadn't long changed from one speed to the other and I hadn't been in the area for ages.

Yes I think if you have to take points because you can't take a breastfeeding baby, then it is discrimination.

No doubt you people are all advocates for men in women's prisons, after all if they didn't want to get raped or sexualy assaulted they wouldn't have done any crimes.

I don't see why you can't breastfeed, it's not comparable to looking after a toddler. Have you actually asked them?

I did a course while teen DS was at home and the issue wasn't about me being distracted by him, they said the issue was that he might be seen on screen which isn't allowed due to gdpr. I assured them that he would stay in his room for 2 hours. This was with TTC.

You have to be visible on screen the whole time as well.

Thank you, this is the information I was looking for.

As I said, it’s not an issue for me but I wanted to check it wasn’t discriminatory against other women in a similar position, and it looks like it isn’t.

You speeding have killed someone’s daughter

You were speeding when pregnant I guess. You are choosing to breastfeed. You can also choose not to sit the course and accept the fine. Lots of choices for you not sexest. I have been on the course and it was very interesting and informative. I disagree with another poster saying can breast feed during a class - the whole point of the course is to make sure people take road safety seriously and you are not really doing that if you have a distraction. But you will get at least one break so ask tutor when that roughly is and plan around that.

To the posters keen to tell OP off or to argue that discrimination laws shouldn't apply here because she could've chosen not to break the law (rather than discussing whether it counts as discrimination using the same criteria you'd use if the question weren't related to an offence):

Often the best way to judge a society isn't by how it treats the well-behaved, but by how it treats those who transgress. It's easy to argue for fair treatment of people who've done nothing wrong. It's harder, but just as important, to argue for fair treatment for offenders. Societies can easily slip into a really bad place when you start removing the expectation that everyone deserves fair treatment no matter what they've done. I don't want to live in a society where people in certain groups receive harsher punishments for transgression than those in favoured groups. I could mention examples of where this happens and why it's bad but I'm sure everyone can think of some of those themselves.