Seen it all

I think I would have taken her number, tried to get a photo on my phone and reported her to the police. I once pulled into a parking lot next to a mother who had also had her child unstrapped in the front passenger seat. I told her I was an off -duty inspector (well, I was, a tax inspector) and that she was breaking the law. She looked suitably abashed and I watched her strap him in before moving off. I wouldn't dream of interfering with anyone's driving offences unless a child were endangered.

Where do these mothers leave their sense when their phone rings,I saw a mother with her children in a buggy and a toddler by her side crossing the road whilst talking on her phone,totally uninterested in the toddler who was narrowly missed by a passing car,speechless !! where are the police cars when these things happen never around most times,there should be a total ban on handsets in cars being driven.

It used to be worrying enough when prams would be pushed out between cars, a yard before the pram-pusher could even get to see what traffic was coming. My heart would be in my mouth, watching this. What's so important that it won't wait till they get safely across the road?

Would anyone put china or glass loose on the back seat of their car? No they wouldn't so why something as precious as a child?

I remember being told when I had my son 36 years ago, if crossing between cars YOU go out first not your pram - I passed this onto my son and MIL - it makes sense. This car safety matter should also include your dogs. If they go into the back of your car and you have a safety gate between there and the back seats then you are safe. However, many dogs sit on the back seats and some even on the front. That's when you buy a dog safety belt that belts in like a child's. That way if there is a sudden brake your dog doesn't fly around the car injuring istelf and any passengers . On my way to and fro the shops I saw 4 people on their mobiles.

OOps I meant whilst driving I should have said.

I have often been tempted to phone police and give registration numbers of offenders but I doubt whether they would take action unless they caught them actually on the phone. Hard to believe that parents can care so little for the safety of their children that they do not strap them in.

I do agree about pushchairs being sent out first into the traffic.

Also, of course now agree about seatbelts for children.

However, remember in the 70s when my children small, we just used to bung them into the back of the car and they would loll about sometimes with a foot through the window, or trailing their 'blanky' or whatever.

Sometimes I sat in the front with one of them on my lap, no seat belt for either of us.

Surely I can't be the only one!

My aunt failed her driving test because a woman pushed her pram out between two parked cars. It wasn't the emergency stop..she did that perfectly. It wasn't that she didn't make the car safe....she had the keys in her hand. It wasn't even the fact that she jumped out of the car, rushed after the mother and told her exactly what she thought of her. It was that she didn't park the car but left it in the middle of the road and brought one of the busiest roads in the city to a standstill for well over five minutes because she had the keys so no one could move the car lol.

You are not alone, petallus. We had a Ford Zephyr with a bench seat in front and the children used to sit between us, or even on the arm rest.
Of course, there were far fewer cars on the roads then.

Greatnan, we also had a Zephyr in the 70s, great with 5 kids. The 3 girls had the back seat, the eldest boy sat on the ridge in front of them, and the little `un was between us in the front. But none of them were allowed to hang out of the windows, or mess about whilst the car was moving.

Four in the back, parents plus one in the front (usually my sister: the one most likely to throw up). We in the back used to play a game where we swayed with the car – didn't resist the centrifugal force when the car went round corners. The ones by the doors got squashed. We took it in turns to get squashed. Great fun. And we would all kneel up on the back seat and wave to the cars behind.

I had the smallest Fiat 500 with an opening sun roof, and I even let the kids stand on the back seat with their head out - if I had needed to brake suddenly, they could have been decapitated. I wonder why we have become so much more aware of danger?

Despite my original post, I have to own up to pretty irresponsible care of kids in the car back in the day Annual holiday trips to France and driving through the night meant that sleeping bags were deployed in the "boot" of our Ford Granada and the children loved lying there watching the stars and eventually falling asleep! What were exDH and I thinking??

I used to worry because my daughter had a 7 seater to cope with her large family and there were two seats in what should have been the boot. I don't think boots are protected by crumple zones as well as bonnets, and I worried that if somebody hit them from the rear they would be badly injured. I was very glad when she got a proper people carrier. (They are down to two children at home now, so they can have a nice normal 5-seater).

We can all look back on what went on in cars years ago before traffic was so busy and we knew no better, and think 'phew' that was careless/dangerous. But, when we see folks do stuff nowadays that everyone knows is risky is bordering on criminal. The other day I could see in my rear view mirror a car behind me where the passanger had a toddle sat on her lap. They then overtook me at a junction in quite a reckless manner. Honestly, using a baby as an airbag is beyond belief!

Never mind passenger - I have seen a few French drivers with dogs on their lap!