In case you have been too busy with your spawn to read The Awl, I commend to you Tom Socca's column called Underparenting:
Link to all of his articles, including Underparenting.
A small excerpt:
Quote:
But child car seats are miserable. ... After your sixth or seventh hour locked in a five-point harness, unable to look over your shoulder, propped up so you can't sleep without your head lolling awkwardly over—you'd start screaming too.
The safety seat is ruining American family life and the automotive experience. I was horrified when vehicles started coming equipped with DVD players—individual ones, even. God forbid that children should ever be deprived of constant, demographically-targeted amusements. ...
But when I was little and bored in the car, I wasn't strapped down and immobile. I had, at most, a little booster seat that went under the lap belt, with a tubular metal roll bar that probably would have impaled me in the event of an accident. A fair amount of the time, I was crawling around loose in the cargo space, or on top of rear seats folded flat. Even with a seat belt on, I could work through the dull hours by rolling Matchbox cars around the back seat, or craning my head around to watch the scenery, or sucker-punching my brother in the floating ribs. There were options.
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