driving around with a kid on your lap

Well, I do believe it's wrong of people and Brittany Spears, but people really need to lay off her. People made fun of her for saying something like "we're country"...she's right. I am from a very small town in Texas and we always did this. I am guilty to this day of letting my 3 and 5 yr old sit in the front seat or unbuckled in the back seat when we go to the store. I was driving to the store in my dad's pickup at the age of 11 by myself. It's a country thing, I guess. It is very dangerous and against the law, but hundreds (if not thousands) of people do it daily and it's really unfair people concentrate on someone becuase they are a celebrity. I am not saying people should do it, but I am saying that it is done all the time. Not right, but that's the way it is. I do have to say that I have never gone to a big town or driven a long distance with my kids not buckled, but in our small town of 500 people, we all do it.

OMG.. that is one of my biggest pet peeves.. and you want to hear something.. I drove into a walmart parking lot and was getting out of my car when I say a lady pull in to the parking spot beside me. She had a newborn in her arms as SHE WAS DRIVING. I was mad... So I waited until she got out of her car and told her how wrong she was to do that. She then went on to say how she couldn't afford to buy a carseat and that she knew it was bad but she just drove extra careful. I told her that their were programs in this town that would give you a carseat. It just so happened that my baby had outgrown his carseat and was now in a bigger one.. and I had his old newborn carseat in the trunk so I gave her that one. But people that do this drive me up the wall!

I have been a passenger with a kid in my lap it the past. But now that I have my own child, I always put him in the carseat. It is a pain sometimes especially when you have to drive for just a few blocks but you just never know. Accidents can happen anytime.

I see it all the time. Parents get turned it here for not having them in a car seat as it is the law in the state I live in that children must ride in a car seat until they are 6 years old. I always cringe when I see someone with their child sitting on their lap if that car wrecks that child is going straight through the windsheild. My kids are always in seat belts and car seats even if we are only going around the block.

I have seen this once in real life. I can not believe it. Every time my daughter cries I want to pick her up and hold her as we drive but I don't. I know that she needs to be in her carseat for safty reasons and I abide by the rules.

I always put my son in his carseat when we go anywhere in the car. One time, we put him in his seat, but didn't get him buckled in. It got overlooked somehow. I put him in the seat and told my husband to buckle him because I had a bunch of stuff I was carrying in my other arm that I walked around to the other side of the car and put in. Well, my husband heard me, but I guess he forgot. So my baby didn't get buckled in. We felt so bad! We only drove less than a mile, but I was still upset that we did that.

Now when I was younger, I used to ride in the car with my best friend's nephew in my lap all the time. She had three nephews, and we would go somewhere with her mom and her sister, and then me and her and the boys rode in the backseat. It was a small car, so me and my best friend each held one of the little ones. That was 10-15 years ago, though. It didn't seem like it was nearly that big of a deal then.

Every mother or father who does this should have to come work in the hospital emergency room just one night and see the results. I don't care if you are the only car within miles, should you accidently run off the road, hit a deer, anything, those unbuckled children are projectiles in the car. It is one of my biggest pet peeves to see parents do this to children. It is a form of abuse in my opinion. Sorry, but that is just how I feel, as I have had to watch too many of these children die or be left vegetables from the head injuries. I've seen their little faces scarred for life from hitting windows and having their eyes cut out and etc. I take license numbers and report people on my cell phone when I see it.

I hope they get a major ticket at the very least! Wow, no carseat!
No, I have never driven a child without the proper safety device whether it be an infant seat, carseat, toddler seat or booster seat. Their safety is of the utmost importance! Always!
I hope you turn them in or someone does!

I've never done that personally with a small child, but I have let an older child sit on my lap in the front seat for short periods of time on a long road trip. I'm talking 15 minutes here and there, and the boy was 8 at the time. I don't think it's legal, but he was certainly no baby! I don't really think there is any excuse for driving with a child on your lap. There is a reason it's against the law. I would think parents would want their children to be as safe as possible, and the safest way to drive with a child is with them safely buckled into their carseat!

never done this myself and i also do not have any kids to do it with=9 however I do belive that it is a very stupid thing to do, and very irresponsible. people that are doing this should get punished somehow (with that i don´t mean you, it was the father in this case who asked you to!)