In my day the car seats could face backwards. They were better because they came with their own steering wheel. Mine had a little squeaky horn!
Trolleys, trains, amusement park rides and stage coaches have had rear facing seats for a LONG time.
While on vacation, after having driven for about 6 hours, I was tired, went into the bacl of our Outback and attempted to sleep (I was SO exhausted) while my wife drove and we had to stop while I got some sleep ... it just wasn't happening in a moving car
I have never riden backwards (baby seats), but my experience with eyes open, moving forward (LOVE roller coasters and those hang in a harness, flip you over and around a few times amusement park rides), pretty much tells me moving forward with your eyes open is the way God intended us to perambulate using other than your legs
I've looked and I can find no data
Does anyone know any stats about any affects on kids that grew up riding backwards for the first 2 - 4 years?
Did they become democrats?
Are they afraid of the dark ?
Are thery skydivers and bungee jumpers ?
I'd really like to know
I don’t know, but the worst thing in the world is backwards moving roller coasters.
Last time I rode one of those, which was also the only time, I almost died. If that ride had been one second longer... death.
I puked for 3 hours.
I also cannot read in a moving car, nor can I ride down a steep mountain cut back road without getting severe motion sickness.
But I’ve no idea if I was a backwards car seat baby.
Well, ya might try contacting Joan Claybrook.
She had a thing about riding backwards in a new fangled government motorcycle.
Dont know about any of that stuff but read your line about the clean and dirty kids.
That’s what concerns me. Can this younger generation ever clean off the filth they’ve been fed?
and since head injury and damage to vestibular system, i cannot read in a car or even on a plane anymore.
And why does vestibular always come up as misspelled? i see it a dozen times on my medical test reports?
I rode backwards for the first year or so of my life. I had terrible motion sickness in the car until my early teens. Then, I suddenly grew out of it. I haven’t had a problem since, and I never have had a problem with roller coasters.
Remember the big GM Station Wagons with the third row rear facing seat?
My Childhood Buddies Parents had one and riding in that seat was an interesting experience.
I’ve learned that the back seat, no matter how you’re facing, is the worst place for someone who gets car sick.
Many went on to suffer Internet Addiction Syndrome:)
Yes, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation published a study in 1998 entitled "The Effects on Kids Who Grew Up Riding Backwards for the First 2-4 Years" (sorry that I couldn't think up a more-plausible sounding title!).
The study was conducted over a period of five years and cost $25 million.
The main finding was that children who rode backwards during the first two to four years of their lives tend to be Conservatives, love rollercoasters, and post lots of vanity posts.
A follow-up study was recommended, but for budgetary reasons, was not initiated.
(Something about a more-pressing need to fund the design of $5,000 toilet seats in B-52 Bombers.)
and since head injury and damage to vestibular system, i cannot read in a car or even on a plane anymore.
Are you talking about your [cough] "lady parts?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulval_vestibule
Regards,
Our twins rode facing backward until they were about 3 1/2. I was amazed to find out that they still remember facing backwards (they’re 8 1/2 now), and said they actually preferred it since they had a greater field of vision. (Our family van has nice big windows in the back.) They don’t seem to be particularly scared of anything. ;)
Funny story perhaps for some. I rode in the back of my parents 56 Buick once or twice a year 300 miles each way to their vacation area for fishing trips. After around 50 or 75 miles I would get too tired to stand up on the back seat to watch out the front windshield, so I would climb up on that painted cardboard compartment over the trunk under the back window and watch out the back window for movement prospective, and count special cars/play games. I would then get too tired to do that anymore so I would just sit normally on the back seat where I could no longer see anything and feel the car with complete surprise. I would then tell my mother I'm "gonna throw up" and she would hand an opened up double insulated (double glued layer) ice cream bag. She'd tell me to use that and when I was done she'd twist that off and roll her window down in the passenger seat, wait for light traffic wing it out on the side of the road. I'd stand up to see if we were lucky for a target, but she looked for ditches, although I think we did accidentally hit something once. The bags came from them 3 or 4 quart cardboard frozen ice cream supermarket boxes.
From what I’ve heard, riding in the rear of a 1970 El Camino bed lined with astroturf can be rather traumatic.
N I t sure what it is. None of what makes you queasy bothers me in the least. I can read in a car. In fact, I’m better off reading while my wife drives. She’s a horrible driver.
I can only fall asleep on a plane if the flight is rough. If it’s a smooth flight I’m stuck awake.
Most of the newer trains in the Northeast and Pacific Coast have people who sit facing backwards, and those states have been turning deeper and deeper blue.
...perhaps you’re on to something.
I never rode backwards in a car, that I can remember. My two boys did sometimes in our old Toyota wagon. In the mid-’70’s we moved from the West to the East coast. A three day trip with 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 yo kids. Most of the time they sat, or rather rolled around in the “way back”, happy as clams. I’d go to prison for that today. They lived to happy family men with no untoward after effects.
In the ‘60s we had a station wagon with the very back seat facing back. I’d ride for hours there, reading every minute, and felt great.
But sitting in the middle row facing forward I always got carsick, reading or not.
Re the babies who are forced to ride in the back seat, away from Mom’s loving arms, I don’t know about that. Maybe not having that human contact contributes to ADD, autism, etc. Those “diseases” seemed to appear about the same time nanny state decreed how babies should ride.
I’ve heard (not sure if it’s true) that people’s basic character is formed before age 2. I’d think that wanting, and not getting, Mom’s presence at certain scary times could instill fear. Nothing scientific, just FWIW...