h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sooo i promised something on Car Seats.

The laws around car seats for children are frequently changing. When i was small Car seats existed (i remember riding in mine aged around 4) but were not required. Since then the laws have changed several times.

At the moment as it stands children from birth to 9 months or 20lb must travel in a rear facing seat. This however is due to change in 2017 or thereabouts so that children must rear face until 15 months regardless of weight. For this reason Extended Rear Facing (or ERF) seats are becoming easier to buy now to normalise them before the law change.

I am navvy about this, it means I was able to buy an ERF seat for R. Okay he will only be able to rear face until around age 4 in it, but that's much better than the 10 months he managed in his baby seat.

Maybe one day we will catch up with countries like Sweden where children must rear face until age 4.

I live in hope. For now i'm just happy that my boy is safer.

I think rear-facing seats had just come in when my youngest was born. Push chairs should also be made rear-facing. I so often see young Mums who have stopped for a chat or a window-shop and have shoved the push chair right up against a wall or something really boring or unpleasant for their child to look at whilst they're amusing themselves.

Of course, when I was a kid, seat belts hadn't even been invented and anyone with more than three kids just bundled them into the boot of an estate car. Babies were either not taken out in cars or carried on Mum's lap.

Oh yes, i remember when grandpa picked me up from kindergarden. I was sitting in the rear without seat belts of course, while the dog was sitting in the passenger seat next to grandpa.

When we were many people with children and adults as TC says, we were sitting in the boo of the car, sometimes together with one or two dogs. I must say it was lots o fun.

*scratches head, trying to work out the significance of that smiley combo*

\So, a rear-facing childseat, sits on the car seat, front or back, but faces towards the back of the car? I guess these are safer then, than the ones I vaguely recall which fced forward? (though never having had a car in our family when I was young, Inever really travelled in cars much until I was older)

[Amy P]

The rear-facing seats go on the passenger seat, which is far safer because if you are the only person driving and the only adult with the child in the car, you have him/her practically in your line of vision without having to take your eyes off the road. If he/she is on the back seat, it's sometimes just too dicey a business to turn round and see what's wrong with them if they're yelling just as you're doing an overtaking manoeuvre or negotiating a complicated junction.

ahh... that makes a lot of sense

I think you are supposed to turn off the front passenger seat airbag if you have a child seat installed on it.