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Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

economist.com

181–190 of 411 posts

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#181

This is an actual conversation I had to have with my wife, having a third kid definitely requires a larger vehicle as the vast majority of cars today simply don't work for a family of five. Child car seats are too wide and the backseats of most cars are too narrow, and the price jump to a vehicle that would be able to handle three child car seats at once is enormous. Throw in some dogs, a couple pieces of luggage tha…

Even if you find a seat configuration that fits, the next hassle that drove me nuts was getting access to seatbelts easily. Taking the kids anywhere is that much more annoying when you can't rely on the oldest at least sorting out their own buckles. (Only just occurred to me that a seatbelt extender would probably help bring the receiving part of the latch up from the depths between the seats -- too late now, bought a different car.)

Almost worth staggering births so that after three years the eldest is able to handle buckling themselves and then siblings. Worth finding every advantage like this when you're outnumbered by children.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal anecdote, probably irrelevant. When we were kids in the 80s, we bicycled to school. My parents heard about bike helmets (which were pretty new at that time) and bought them for us. I kept mine on the back rack, because I thought they were utterly uncool. Then one day, a guy wasn't paying attention, ran a stop-sign at high speed when we were still in the intersection, and hit my sister's bike's front wheel. T…

I don't think anyone argues that in specific incidents helmets are safer. The question is whether or not the second order effects of compulsory helmets outweigh the benefits for the individual, namely; - helmets make biking more inconvenient and compulsory usage of helmets suppresses cycling rates. In addition to the argument that is is a net negative because people get less exercise, there is also a second argument;…

All very good points.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#183
post #111
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with Japan?

Well, Japan keeps aging and we haven't discovered immortality so something's got to break at some point. The rest of the developed world is following with a 20-40 year delay.

Immortality would probably make the situation worse, not better.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#184

This is an actual conversation I had to have with my wife, having a third kid definitely requires a larger vehicle as the vast majority of cars today simply don't work for a family of five. Child car seats are too wide and the backseats of most cars are too narrow, and the price jump to a vehicle that would be able to handle three child car seats at once is enormous. Throw in some dogs, a couple pieces of luggage tha…

> the vast majority of cars today simply don't work for a family of five I recently visited Pakistan for the first time, and was amazed to see a family of five riding around on a small Honda motorbike. The father was driving, a small child sat in front of the father, the was mother hanging on behind the father, and the oldest daughter sitting on the far back with both legs hanging off to the left while holding an inf…

I was in Ukraine in the mid-00s. Saw a five person motorcycle. No helmets, but they had an open side-car so a bit more space. Youngest kid was in a bucket held by big sister.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual full size vans from that era had horrible crash safety records, perhaps they built a bad reputation because of that?

In the 80s people didn't care that much. An 80s van is still gonna beat an 80s car in terms of crash test results. And the bad results are only for the driver's legs. The kids in rows 2/3/4 are safe as can be

I have good memories of growing up in the 90s with a fullsize van as the family vehicle.

The most 90s thing of all was probably my dad plugging an inverter into the cigarette lighter so that he could power a SNES and 10" TV on our 24-hour drive to Pennsylvania to pacify us kids. That was peak existence for young me.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That happens almost never.

Just like getting hit by a car happens almost never? Anecdotally, I have never been hit by a car, but have fallen off my bike multiple times for a variety of reasons: bike entered the lane without warning while I was going downhill, I hit a rock on the road, front tire got caught in a groove in the road, …

Falling off because of gravel on the road, grooved surface or other road hazards sounds too much like inattentive riding or speed unsuited to road conditions. A helmet would help in those cases, but better attention to the road would also be a good idea.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#187
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

King county Washington[1]. [1] https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/violence-injury-prev... !

It seems to be very rarely enforced. I ride in Seattle without a helmet all the time and have never had a problem.

A stark difference to Sydney, Australia.

I regularly see commuters getting fined cycling without helmets.

The police favorite one is fining all the tourists on rental bikes. Most of the rental bikes don't have helmets as they go missing and as a tourist they are oblivious it's law to need a helmet while cycling in Australia. A big fine to!

Most get tricked in to the relaxed tourism marketing image portrayed without realising Australia is one of the most litigious places in the world and bit of a nanny country.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#188

This reads like a textbook example of "correlation is not causation". You think there'd be ...some? people talking about how they decided not to have a child because she/he wouldn't fit in the car if it's going to have a measurable effect on birth rates but at least personally I have never, ever heard this one.

> You think there'd be ...some? people talking about how they decided not to have a child because she/he wouldn't fit in the car if it's going to have a measurable effect on birth rates but at least personally I have never, ever heard this one.

We have 3 kids. When talking to friends with only 2 kids, this comes up all the time and is a non-trivial concern in having a third child.

You need a bigger car, a bigger house and bigger everything, and many things are not geared towards families of 5 - family passes at museums/zoos are often 2 adults + 2 children etc.

When we had our third we upgraded our car (from 5 seats to 8 seats) and our house. If we had a fourth we'd need to upgrade the house in a few years again. It's definitely a concern and is definitely talked about by people who are affected by it.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#189
post #155

This is an actual conversation I had to have with my wife, having a third kid definitely requires a larger vehicle as the vast majority of cars today simply don't work for a family of five. Child car seats are too wide and the backseats of most cars are too narrow, and the price jump to a vehicle that would be able to handle three child car seats at once is enormous. Throw in some dogs, a couple pieces of luggage tha…

Let's not forget the expiration dates on Car Safety Seats. C'mon, really? Seats with Styrofoam may deteriorate eventually but I haven't heard of a casualties due to expired car seats.

This is part of the plan to force people to buy new. They make it illegal to sell any kids stuff older than a year or two.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was young, this was what minivans were for: families with three kids.

Minivans are only un-cool until you are forced to appreciate their practicality. They can transport groups of kids and all their gear, a bunch of dogs, a surprising amount of furniture or even large sheets of lumber or drywall. I would only consider replacing my minivan with an electric minivan.

My wife and I rented one while on a vacation trip with our two girls to North Carolina. Holy moly was it convenient!!! Very eye-opening experience.
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