ONE of my earliest childhood memories is of going for rides with my parents in a big old green Dodge that drove more like a Bradley armored vehicle than a sedan. Riding in cars is safer
but less fun for kidsIn those dark ages toddlers got to sit in the front seat, right between Mom and Dad. Child car seats were built more for fun than protection. They had little steering wheels, horns that made neat noises and gear shifts just like Dad's.
The car seats put you up high so you could see all the passing scenery out the window and everybody on the road could see you pretending to drive the car. You had to look your coolest. The old gas guzzlers had no seatbelts. I have no idea what kept kids and their chairs from flying all over the car.
Corwin
From those early motoring experiences grew a lifelong love of long auto trips. I remember a keen sadness when I got too big for the car seat and was assigned to sit in the back while my younger siblings rode up front with Mom and Dad.
Babies today can't have sturdy steering wheels with horns and gear shifts on their car safety seats for fear that they might be impaled by them in an accident. They can't ride facing forward for fear that a collision will hurl them through the windshield. They can't sit in the front seat with their parents for fear that the airbags installed for their safety will crush them.
Now comes news this week that sitting in car seats for long periods causes breathing and digestive problems. The next thing you know babies will be riding bundled up in the trunk in a state of suspended animation.
My grandson Corwin, who is 9 months old, rides in a thick cocoon of a car seat carefully secured to the back seat of my old Dodge. His seat faces backward and rides low. He has nothing to look at but the spots he spit up on the upholstery in earlier bouts of stomach upset caused by riding in a car seat.
Corwin seems clueless that I'm up in the front seat driving the car -- or even that there is a front seat. Whenever we arrive at our destination and he sees me standing outside the car, he does a double-take of surprise. "Hey," his bright eyes demand to know, "how did you get here? Were you out there running along next to the car?"
Last week he was fitful back in his car seat while we were waiting for his mother to come out of the market so I let him sit up front with me while we waited. I've never seen a happier kid. He became almost frantic in his exploration of this wonderful new world.
He went crazy turning the steering wheel, blinking the blinkers, jingling the keys, looking at himself in the mirror, running the windshield wiper, playing the radio, pulling the knobs and flipping the switches. When my daughter arrived and returned him to his car seat, his stink eye drilled through my head.
IT'S not that I'm against the precautions. I've become so imbued with safety concerns that I'm petrified to drive Corwin anywhere without securely attaching him to the back seat in his little protective shell.
A few weeks ago, I unexpectedly had to drive him to the doctor. The car seat was away in our other car and he had to ride unprotected for the first time.
It was only a short drive, but I've never been so nervous behind the wheel. I felt like I was creeping along at 5 mph.
It's a shame that Corwin can't experience the joy of riding high up front with a little plastic steering wheel and horn. But when you balance things out, his safety is far more precious.