Why Did You Sit in the Front Seat?

July 25th, 2008, 15 Comments »

I’m not a parent, nor have I been a child for quite a few years. When I was a kid, though, I remember that my brother and I sat in the back seat, even when there was nobody sitting beside my parent up-front. This was even true if it was just me in the back seat and only my mother or father up-front. In my recollection, we sat in the back seat until I was, I don’t know, eight or ten years old.

I’m not sure, but I think this behaviour is quite commonplace. I know, in recent years, there’s been a concern about the minimum size of the child and air bags and so forth, but that wasn’t the case back in the 80’s.

This feels like a very naive question, but why does this happen? And if you’re a parent, when did you give your kids permission to ride up front?

15 Comments »