Agree. "Front Passenger Seat


For those who prefer to sit in the front, think again. The front passenger seat is the most dangerous spot in a car. With a risk coefficient of 101, it means that the front passenger would be in a more dangerous position compared to the driver. This makes sense because a driver’s natural instinct is to steer away from an accident. As a result, the front passenger is more likely to be heading toward an accident."

Don't any of you know that the shot gun seat (front passenger) is the most dangerous spot in the entire car if you are hit? Carpool parents even fight about this - whether any child can sit shotgun -because we all know that is the most dangerous seat. None of you knows that? My kids go in back where it is safer. We were T-boned once by someone running a red and it destroyed/totaled the front passenger seat and I was in it. Never again.

Whoever yells 'shotgun' first gets it. Some shoving and sprinting to the car ensues. Parents stay uninvolved other than occasional threats that everyone will have to sit in the back. Isn't this how it's done in all families?

Lord yes. Whoever calls it gets it. This is sacred tradition.

Sadly, it does lead to fighting. The last time my brother and I physically fought, it was when he physically threw me from the shotgun seat to the ground, and afterward I sucker-punched him from the back seat. Not proud of it, but there it is.

Take turns.

The 13yo has been waiting all of his life to ride in the front. This is a big deal for kids nowadays, since they have to sit in the back so many years.

They both ride in the back unless I'm only taking one. Then he gets to ride in the front seat.

Anonymous wrote:Whoever yells 'shotgun' first gets it. Some shoving and sprinting to the car ensues. Parents stay uninvolved other than occasional threats that everyone will have to sit in the back. Isn't this how it's done in all families?

THIS! Who doesn't know this???

We have a 16 and 14 year old and another soon to be eligible for it, and it goes to whoever calls it. Works great for eliminating the fights.

OP here -- thanks everyone. Very interesting. As I could have guessed, this definitely appears to contradict my older son's insistence that it is generally understood and widely accepted that the oldest child gets priority riding in the front seat!

Anonymous wrote:Let them fight. To the victor the spoils.

Hunger Games style - last one standing wins.

When I was a kid, we came up with the system that one of us was shotgun "going there" (wherever "there" might be) and the other was shotgun "coming home." It worked. The only time we would fight was on multi-stop trips when we would argue over what the main destination was.

Our oldest kids (16 and 14) take turns by the day. They are required to remember whose day it is.

Anonymous wrote:16 year old rides in the front. 13 year old rides in the back. Seriously, the kid is in high school, and probably having sex, let his ass ride shot gun.

Or the one that is breaking all the house rules sits in the back in the middle.

Anonymous wrote:My kids aren't at this age just yet, but I've also heard of odd days/even days being a good divider (assuming there are only 2 kids fighting).

My younger brother and I never had this issue growing up because for whatever reason, it was one of the things he just did not care about. I was older and so I got first dibs on shotgun and that was that. We fought plenty about other things, but oddly never about that.

I have two close-age kids who'll debate "whose turn" for just about anything. We do odd/even days and it smooths out much of life (although leads to complaints on 31-day months because the odd kid gets an extra day). Conveniently, one kid was born on a odd day and the other on an even so that made it easy to assign and for us to remember.

odd number days == kid one; even number days == kid 2

If the children start alternating now & younger child gets full shotgun rights when the older child goes to college, each child will have had approximately the same amount of time riding shotgun.

The older child must understand that when he is home from college on breaks and catching a ride with the family that he won't argue for shotgun. I would strongly suggest to older child that the less of a jerk he is now then the less of a jerk his younger brother will have learned to be when 20 year old is home on break and 17 year old is considering whether to let him ride shotgun ever.