Kids riding in the front seat.

I have noticed this year in Car pool that some kids are riding in the front seat of the car, I can't even see their heads over the dash. (Mcgee's Elem.)
I have done some reading on it and from what a read that they have to weigh at least 100 pounds or more or be 12 years old, which ever one comes first.
I know one day one of the teachers in Car pool asked if she was going to sit in the front or back and I looked at her funny and I was like the back of course.
Sheri

 

I see it all the time at West Clayton too. A teacher asked me the same thing one day when only one of mine went to school. I had to get her to repeat it.

 

I know for the safey seats it is 8 yrs old or 80lbs whichever comes first. I am unware of an actual law that states when a child can ride in the front seat (no, I have not look, so I could be wrong).

 

I don't know what the laws are ... but I do have different rules for different vehicles. In the van, the kids have to ride in the back. The truck has some sort of sensor that automatically turns the airbags off in the passenger area if the weight isn't over a certain amount. Although the truck is a 4-door, I do let my 87lb son ride up front sometimes.

 

Yes, if there are air bags, children under a certain age ( I think 5) should be restrained in the back.

 

I know sometimes in the past, while I was waiting for the line to move, I would let my child move to the front seat to get out, so he did not have to climb over my other little one.

 

I believe your correct on that part if they are in a boster seat. My Dd is out of that weight limit.
My Dd is over weight by 15 to 20 pounds for her age. She is working on that part, well we both are, but she is tall for her age as well. She can ride in the front I just thought it was much safer for her to be in the back.
Sheri

 

Absolutely, the back seat is always safer for a child. But I think you hit the nail on the head, some parents don't always do what is best for the child. If little Sally wants to ride in the front, she gets to, because it is easier to let her, than to make her do what is best for her and what you (not You) at the parent tell her too. JMO

 

This is one thing I don't budge on. My 9 year old asks me all the time when it's just the 2 of us, if he can ride in the front. NO. Absolutely not. Not even to LF, which is a mile down the road. I get mad at my husband when he lets him ride in the front of his truck, even with the airbag turned off. Of course, he just traded his truck in for one without a backseat, so that will be harder for us to manage sometimes. But I still don't like it. The only time I've ever let him ride in the front was when I had my car full of mattresses, and he couldn't ride in the back, and he was home sick from school.

I cannot believe people let their kids ride in the front, and sometime I see TODDLERS in the front, without carseats, without seatbelts!!! WTH???

 

I have been lucky so far, my DD has never asked to ride in the front. So that is not a problem for me. I feel the longer I can keep her back there the better.
It just shocked me on some that let their little ones in the front. Trucks I can understand, but these are 2 door or 4 door cars.
Sheri

 

I have seen toddlers, as you say, no car seat, selt belt, nothing.... jumping around, standing up, sitting in someone elses lap even. Makes me want to walk up to them and knock them out. I don't care if an adult has no care in the world about their own safety, but we are talking about children. People are just STUPID sometimes.

 

I called the police on a woman who put all of her kids in the car with no restraints and a teenager had the baby on her lap. I followed her to see if I could tell the police her location, but she got on the beltway and I just prayed they would find her through her license plate. I have zero tolerance for that kind of endagerment. :banghead:

 

Well, to me the law is a grey area with bigger kids. Some 7year-olds are as big as 8-year-olds and, according to the law, the state says 8 years or (not and) 80 pounds. Sound parental judgement and a unique situation with a given vehicle sometimes trumps a black and white law with no room for grey IMO.

Now that isn't to say that I advocate letting a toddler or a small 6 or 7 year old go without a seat or booster. I'm saying as a child gets older, they are perhaps in greater peril sitting in a seat that they've obviously outgrown.

 

:iagree: My concern is more with younger kids, who are so small they need all the help they can get.

Now, I went for the first time ever, to one of those safety seat inspection points when my youngest was a little over a year. He is, as some of you know, very small for his age. She informed me that it is safer, but not the law, to have a child under 30 pounds facing the rear in his carseat. My son is now 3 1/2 and only weighs 27 pounds, on a good day! So in that case, he'd still be in a rear facing infant seat??? I just agreed with her, but had to laugh after she left, cause I knew that was impossible!

I don't make my kids ride in a booster after they're 7, it just seems silly. It's hard enough getting my 5 yo to sit in one, but he does. There is no way my youngest will be in a booster when he turns 4, I don't even know if he'll be big enough when he's 5, or even when he starts kindergarten, poor little thing. But he sure is cute! :lol:

 

I had to laugh my daughter wasn't 100 lbs when she graduated high school, if they hadn't added the 12 year old part ,she wouldn't have gotten in drivers ed

 

Well I guess some of our parents were pretty ignorant... So much for standing on the front seat while the old man was driving or the times helping them drive while sitting on their laps.. This back in the day when the dashboards were steel... LOL... What the hell was a carseat???

 

:iagree: the masses are azzes!!! in my former life i was a teller at the d-thru window and would see all the idiots doing the same. AND in the middle o winter, wee ones with no coat, no shoes, no socks!!!

 

OH MY I can remember riding in the front with my mom, shifting gears for her. But then they had ash trays in the OBGYN office go figure..

 

yeah to funny...

 

i had to laugh at that one too. if the 12 year old part hadn't been added my 21 yr old would still be in the back seat. :lol: