I was shocked, ok not so shocked considering what these people have done in the past, that my neighbor across the street was driving into our busy neighborhood with her 3 year old on her lap steering!!! On top of that, the boy started to honk the horn repeatedly (we live in a townhome community) after they parked the car.
The father has let him do this on his motorcycle too, without a helmet, going up and down the street.
They also let their car alarm go off like crazy and put their 3 kids in the car before they go on an errand and let them honk the horn over and over. (I've gone out there myself when Connor was sleeping, in my socks, to tell them to stop.)

All in all, their just obnoxious neighbors and now I'm noticing that they put their children in danger. ARGH!!! Vent vent vent...

By Missbookworm on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 08:51 pm:

Growing up we used to do that! Not all the honking and the like but driving in the grown ups laps...but it was only in the country on the farm and never on roads where there were other cars.

I'm always appalled to hear of grownups doing this sort of thing.

My answer for my children is NO!

How annoying that must be for you. Have you thought about reporting it to child protection people where you live?

By Kaye on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 09:26 pm:

I live in a city and NO I don't let me kids drive on my lap here. However I do own a bit of land out in the county and I have let my kids drive out there Of course this is after they all learned to drive a golf cart and they can't actually use the gas pedal (scares the cows). This is how I learned to drive too. We also have a 4 wheeler out there, but I don't them drive that, they can ride on the back while holding on (we don't have helmets though), and really only if me or my dad or hubby is driving, don't trust others really.

By Melanie on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 09:51 pm:

Absolutely not. I remember reading a story a few years back about a grandmother who let her grandchild do this on their country road. Something happened and there was a minor crash, deploying the airbag and the child died. No way would I ever take the chance.

By Trina~moderator on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 09:53 pm:

Ditto Melanie. VERY, very dangerous, not to mention illegal.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 10:36 pm:

NEVER! They were always in their carseats or in seatbelts.

By Kym on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 10:39 pm:

We live out a bit, and we have let our kids drive on our laps down the dirt road from my friends house to ours.

By Rayanne on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 11:22 pm:

I used to do that with my parents when I was little. Wow...how times have changed.

Sometimes, we go down to the stop sign on our street to meet Chris, and Rylee will sit on his lap and drive. It's only on our street, and we would never do that out on the real road.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 06:08 am:

My parents let me do that in empty parking lots when I was little, but never while the car was really moving.

By Trina~moderator on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 06:23 am:

As a Child Passenger Safety Technician I feel obligated to warn parents of how VERY dangerous it is to do this at ANY time, even for a short trip. God forbid if something should happen to set off the airbag. The force of an airbag deploying WILL KILL a child.

By Unschoolmom on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 07:21 am:

Did it as a kid, not sure about what I'll do but likely not.

No airbag worries though...We've never had a vehicle new enough to have one!

By Luvn29 on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 08:02 am:

The only reason I won't is because of airbags. I have a HUGE fear of these things. I totally feel you can't take a chance on them, that they could deploy even outside of an accident. This was a huge issue at first with both sets of our parents. At our first house, we lived on a private drive with several houses on it. Gravel, one lane, non-maintained. We lived back on this little drive, and my in-laws lived at one of the entrances to it. We absolutely refused for them to allow either of the children in the front seat even for the thirty second drive because of their airbag.

Our new house. On same property as my parents. We share a bottom driveway. There is a short paved drive up the hill to their house. Completely private. Takes ten seconds to get up the hill to their house. We had a HUGE thing with my dad because I refused to let the kids in the front seat of his vehicle for this drive down his driveway into the shared bottom drive back home because of the airbag. Emily is nine, and she still is not allowed in the front seat of a car with an airbag.

Now he has an older car with an airbag only in the driver side, as well as his other car, and he only uses his older one when getting the kids so they can sit in the passenger seat with him going up the hill.

I'm just crazy sensitive to this issue. What if an animal ran out, and him hitting it caused the airbag to deploy and decapitate one of my children? This is why they have the term "freak" accident.

But, if airbags weren't a worry, Then I probably would allow my son or daughter to "steer" a little on a back country road with no traffic around. I did this and had great memories of it. My dad and hubby let the kids steer the John Deer and they think that's just the greatest thing, though!

By Kaye on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 08:27 am:

We had (until recently) an old farm truck (a 88 model..woo hoo). It didn't have an airbag. For me I am talking about 2 miles with no other traffic, unless they have a key to my gate! No one lives out there, it is just the cows and the goats. Rules are different out there The risk is much greater getting bit by a rattlesnake than having a wreck in a car, okay well I have hit my share of trees (at 5 mph it doesn't even dent the bumper), but I have also shot more than one snake.

By Luvn29 on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 08:30 am:

Kaye, in those circumstances, I'd do it in a heartbeat!

By Christylee on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 08:36 am:

While the car is moving absolutely NOT, if we are sitting in a parking lot waiting he'll come sit on my lap and "pretend" but that is when the car even isn't on.

