driving around with a kid on your lap

Well, I do believe it's wrong of people and Brittany Spears, but people really need to lay off her. People made fun of her for saying something like "we're country"...she's right. I am from a very small town in Texas and we always did this. I am guilty to this day of letting my 3 and 5 yr old sit in the front seat or unbuckled in the back seat when we go to the store. I was driving to the store in my dad's pickup at the age of 11 by myself. It's a country thing, I guess. It is very dangerous and against the law, but hundreds (if not thousands) of people do it daily and it's really unfair people concentrate on someone becuase they are a celebrity. I am not saying people should do it, but I am saying that it is done all the time. Not right, but that's the way it is. I do have to say that I have never gone to a big town or driven a long distance with my kids not buckled, but in our small town of 500 people, we all do it.

I have seen it too many times to recall every incident. However, it was a very long time ago in countries and a time when there were no car seats! As a child I remember sitting on an uncle's lap pretending to drive whilst he was driving. No accidents ever happened though. However, I am all for the carseats and the new laws!

I have seen this once in real life. I can not believe it. Every time my daughter cries I want to pick her up and hold her as we drive but I don't. I know that she needs to be in her carseat for safty reasons and I abide by the rules.

Just last week it snowed really bad here. I am 5'8" and there were drifts clear up past my belly button. There were some idiots about 23 yrs old "making tracks" as they called it. One of them had a little boy who was smaller than my 2 yr old in the front seat hanging out of the window of a blazer while he was doing about 30 on ICE and skidding around. I yelled at his friends to get the kid in a car seat if they were going to be doing that and I got told "Well it isn't my kid so we basically let him do what he wants" I try to take a "Not my kid, not my problem" approach but that sent me over the top. I proceded to call the cops and within 5 minutes they came and had a nice little talk with him.

OMG.. that is one of my biggest pet peeves.. and you want to hear something.. I drove into a walmart parking lot and was getting out of my car when I say a lady pull in to the parking spot beside me. She had a newborn in her arms as SHE WAS DRIVING. I was mad... So I waited until she got out of her car and told her how wrong she was to do that. She then went on to say how she couldn't afford to buy a carseat and that she knew it was bad but she just drove extra careful. I told her that their were programs in this town that would give you a carseat. It just so happened that my baby had outgrown his carseat and was now in a bigger one.. and I had his old newborn carseat in the trunk so I gave her that one. But people that do this drive me up the wall!

I've never seen anyone driving with a kid on their lap. I'm surprised people do this. Don't they know they could be in a car accident? Their kid could die just because they were in the wrong place at the right time. Maybe the governemnt should make some kind of awareness campaign.

never done this myself and i also do not have any kids to do it with =9 however I do belive that it is a very stupid thing to do, and very irresponsible. people that are doing this should get punished somehow (with that i don´t mean you, it was the father in this case who asked you to!)

My neice was very collicy as a baby and driving would help put her to sleep. So yes one would hold her as another drove but we were on a road that was restricted and had no traffic on it. The speed limit was 15 miles per hour there. It would also be really late at night like 2 in the morning. Now personally I hate the fact that they want car seats just in the back seat. As a lone person driving you can't see the kid (which means you can't make sure they don't get out as they get older) and it makes it difficult for a person to give a baby a bottle or what have you. I wish they had it so they could go in the front seat. It would make it a lot easier on parents.

Every mother or father who does this should have to come work in the hospital emergency room just one night and see the results. I don't care if you are the only car within miles, should you accidently run off the road, hit a deer, anything, those unbuckled children are projectiles in the car. It is one of my biggest pet peeves to see parents do this to children. It is a form of abuse in my opinion. Sorry, but that is just how I feel, as I have had to watch too many of these children die or be left vegetables from the head injuries. I've seen their little faces scarred for life from hitting windows and having their eyes cut out and etc. I take license numbers and report people on my cell phone when I see it.

I always put my son in his carseat when we go anywhere in the car. One time, we put him in his seat, but didn't get him buckled in. It got overlooked somehow. I put him in the seat and told my husband to buckle him because I had a bunch of stuff I was carrying in my other arm that I walked around to the other side of the car and put in. Well, my husband heard me, but I guess he forgot. So my baby didn't get buckled in. We felt so bad! We only drove less than a mile, but I was still upset that we did that. Now when I was younger, I used to ride in the car with my best friend's nephew in my lap all the time. She had three nephews, and we would go somewhere with her mom and her sister, and then me and her and the boys rode in the backseat. It was a small car, so me and my best friend each held one of the little ones. That was 10-15 years ago, though. It didn't seem like it was nearly that big of a deal then.

Ae these people really sane? Who in their right mind would drive with a child on their lap. Apart from the fact that it is illegal in the UK anyway, there is no excuse for putting a child in danger in the car. Car seats are not exactly the most expensive item you can buy so why they don't use them is beyond me.

I've never done that personally with a small child, but I have let an older child sit on my lap in the front seat for short periods of time on a long road trip. I'm talking 15 minutes here and there, and the boy was 8 at the time. I don't think it's legal, but he was certainly no baby! I don't really think there is any excuse for driving with a child on your lap. There is a reason it's against the law. I would think parents would want their children to be as safe as possible, and the safest way to drive with a child is with them safely buckled into their carseat!

I think we have all been guilty of that from time to time. I remember squeezing into a car full of people and having to sit my son on my lap. I hooked the seatbelt over the two of us. Since we were traveing a short distance, I went ahead and did it even though I know it's wrong on so many levels. I think the problem arises when people do it regularly, but all it takes is one mistake that can be permanent. Thanks for raising an important issue.

I hope they get a major ticket at the very least! Wow, no carseat! No, I have never driven a child without the proper safety device whether it be an infant seat, carseat, toddler seat or booster seat. Their safety is of the utmost importance! Always! I hope you turn them in or someone does!

I can't believe that! Especially a baby, at least little kids can get strapped in a little bit... I have to admit I felt a little Britney Spears myself the other day when I tried to get my daughter out of her car seat. I got her up off the seat and was stepping back out of the car and my pant leg got caught on a knob on the door frame, don't know what it's there for but I should complain! I fell backwards and was trying to make sure I didn't throw her to the ground. I was holding her arm with one hand and she was just hanging there in mid-air! I felt so bad, we both fell to the ground, me on my butt and luckily her on my lap and she didn't even cry! I sure did, I felt like such a bad mom!!

I have been a passenger with a kid in my lap it the past. But now that I have my own child, I always put him in the carseat. It is a pain sometimes especially when you have to drive for just a few blocks but you just never know. Accidents can happen anytime.