Guest Post by Eric Peters
One of the things that shied me away from having kids when I could have had them was the knowledge that if I did have them, I would be forced by the government – and armed government workers – to buy ssssssssssaaaaaaaafety seats.
Plural.
As in several – as the child transitioned from baby to toddler to kid to almost-adolescent.
Many states force kids to be strapped in until they’re almost old enough to drive themselves.
This means probably five or six ssssssssssssssssssssafety seats per kid. If you have two kids, the cost of all those ssssssssssssssaaaaaafety seats probably would have been enough to put one through his freshman year of college.
Add in the cost of a stupid-huge vehicle (another huge and unnecessary expense) since kids can’t legally sit in the front passenger seat of a regular cab pick-up, say – because the got-damned government-mandated air bag is dangerous.
It’s also forbidden to pile in half a dozen kids – because half a dozen sssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety seats won’t fit in one vehicle. So now you need several vehicles, since you can’t carry your kids and your kids friends in just one.
This gets into money. It also takes much of the joy out of being a parent – and of being a kid.
And you don’t even see your kid/veal calf much – except in the rearview mirror. No sitting beside mom, where she can see – and talk – to her kid. Which when you think about it is probably less “unsafe” than mom having to crane her neck around (fighting the seatbelt she is forced to wear) in order to see – or talk directly – to her kid. It’s certainly less alienating.
No sitting in dad’s lap, holding the wheel.
Parent and child separated – by force. Because the government (which is to say, the busybodies who control the apparatus that is government) forced air bags on them.
And then “safety” seats to Band-Aid the threat of the dangerous air bags.
All of this crammed down everyone’s throats because the busybodies who control the apparatus of government decided to impose their neurosis on everyone. Somehow, over the past 30 years, they acquired the power to impose it.
Result: We now live in Clover America.
A quick run to the store is impossible, a memory from halcyon days that seem almost phantasmagorical.
Instead, a ten minute ordeal of strapping the kid in first. Then unstrapping the kid when you get to the store. Then strapping him in again when it’s time to leave the store.
It ruins the spontaneity of just going for a drive.
Jump in! Let’s go!
No more.
It makes my teeth ache to see parents going through the drill. And the kids suffering through it, who will never see a car as something other than a kind of privatized paddy wagon.
I see the parental SUVs lined up around the block at the elementary school down the road. The kids no longer walk to the elementary school – even if their house is literally 200 yards down the road. It’s not ssssssssssssssaaaaafe for a 5th or 6th grader to walk home. Or even down the driveway. Except it was until fairly recently, before the rise of Clover America and its congenital/hysterical fear of . . . everything.
The result of which is a combination of government-imposed exasperation upon the adults – and enstupidation performed upon the children.
The parents become tired drones after six or seven (or more) years of strapping them in – and unstrapping them again. Over and over.
They are expected to be at their child’s side at all times. They drive the kid everywhere – even to the end of the driveway, to await the school bus because kids – almost-teenagers – can’t be allowed to find their own way there.
Even Halloween is now a strap-’em-in and haul them to the school gym thing. Walking around the neighborhood is dangerous!
When was the last time you saw a bunch of kids riding their bikes around the neighborhood – by themselves?
The result – probably intentional – is that the child remains a child, psychologically if not biologically.
Enstupidation proceeds from enforced infantilization.
A kid who is never permitted to progress toward adulthood by learning how – by being expected to handle – the 200 yard walk to school – or even the 20 yards down the driveway to await the school bus without waiting inside mommy’s SUV – is on the path to tap/swipe meatsackhood rather than adulthood.
A kind of chrysalis that never becomes a butterfly. Because wrapped in cellophane, to prevent the butterfly within from emerging.
Which explains why socialism is popular again – among the youth, reared this way. What was dreary and suffocating to prior generations – who grew up with almost unimaginable personal freedom vs. the micromanaged unfreedom of these days – is normal and appealing to the generation that grew up strapped in, never out of sight of mom or dad.
They are ready to exchange one parent for another. They fear the idea of being responsible for themselves, because they never learned how and so don’t want to know how.
Future generations may look back on the wreckage of this time and divine its beginnings – ironically enough – in the ascension of the Safety Cult. Which turned out to be a very dangerous – as well as a very sad – development.
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My son always rode his bike to school Even 5 miles when we lived in North Haven and all NY winter long No biggie
It is true. My young cousin brings three kids with her when she visits, ages 7, 5 and 4. All in Child Seats because the oldest, Collin, is small for his age (under 75 lbs) and so must be in child seating. (it is just a chair with a strap, basically).
We propped our kid up with a couple of pillows until he was old enough to hold himself up.
There’s something to be said for the simple life. No point in time has been perfect. There’s no such thing, but I’d bet the 70s were a pretty good era. At least my memories of the 70s were pretty good anyway.
And how many of the “hot car” deaths would NOT have happened had the child been sitting right next to the parent in the front seat as they used to? No, I don’t think these are all “accidents,” but for those that are not outright murder, I would bet that NONE of them would have happened. But we can’t have airbags in the passenger seat that we can turn off at will, so a child can ride with and be engaged with mommy or daddy. Best to relegate them to the back so that the ‘gubmint teachers spend more time engaged with them than mom or dad.
I used to love riding laying down on the horizontal panel behind the back seat. And my parents drove like they had precious, unsecured cargo onboard. I guarantee that all this “safety” bullshit has made parents worse drivers as well.
Don’t forget, Eric, that the safety-feature laden vehicle now has a TeeVee with all the channels conveniently inset into the back of each seat plus a huge monitor for the Humans riding in the front. Better to have the kids watching a fucking screen with the infotainment (propaganda) on for the entire trip than reading, drawing, or just looking out the window.
Need to insure the children are “watching and learning” from those well-intentioned transnational media corporations and conglomerates.
I’m old enough that I fortunately dodged most of the safety bullshit with my son. He was always strapped in with a plain old seatbelt and that was good enough. In fact, in my series of normal cab pickups, he always sat next to me in the front seat because that was the only seat.
Now I have a dog as my riding companion and, fortunately, I do not yet need to contend with doggie safety fatwas, as Eric calls them. But I’m sure the day will come when dogs must be safely secured while riding vehicles. And I’ll adhere to that law like I adhere to the lease laws in my local parks.
trapped,
here in fla. you have to restrain dogs if they are riding in the bed of the truck–
they do make restraints 4 dogs to be used inside the vehicle so you’re likely correct about having to buckle them up in the future,if it doesn’t become illegal to even own a dog–
It’s a wonder, growing up in the fifties, that I ever survived the long road trips to America’s tourist destinations, or a night out to the drive-in movies. With the metal dashboard looming in the near distance and no seat belts, the mortality rate must have been in the millions. Actually, it wasn’t. My father was a Nash man and drove cars that had a torpedo shaped appendage protruding from the center of the horn ring. Now that’s built in safety engineering.
The safety cult is nothing more than preparing the sheeple to accept more control. Remember, it was the same government goons that murdered everyone, including women and children at Waco; do you really think they have your safety in mind? Wait until 5G zaps your sorry asses. Then we’ll talk again about their safety programs.
I read somewhere a study that showed the car seats didn’t make any statistical difference in major accidents but maybe helped a little for very low speed accidents. That said, we’ve willingly complied with the safety seat police with our kids. Saying you’re not going to have kids because you don’t want to buy car seats is maybe the most ridiculous argument ever made on TBP, and that’s saying something.
Peters’ first sentence is very strange. I get not wanting the government to mandate car seats, but of all of the costs, problems and potential heartaches that might dissuade someone from having kids (and leaving aside the many reasons TO have kids), having to buy car seats is probably down around # 374. That’s like saying I was going to get married but couldn’t afford the corsage.
Or I was going to get married, but the thought of having to choose a font for the wedding invitations was just too much.
Now facing the reality of forced vaccinations, car seats, fighting for the right to homeschool, and so much more that would be in your face every moment until they turned 18….maybe.
Sort of glad he decided not to add to the gene pool.
I used to drive what would be called a full size van back in the 70’s and I would put the playpen in the back and the littlest one would ride there, sometimes his slightly older sister would climb in . They would nap there on a particularly long trip. Jeez, and no one died. I doubt that the injury stats with all these fancy car seats are any better than they would be without them.
When I was a kid, many many years ago, we were so proud to be riding instead of walking, we would just jump onto the fender and let her rip. Sure there were few who didn’t hang on past the first few bumps; but that was mainly because the roads were made from red rock and not very smooth. We knew nothing of helmets and knee pads when playing and most of us survived long enough for the next generation to come along. Yep. There is a lot to be said about the “fun” we had back in the “good old days”. The main points I would make now, is to do what is needed to obey the law and treat your kids even better than the law has you treat your dogs. Like has been said, “go forth and multiply”. I know it’s fun to practice getting kids; but it’s more rewarding to bust some little butts from time to time just because your the parent and that makes you the boss.
We used to love snowy days when I was a kid. We would Skitch. Basically wait by a stop light. When the cars would stop we duck behind the car grab the bumper and slide on our boots behind it. Got around town reply fast that way in the winter