I wonder if self-driving cars and massively improved safety will solve this. 5 kids in a car, held, seated, seatbelted, any-which-way. Like on a train.
No parent will ever do that, because parenting fucks up brain in a special way
Car Seats as Contraception
41–50 of 188 posts
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#42Let’s just focus on how cars and car culture are reducing birth rates. Nobody wants to chuck their kids into the back seat without a carseat any more. Laws aren’t the problem.
These seem like particularly specific excuses. If you are not into having kids, there are many different ways to rationalize that (but why?). If you are into kids, you'd have to overcome all sorts of pain and suffering, car culture is by far not the worst of them.
(Father of 4, 39 y.o., non-religious.)
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#43Let’s just focus on how cars and car culture are reducing birth rates. Nobody wants to chuck their kids into the back seat without a carseat any more. Laws aren’t the problem.
Cars and car culture probably increased birth rates in the last few decades to begin with!
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#44Let’s just focus on how cars and car culture are reducing birth rates. Nobody wants to chuck their kids into the back seat without a carseat any more. Laws aren’t the problem.
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Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#45As a parent of 2 a big reason we won’t have a third is the massive step up in transportation costs. Having to get a third car seat would require us to go from our Kia to a minivan. And then there is the cost of the car seat alone. Then there is the time cost of wrangling kids in an out of them. My toddler can easily make it 15 minutes to buckle her in just on her own. A third would mean easily 5 minutes of to get eve…
Yep, there is like two brands that specialize in three across. A lot of new parents haven't yet realized that a carseat is wider than the average adult. Meaning that cramped middle seat isn't getting a third seat without very careful consideration and the right vehicle.
The one we use is diono but there may be others, and apparently in the UK you can get 4 across - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AEwtjK-U5X0 or https://www.multimac.com - not rated for the USA, but in the USA if you have 4 kids they just issue you an APC ;)
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#46It's definitely possible to put 3 car seats across in the back seat of pretty much any car available in the American market. The appropriate narrow seats just aren't very popular or well known...
Even the supposed narrow ones can be a pain in the arse to actually get in the back. Every family I see with at least 2 kids has a minivan, so maybe we can discuss if minivans are causal.
I didn’t need the minivan until the third kid appeared. I would have stayed with a sedan as long as possible.
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#47I thought this was going to be about a car being uncomfortable to have sex in. Such a car would make for a great product to sell to parents of teenagers, so you can lend them the car but at least make it difficult to fornicate without consent of the king.
Anyway stow-n-go minivans are the best for ... carrying (and making) lots of kids
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#48It's just not cool to have kids. There are many more ways to have fun and status in society, so having kids is either coming as a social burden ("i am expected to by my spouse/relatives"), or a religious thing. Rationally, it's such a pain in the ass to have kids, while you can have some much more fun without them: travel the world, meet people, learn and explore! Clearly, having kids is net cost and suffering.
Yet, those who opt in do have a different opinion. We got two a decade ago, and then a couple years ago through of FOMO that when we are 45 we'd look back and regret missing the window of having another couple of kids. So we did. I'm 39, have four kids, had to get a bigger car, pay the airline tickets through the nose, spend a lot of time on kids' stuff, and love it. My family is the center of the universe and I'm the happiest and wisest dad alive. Everyone else is childish ;-P
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#49Correlation does not equal causation. I feel this study shows correlation, but fails to prove any associated causation. Maybe people just avoid 3 kids, because it’s hard enough raising one or two kids.
A theory that at least is consistent with the observed correlation seems vastly superior to a midbrow dismissal that doesn't. Your "raising kids is hard" theory would explain why people don't have a third child, but raising kids is hard universally. What was observed was that a third child was delayed for longer (even indefinitely) in states with higher age thresholds for mandatory car seats (even when controlling for demographics).
Their causal explanation relies on two additional observations that seem pretty hard to explain by other theories: the effect disappears for single-parent and carless households.
Re: Car Seats as Contraception
#50I thought this was going to be about a car being uncomfortable to have sex in. Such a car would make for a great product to sell to parents of teenagers, so you can lend them the car but at least make it difficult to fornicate without consent of the king.
A friend once remarked that it'd take particular dedication to so using a Miata.