Last night mom, sister, Brendan, and I went out shopping all of us got in the car thinking the other had buckled Brendan. I started the car and he piped in with "nobody buckled me and was frantically trying to buckle himself in". I was THRILLED that he saw and realizes just how important it really is.

By Juli4 on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 08:48 am:

In the evening my husband will pull into the drive and one of the kids will meet him at the gate and "drive" the car up the driveway. It is only in the driveway and not a big deal, but other than that it is forbidden to be out of your seat belt.

By Kernkate on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 09:08 am:

Never did it with any of my 3 DK's. I would be too afraid of that freak accident.

By Trina~moderator on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 09:16 am:

Even if a vehicle doesn't have airbags it is extremely dangerous to allow children to ride unrestrained no matter the location or how short the trip.

By Karen~moderator on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 09:53 am:

In a word - NOPE! Never did.

By Tayjar on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 10:04 am:

No, but we do let our 14 year old niece drive on the farm. We have been giving her lessons since she was 10 on driving. We have her drive in mud, snow, ice, etc. She can't go over 10 or 15 mph but she is getting a feel for what a car can do in different conditions. We've had 10 kids killed in car accidents here in 5 months so we want her to understand how dangerous and powerful a car can be.

She's taller than I am so I'm not too worried about the air bag.

By Kate on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 10:14 am:

No, never. Not only is it very dangerous, but it's such a bad example for the kids....how can it be 'okay' to do it in this instance, but not in the others? How can you convince them of the importance of carseats, boosters, and seatbelts, when you introduce 'exceptions'? Being properly restrained is too important to go loose on the rules, IMO.

By Debbie on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 11:17 am:

Nope. The rule in our house is...if the car is moving, everyone is in their seat with seatbelts on.

BTW Trina, ds didn't pass the 5 point test. I thought he might be upset about still using a booster, especially since most of the kids in his class don't use one. He suprised me. He wasn't upset at all, he just asked if we could do the test again in another 6 months. I think it is because I am very strict about carseat/seatbelt rules. I have to laugh because ds says that all his friends talk about how I am the only mom that makes them ride in a booster seat. I always carry an extra backless one in my car. No one seems to mind it though, which is good.

By Boxzgrl on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 11:30 am:

I let Kaitlyn sit on my lap if i'm moving the car from the garage to the driveway. That's it! She's even in her carseat when we drive 1/2 mile down the road in the same neighborhood with no main streets to my friends house. Kaitlyn actually prefers her carseat.

By Crystal915 on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 03:38 pm:

When I was growing up, we would sit on laps and drive the trucks on the farm, but it was always open fields. N has let our kids do it once in a while in a BIG empty parking lot or field in TX, but I yell at him if I find out. Being as we're both from country areas, it seems normal to us, part of being a kid, but since I know Trina, I know she'd have a heart attack if she ever saw it!!! LOL On a side note, my mom grew up driving trucks and motorcycles on our farm land from age 12 on. When I moved in with my grandmom, and she was teaching me to drive, she said "You are NOT a natural!!!! Your mom could drive a stick at 12, and you can barely park a car!!!" She paid for professional driving lessons (she's got a CDL and drives a city bus, but she was NOT about to go through the stress of teaching me herself!). I guess it paid off, as I have my first fender bender last week, after almost 7 years driving!

By Crystal915 on Thursday, February 16, 2006 - 03:40 pm:

Oh, and since this also mentions obnoxious neighbors, I got into a huge argument the other night with mine, police were called because the woman was threatening to kill me, etc. **Sigh** This is NOT my month!!!! Everybody PLEASE send luck vibes my way!!!!

By Marcia on Friday, February 17, 2006 - 12:35 am:

I have never done this with my girls, and haven't let anyone ride in the front seat before 12.
Crystal, I was also driving at 12. We lived in a small town, and I could drive from home to our family's service station, which was a few miles away. I was always with my dad when I drove. One of my brothers was younger than me when he started. I can't even imagine letting my almost 13 year old try, but times are different for sure!

By Eve on Friday, February 17, 2006 - 01:26 pm:

No, I've never done it and wouldn't. I do remember driving on my Dad's lap when I was little. My DD panics if I even start the car and she's not buckled, so I don't think she'd go for it. I have had both babies on my lap while parked though.

By Crystal915 on Friday, February 17, 2006 - 09:50 pm:

Interesting sidenote. I met with the Captain of the local police department over a complaint I filed. We were talking, and he mentioned a SIX year old had taken a car, went up the street (police following him, he was going very slowly), then went back to his house and parked the car. The police were AMAZED!!! The parents were asleep, thus the kid getting away, and of course I don't know what happened legal-wise, but he was just astonished thhat this kid had been able to do it!

By Annie2 on Friday, February 17, 2006 - 11:07 pm:

My house where I grew up in had a long driveway.
When I was in my teens, 17/18/19..not sure, I let my 4 year old niece sit in my lap and steer the car down the drive.
My mom witnessed this from the kitchen window and gave me the riot-act.
Not only was it not safe (no airbags but still unsafe) but letting my niece do this may give her the impression that she could drive a car herself.
She may take the keys and try to drive by herself.
Big eye-opener in my teen years.