Replies

"...hysteria about protecting children these days..."

Agreed. Responding deputies “instructed the older 5 y.o. child to open the door, yet the kid said he didn’t know how” when told, so they shattered the windows.

When I was that age decades ago I was letting myself enter and exit the car on my own. My mom and dad let me buckle myself into the adult seat. Somehow we all managed to survive. If I was to be inadvertently left in a sweltering car, I would have simply opened the door and climbed out.

Those silly child safety locks were similarly not required.
I guess my folks told me not to exit the car at 55 mph on the highway and I believed them.

Exactly.

These damn baby seats are treating them like babies and a 5 yo does not need to be stuck in a bunch of straps.

I am BETTING the 5yo has the deluxe “booster seat”, which looks just like the real serious toddler seat (i.e., looks like a miniature portable legless chair). He has to know how to not only reach around to unbuckle, but to get the strap out of the nooks all over the chair (often includes cup holder!). If you don’t show them, it’s kind of confusing.

We got just plain booster seats for our son when he was “old enough” for the nanny-staters. These are cheap and simple, literally only the bottom, and the strap easily comes off. The child can easily manipulate the shoulder strap.

I’m sick of these safety NAZIs who just create another real problem when solving another possible problem.