Seatbelts were such a great solution that someone came up with airbags. Probably because people in the front seat were still seriously injured and killed in accidents with just seat belts. Air bags reduced the number of people killed and seriously injured in accidents but can do a good amount of damage themselves. So you can choose hurting your kid with an air bag or hurting your kid after you turned off the air bag and they suffered the injuries that people suffered before air bags were added.

My son can sit up front when he is a teenager. For now, he sits in the backseat, in his booster seat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Front seat from 8 is fine as long as you can disable the air bag.

So they can slam into the dashboard full speed or potentiall go flying through the windshield or have the windshield crash in on them?

There is this thing called a seatbelt.

Exactly. Everything in life comes with risks and rewards. Is there a small risk in putting a tween in the front seat? Sure, but I don't think it is much of a risk if you have a car that automatically disables the airbag when not enough weight is placed on the passenger seat. So I let my kids sit in the front starting at 9. The reward is I love talking to them and glancing over when I am driving. They change the radio to songs they like and we talk.

This is the dumbest thing ever. Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Front seat from 8 is fine as long as you can disable the air bag.

So they can slam into the dashboard full speed or potentiall go flying through the windshield or have the windshield crash in on them?

There is this thing called a seatbelt.

Exactly. Everything in life comes with risks and rewards. Is there a small risk in putting a tween in the front seat? Sure, but I don't think it is much of a risk if you have a car that automatically disables the airbag when not enough weight is placed on the passenger seat. So I let my kids sit in the front starting at 9. The reward is I love talking to them and glancing over when I am driving. They change the radio to songs they like and we talk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Front seat from 8 is fine as long as you can disable the air bag.

So they can slam into the dashboard full speed or potentiall go flying through the windshield or have the windshield crash in on them?

There is this thing called a seatbelt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 35 and I wasn’t allowed to sit in the front until the age of 12. This is not a new rule.

I wonder when it started?
I am 43 and remember riding in the front seat as young as 4 years old.

I'm 38 and also did not ride in the front seat until 12 or 13. I was one of the few kids at my school not riding in the front seat, which was quite embarrassing, but my father insisted I not sit in the "death seat."

I am 41 and was not allowed to ride in the front seat until I was 12.

43 year old poster here again.
Now that I think about it, it was probably whenever airbags started to come out in cars. I know my parents didn't have a car with airbags until well after I was an adult.

The big education campaign to keep kids under 12 in back began in the mid 90s when many children (and smaller and out of position adults) were killed by deploying airbags.

A car slammed into me and the airbags deployed. Thank God for seatbelts & airbags! But my kneecaps were crushed into the hard lower dashboard, and the airbag really hurt my chest/sternum. I had painful costochondritis for months. Reinforced that kids are safer in the back seat, buckled in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 35 and I wasn’t allowed to sit in the front until the age of 12. This is not a new rule.

I wonder when it started?
I am 43 and remember riding in the front seat as young as 4 years old.

I'm 54 and wasn't allowed to sit in the front seat until I was a teenager--ergo 13. So it started a long time ago if your parents were educated.

It isn’t about education. There was no Internet to look things up back then. I am in my 40s and wrote in the print sheet at a very early age. We were up at middle-class living in Texas and Colorado.

I am the first PP. Parents weren’t educated- blue collar working class.

My parents were educated and I rode in front seat without a seatbelt. I clearly remember sitting in friend’s station wagon trunk waving to friends. This was in the 80s. I can’t believe how dangerous that was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 35 and I wasn’t allowed to sit in the front until the age of 12. This is not a new rule.

I wonder when it started?
I am 43 and remember riding in the front seat as young as 4 years old.

I'm 54 and wasn't allowed to sit in the front seat until I was a teenager--ergo 13. So it started a long time ago if your parents were educated.

It isn’t about education. There was no Internet to look things up back then. I am in my 40s and wrote in the print sheet at a very early age. We were up at middle-class living in Texas and Colorado.

I am the first PP. Parents weren’t educated- blue collar working class.

Anonymous wrote:Front seat from 8 is fine as long as you can disable the air bag.

So they can slam into the dashboard full speed or potentiall go flying through the windshield or have the windshield crash in on them?

Front seat from 8 is fine as long as you can disable the air bag.

I've seen one of my younger kid's classmates riding in the front seat when he was 7. I've also seen my 10 year's classmate not only sitting in the front but without a seatbelt. Of course, the mom has an anti-vax license plate, which I don't get. You think vaccines might kill or injure your child but you're fine with them sitting in the front without seatbelt? Ok then.

the safety reasons have nothing to do with age, it's based on height and weight. My children had friends sitting up front when they were well below the required height and weight, but we did not allow it. I guess I'm just not a rule-breaker. And, I care about my childrens safety.

I am 42 and didn't ride n the front seat until I was well into my teenage years. But I had two older brothers who were very tall so I had to wait for them to go to college... They sat in the backseat until they were teens as well but for safety reasons and not the seat was occupied. My Mom and Dad were also sticklers for seat belts long before there were seat belt laws.

I clearly remember sitting in the front seat with my toddler brother on my lap. I must have been 7 or so.

I also remember thinking this parent was so strict because he would not drive until we had our seat belts on.

I am 40. DH also remembers holding his baby brother in front seat. He is 39.

We were saying how crazy unsafe that was.

Perhaps one day we will say how crazy it was that people would actually text and drice.

My boys were 6' tall at 13. They were definitely riding in the front seat at that age.