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Parenting
No seatbelts for kids if only going a few blocks?
I do in home daycare and two of the girls I have are sisters, and are three and six years old, they tell me all the time that they don't have to wear seatbelts to and from my house. They live about two blocks away, we live in a very small town that doesn't even have stoplights, so it's not like there is a lot of traffic from their house to mine. But still..do your kids always weat seatbelts?
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Re: No seatbelts for kids if only going a few blocks?
We all belt. Even to cross parking lots.
This is my thought as well, I mean both girls are even capable of buckling themselves in, (The three year old isn't in a five point harness, but both are in a high-backed booster)
I provide transportation everyday to and from school, and the kids have to have their seatbelts on even if I am just backing out of the drive-way to park across the street..this family is a little different though, I side-eye a lot of what they do.
As a kid I was always taught that most accidents happen close to home so you should always buckle up even if only going a short distance. It may not be statistically accurate but it's always stuck with me.
The only time I can think of when we unbuckled DS was when we were going 2 mph through Bear Country in SD.
How about the plastic ones?
It's both parents, their Mom drops them off and their Dad picks them up, and neither one of them make the kids wear seat belts, I just don't get it, the parent's don't even have to do anything! Both girls can buckle themselves in.
They usually say to me, in front of their parents, "We dont have to wear our seatbelts here!" and I typically respond with something along the lines of,
"Well hopefully you don't get in an accident then, they usually happen close to home!"
But..I have never straight out told the parents to buckle their kids up.
I'm not saying it's ok, but were we the only family who's parents and grandparents put us on their laps to drive down our street? (Pretty long street pretty much no traffic. Everyone who lived on the street was like 190 years old and then us.)
My uncle did this with me. I will never ever ever do the same. It was fun, but now I know the risks.
OP, I am kind of a beyotch, but could you mention this to the local police and ask them to watch for it? I'd ask them not to make it look like they were tipped off, but just like a routine check.
For us, car trip=seat belt 100% of the time. I don't care if I'm backing the car down the driveway - he's in his car seat with the harness on.
When DS was really little I was visiting at a friend's house. I was getting ready to go, put him in his travel car seat, covered him up, he fell asleep and I kept chatting. Eventually I left - without looking in the car seat first because I thought I'd done up his harness when we started to leave the first time.
When I got home and got him out I realized I hadn't done up his harness. Nothing happened, but I cried anyway. I've never felt like such a shitastic mom before in my life.
Twice a year our town does a "city wide" garage sale, and people come from hours away to partake in it..It's a little crazy, but anyways, I cannot count how many times I saw people driving from house to house with their kid in their lap.
Now generally I would be upset by that enough, but on city wide garage sale day it is crazy! There are people running in and out of vehicles, cars speed by to get to the next sale..its seriously nuts, it reminds me of Black Friday. I saw two ladies with a very young infant doing it and I called the police. That shiit pisses me off.
I just did something to similar to this last week,
We use a base with our carseat about 99% of the time, but last weekend I was at my parents house and DH had taken our car into town, and it the base in it, my Mom and I wanted to run to the grocery store, so I just used the seatbelt to install LO's carseat in.
After the grocery store we came out and got back in the vehicle and put LO's carseat in, and then my Mom and I sat and talked for a few minutes before finally leaving, we had almost made it out of the parking lot before I realized that I hadn't strapped her carseat in. I am so used to just clicking it into a base and not seatbelting it. I freaked out, but got it buckled before we left the parking lot. But still..scary feeling!
This is a good idea. We don't actually have on-duty cops in our town, (again, it's REALLY small) but we have a few that drive through on occasion. I know one of them fairly well because there is a lady in town with two big dogs that run loose all the time, I have caught them twice and put them in my backyard and called the police.
Neither dog has collars and I doubt they are up to date on their shots, we have no busses in our town, so all the kids have to walk home from school, It scares me having the dogs out running about when their are kids walking around.
Anyways..the cop knows me because I have called the police both times I caught the dogs, and the police usually stays around and chats with us when they come get the dogs, so I could call and tip them off..I think I will do that..that's a good idea.
It would be pretty tough for this girl to RF, she is a BIG girl.
Residential neighborhoods tend to be an area where auto accidents happen. Although you would assume that a residential neighborhood would be quiet with few problems, drivers must be alert and aware that there are reduced speed limits as well as children playing in the streets. Parked cars can be a hazard to drivers as well as pedestrians who can come out of nowhere.
How hard is it to strap a seatbelt on a kid? (answer: not hard at all)
It also reinforces a habit for life. First thing you do when you get in the car is put your seatbelt on. Every time.
They are both in belt positioning boosters, they just are not using seat belts with them.
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You're their DCP. You should say something to the parents. It's illegal. If they don't make the kids wear their seat belts, then you need to report them.
With great power comes great responsibility.
When I was 5, I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and my father hit the brakes and I woke up in a clinic, having been cut from behind the glove box in my Dad's convertible. I bounced off the floor and my head got stuck between the glove box and the front of the inside of the car.
I want my children to wear their seatbelts so much that by the time they are an adult, they feela distinct sense of unease in a car without a seatbelt on. I once refused to go on a 2nd date with a man because his car had no seatbelts. I realize I am a freak, but whatever.
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Lol I understand that the seats are completely useless if they aren't being used with a seatbelt. But when you said this,
My bet is the 6 year old should still have a belt positioner and certainly a backless booster at least
I didn't know if you had read earlier that they are in fact using boosters, just not their seatbelts with them.
Me too..
My parents live on a 400 acre farm with (private) roads that lead back to all the fields. DH always says LO can just sit in our lap when we drive back in the roads, but I always insist that she still needs to go in her carseat, even if we are the only vehicle within a quarter mile of ourselves.
I know, I've been toying with it for awhile now, the girls told me a few weeks ago that they hadn't worn their seatbelts on their way over, and I was thinking it was a one time thing, but then they said it again recently, and they said they never do, so now I think I'm going to report it.
Always. Doesn't matter how old C gets. Car seat, booster, he will forever and always be buckled & correctly buckled.
DH's parents let him ride without a seatbelt and I have to remind him every single time we get in the car to put it on. I'm not doing that to C. He's learning this rule now.
Yes. And I am side eyeing that this is even a question.
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Absolutely. Everyone in the car wears seatbelt even if we're just crossing the street.
I'm going to. I originally thought that it was a one time thing, but then today the girls mentioned that they never have to wear it to and from my house, the sad thing is that they sound so excited that they don't have to wear it.
When I was growing up we had to wear a seatbelt ALWAYS, to where now I feel extremely uncomfortable if I don't have one on. These kids are being taught to enjoy the feeling of no seatbelt, it is sad, and I am reporting it.
This is how I feel.
Believe me, I don't think it is right. Before I did in home daycare I nannied, and I can't count how many times I had kids ask, "do we have to put our seatbelts on since we are just going around the block?"
Kids asked me this All. The. Time.
When I was growing up it was never a choice, we always wore our seatbelts no matter what, and that is also what I have my daycare kids do, and my LO is in a carseat, but she will always be required to wear her seatbelt too. I have just come across so many kids in my years of nannying/babysitting that ask if they need to put their seatbelt on, and then I have these two girls at my daycare that don't have to wear theirs, and it just got me thinking that maybe there are a lot of parents that don't require seatbelts if only going a short distance. But I am so glad to learn that these kids are the exception and not the rule.