Did babies have to ride in the back seat before airbags (like 1980s, not way before airbags)? (car crash, van)

[wawa1992]

Let's say it's 1986. You're a parent, and it's you and your baby in the car in a car seat. Your car has no airbags. Do you buckle the car seat into the front seat or the back seat?

At that time, I would have used the front seat for the following reasons:

1) No airbags.
2) The front seat had a 3 point belt, while the rear seat had only lap belts in 95% of cars on the road in 1986.
3) In case of a sudden medical emergency, the driver is right there for the baby and can get to him or her much quicker.

Of course, there are cons to the 1986 front seat as well. There is the dash to deal with, and front windows are far more likely to break in a car crash than rear windows.

I'd love to see opinions on this. It could go both ways.

As for me, I was born on the cusp of history. I was born on December 25, 1992, so I probably got some front seat time as a baby (there were very few passenger airbags around until about 1994, and their dangers were not well known until 1995-1996)

[colcat]

My kids were born in 1990 and 1993 nd they both rode in car seats in the front. This was before airbags, of course.

[ferretkona]

In 1986 seat belt laws were still new and barely enforced. Many a parent even laid their babies in the back seat or in the front. Bench seats were most common.
It all comes down to how much did parents love their children.

In 1964 I walked to my kindergarten school daily. The day before xmas break I was pushed out in front of a moving car by a friend. I was hospitalized for several weeks as a skull fracture had blinded me, I regained sight a week or so later. A couple months later when I resumed school I continued to walk daily. This was not out of the normalcy, all children walked to and from school.

These days I never see a single child walking home from any elementary school. I wonder many times as I lay to sleep, did my parents love me? Do current parents love their children more than parent of the past?

If nothing else I know that I can beat anyone's "I walked a mile in the snow barefoot to school story!"

[StealthRabbit]

IIRC there were plenty of Child safety seats AS WELL AS mandatory requirements in the 1980s.

Transportation Safety - NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board
Child safety seat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
if you are OCD about child safety, this will help For Parents

I know the hospital told us we MUST provide an approved child safety seat to bring #1 home from Hospital (1980... he was nearly big enough to DRIVE home ~11 Lbs... (our smallest).)

The seats were TOUGH and pinchy. Our kids rode for hundreds of thousands of miles in the REAR seat (different positions, rear facing till of age to Sit and Support) VW camper van USUALLY. folks would tease us when we set our GEAR (including car seats out at night (hoping the bears would steal them, but PUGH... diaper smell...) Yes we used CLOTH diapers for YRS... (made nice rags for cars for next 10 yrs)

For us YOUNGER kids (circa 1950) we rode in a car seat that 'looped' over the front seat like a caphop tray. And I have a GREAT scar on my forehead to prove how well THAT worked. Car got hit and I got LAUNCHED toward the METAL dash. I managed to find a Radio Knob to 'tune-up' my face (for life, maybe the SERIOUS damage went DEEPER). No biggy, I'm sure didn't bother my folks in the least, nothing a little compress and ice won't fix.... I must not of messed up the interior of their new Mercury Hardtop, cuz they let me live. (many weren't so 'lucky' (?))

I sure hope my kids allow me to take grandkids in my cars... Airbags are not part of my STD equip, but I do have a padded dash. (50 mpg since 1976, no Dinosaurs, OPEC or Airbags required)

BUT... living overseas (Europe and Asia) with small kids, I know there were no seat belts (or cushions) in the rear seats when our kids were ages 4-10. They claim their bottoms were permanently damaged from countless hours of auto-touring... (the poor babies... AND they even thought I was gonna pay for their college...... you're 18, poof, you're GONE! bye, enjoy )

[vmaxnc]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

In 1986 seat belt laws were still new and barely enforced. Many a parent even laid their babies in the back seat or in the front. Bench seats were most common.
It all comes down to how much did parents love their children.

In 1964 I walked to my kindergarten school daily. The day before xmas break I was pushed out in front of a moving car by a friend. I was hospitalized for several weeks as a skull fracture had blinded me, I regained sight a week or so later. A couple months later when I resumed school I continued to walk daily. This was not out of the normalcy, all children walked to and from school.

These days I never see a single child walking home from any elementary school. I wonder many times as I lay to sleep, did my parents love me? Do current parents love their children more than parent of the past?

If nothing else I know that I can beat anyone's "I walked a mile in the snow barefoot to school story!"

With friends like that...

I walked to and from elementary school in the 70's. I think people today are far more scared that their kids will be abducted. I wonder if the abduction rate has changed, or has the awareness of those abductions gone up.


I don't see how a three point seat belt is better for use with a car seat that a two point belt would be.

[Hemlock140]

We too had to have an approved car seat to bring our baby home in 1980, but we did put it in the front when just one of us drove her, and it faced forward. Here the school bus only runs for kids living more than a mile away from school, so probably 75% of the kids walk. There has not been any kind of abduction in the 20 years we have been here. The only real danger is
parents driving carelessly, and the occasional bear or coyote though they usually stay away during the day.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

I wonder many times as I lay to sleep, did my parents love me? Do current parents love their children more than parent of the past?

My parents loved me enough to let me learn about the world out in the streets and the woods. My parents loved me enough to let me sort out for myself who is good and who is bad and whom to trust. My parents loved me enough to let me stand up in the backseat looking out the windows asking questions about what I saw out there. My mother loved me enough to be at home baking when I got out of school. My dad loved me enough to drive the car without texting or drinking latte. It was a wonderful gift.

My parents loved me enough to take the trouble to BE like the people that they wanted me to grow up to be. My dad loved my mother, which was more important than loving me.

[Ohiogirl81]

My mom said she used to lay me on the seat between her and my dad. That was in my dad's 1961 Rambler wagon. Later I sat in the back seat, with no seat belts. We didn't have seat belts in our car until the 1966 Ford wagon.

My sister had one of those flimsy car seats that hooked over the back seat of the car, with a steering wheel and a beepy horn.

They obviously loved her more.

[Magnatomicflux]

We never had a car when I grew up in the 80's. But my grandfather would pick us up to go to their place, and I could sit in the front or the back of his K-car wagon with only a seat belt. If we had to go somewhere far, we took a cab, no car seats there....or booster seat! My god....we even took the bus. No seat belts to be seen in there either.


Did my parents hate me?

[DELL37]

I'm only 36 but I can ell you that when I was a kid here were no laws as to where kids could ride. I remember sleeping on the rear package shelf of my dads car. I would also sit sideways in he front seat and lean against the pass door of he old 70's monte.

I still feel he rear seat is the safest place for a kid and it keeps them from driving you crazy in the front seat.