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Sure why not. Improvements in automobiles, safety, everything really, are going to continue. We are never going to be at a point where we just say "stop...from now on nothing will ever change". If part of that change includes some kind of warning system like this then that's great. It's not a matter as simple as doing this will make cars more expensive. Your thinking in a vacuum if you believe that.
Let's follow the chain of events and decisions that got us to the point where people earnestly believe that it should be mandatory to install a system in a car that a huge chunk of the car-buying market doesn't even need:
1) Some passengers chose not to wear seat belts, so government, in its infinite benevolence, mandated that passive restraints in the form of airbags be installed for their own good.
2) This government-mandated solution that was for our own good began killing children. So the screw-up of the previous government mandate was fixed with a new government mandate: children under a certain size must be put in the back seat, for their own good.
3) With children now being consigned to the back seat for their own good, more parents are forgetting they even have a kid in the car so now they're getting cooked to death.
4) So now people are advocating yet another government-mandated fix for this government-created problem caused by another government-created problem enacted for our own good.
But I propose a different solution: STOP trying to babysit everyone, everywhere, all the time. Bureaucratic mandates are not a suitable substitute for rational cost- and risk-benefit assessments.
Christ knows what sort of government-mandated solution will be required to address some other unforeseen problem created in response to a previous government-created problem which in turn was created in response to still another government-created problem.
Stop creating problems that require more and more mandatory solutions. Just stop it already.
Sure why not. Improvements in automobiles, safety, everything really, are going to continue. We are never going to be at a point where we just say "stop...from now on nothing will ever change". If part of that change includes some kind of warning system like this then that's great. It's not a matter as simple as doing this will make cars more expensive. Your thinking in a vacuum if you believe that.
The reason why not, is because it only benefits an exclusive minority of the population (people who transport children too young to know how to open the car door themselves). If it were required, everyone would be required to pay for it.
It's also one more thing that can go wrong with your car, and if you don't need it in the first place (because you don't have kids, or your kids are old enough to know how to open the door themselves), then you'd be paying to fix something you have absolutely no use for.
And then the insurance companies start kicking in and saying if there's any car accident with any passenger in the back seat, and that car didn't have one of those alarms, the insurance company won't pay the insurance, because the alarm was mandatory and you didn't have it.
It becomes a beaurocratic mess, the moment the government steps on the liberties of the citizens.
I will not agree to pay for a kiddie monitor in my car. I don't have kids. I'm all for the idea of kiddie monitors existing. I think it's a great idea. But the ones that were mentioned already that exist in kiddie seats I think should suffice. If the kid is young enough to need a kiddie seat, then he's young enough to warrant having a monitor. So build them into kiddie seats and let the parents pay extra for the few years their child will actually need one. Then when the children are older, and mom and dad need a new car, they won't have to wonder why they're paying for a monitor they no longer need.
I still can not wrap my mind around the fact that parents FORGET they have their kids in the car...unreal....Put a dam sticky on your steering wheel....don't forget the kid in the back seat...
First off - sorry for getting a few riled - didn't mean to start something.
And lucygirl, I'm sorry if I hit a nerve because of the way I worded something.
But I have to say, this has been eating at me a bit:
Quote:
Originally Posted by lucygirl951
No. I shouldn't have. Whenever I went to my endocrinologist's office, I would sit in front of him and cry about how terrified I was that I was going to hurt someone. I drove as little as I could. I went to work, to the doctor's office, and grocery shopping. I was afraid to drive. But my children wouldn't have been fed and clothed otherwise. That's the reality. When mothers get sick, we don't get to check out. We have to keep going.
Yes, you are right - mother's just can't stop being mothers. And if you were directing the whole "tired of perfect mothers" thing at me - well, I'm sorry that you feel that way because I'm far from it. But you admit you shouldn't have been driving - and as a mother myself of a child who is 16 and now driving, it concerns me, because that puts him, other children, my family, etc. at risk when driving on the same roads.
I can't get past using unrested, overworked, over medicated, etc., as a legitimate reason to still be behind the wheel of a car.
Back to the question at hand - I love the idea someone gave of putting your stuff in the back seat. That's a free solution.
First off - sorry for getting a few riled - didn't mean to start something.
And lucygirl, I'm sorry if I hit a nerve because of the way I worded something.
But I have to say, this has been eating at me a bit:
Yes, you are right - mother's just can't stop being mothers. And if you were directing the whole "tired of perfect mothers" thing at me - well, I'm sorry that you feel that way because I'm far from it. But you admit you shouldn't have been driving - and as a mother myself of a child who is 16 and now driving, it concerns me, because that puts him, other children, my family, etc. at risk when driving on the same roads.
I can't get past using unrested, overworked, over medicated, etc., as a legitimate reason to still be behind the wheel of a car.
Back to the question at hand - I love the idea someone gave of putting your stuff in the back seat. That's a free solution.
Free & easy..for most women it wouldn't take long to realize you forgot your purse and go back for it and the child you forgot....
Keep the government the hell out of it..
Like I said though I can't even fathom leaving your kids in a car...
I still can not wrap my mind around the fact that parents FORGET they have their kids in the car...unreal....Put a dam sticky on your steering wheel....don't forget the kid in the back seat...
Neither can I but unfortunately it does happen.
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