I know that car seats can be a huge hassle...but trust me, unless you have airbags in the front that you can turn off (or have a seat sensor that automatically cuts the airbags off due to low/no weight in the front passenger seat) then she is safer in the back seat. In a small front end impact (think your average fender bender) you could have your bags deploy...even the newer models still come out with a fair amount of impact (enough to hurt a small child...remember she would be at the level of the lower portion of the bag.)
“remember she would be at the level of the lower portion of the bag”
OK, so the image of Helen Thomas immediately popped into my head. NO NEED to reinforce same. Am I deranged?