Strollerderby : driving

Get the Stink out of On the Road Travel

JeanneSager — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:20:00 GMT

Ah, summer's almost here, and that means road trip time! And when you have kids, you know what that means: trying to find clean, non-scary places for the very frequent potty stops.

Problem solved.

The Bathroom Diaries rounds up the best places to pee all across the U.S. and a long list of countries around the world, with updateable lists for every U.S. state and a breakdown of who's free, who's got changing tables, and who's got a stinky potty.

Where this earns props over other bathroom stops pages is with the in-depth family details - take a look at the write-up on the McArthur Center mall bathroom in Norfolk, VA - someone cared to let us know they have a family restroom with "excellent space for nursing, and wide doorways allow even the largest of strollers to easily enter and exit. Extremely clean, well-lit, and safe."

A place where I can navigate the stroller instead of having to take turns with my husband over who's going to stay outside and watch over it even though we both HAVE TO go? I'm there.

So if you've got potty happy kids, you can map out your route to whereever with the help of the diaries, or you can make some notes on your way to and from and help a mutha out (and a dad too, for that matter - he may pee standing up, but he can aim better when he isn't holding his nose).

Image: ComfortFirst

UPDATE - Video Interview Of Woman Caught Driving And Breastfeeding

Brett Singer — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT

UPDATE:

"If my child's hungry, I'm going to feed it."

Genine Compton, the Dayton, OH mother who was charged with child endangerment for breastfeeding her child while she was driving. Oh, she was also on the phone, but that's been pushed to the side for now.

See, Compton's kid is breastfed at this exact time each morning. The police don't really care what the reason is, it's dangerous, and also illegal. First, there's that whole carseat thing, but also "the danger [of] an accident [and] possible deployment of the airbag," according to police. Compton says it's the same thing if she gets hit with an airbag. She also says she'll do it again if she feels the need to do so.

The potential penalty of 180 days in jail would put a pretty big damper on the baby's eating schedule, although I suppose Compton could pump and then pass her milk through the bars for someone else to give to her child. Still, one would think that simply not breastfeeding while driving from now on would be a simpler solution.

Visit whiotv.com for the video.

Original post follows:

*-*-*-*-*-*

A woman in Ohio was driving while breastfeeding. Oh, and she was also talking on her cellphone.

To paraphrase my fellow Strollerderbian Jeanne Sager -- Now this is what I call multi-tasking.

I have a confession to make -- I've never breastfed, obviously, but I have given my infant son a bottle while talking on the phone. I wasn't driving, however. My way seems a little safer.

Driving While Breastfeeding would be DWB. I guess this could be DWBTC? Driving While Breastfeeding and Talking on a Cellphone?

The woman in question was allegedly caught in the act by a fellow motorist, who called the cops. The police then used the license plate number to track down the chatty momma. Her response? "39-year-old Genine Compton...told them she was breast-feeding and wouldn’t let her child go hungry."

Oh. OH. I see. Could you, perhaps, pull over to the side of the road? Just asking.

The charge is a misdemeanor, and the potential consequences are $1,800 fine and 180 days in jail. That seems like a lot of jail time for a misdemeanor, but what do I know.

Dayton police office Michael Burke pointed out that "the legal concern is that Compton had a child in her lap, not that she was breast-feeding in public." Well. Glad we cleared that up.

Source: MSNBC

Image: sxc.hu

Fun Stuff To Do When The Kids Get Older

Kid Forced To Stand In Public Square For Bad Grades

Boy Injured Car Surfing on Mom's Ford

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:54:00 GMT

This is one of those awful stories in which parents did something so reckless that you want to mercilessly berate them--but you can't because they have already learned their lesson the very hard way.

In this case, a Utah mother discovered that car surfing is not the best way to bond with your kids. The mother of a 8-year-old and a 10-year-old son routinely let her kids take a ride on the outside of her Ford Expedition while she drove around the block at about 5 mph. The kids would stand on the running board, and hold onto the sideview mirror and the handles inside the car.

This was all fun and games until her son took a fall as she went over a speed bump. He had to be flown to a hospital, where he was treated for critical head injuries. He is now in stable condition. His mother has been charged with child abuse.

As horrible as this accident was, it could have been much worse. A report from 2000 found that nearly 500 people were killed car surfing over a five-year period.

Photo: Mochinbach/Flickr

Honey, Could You Drive Mommy to the Bar?

SunnyChanel — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:45:00 GMT

Most of us need a good stiff one every now and then. But generally, if one needs to get their drink on, they’ll find their own way to the local tavern to booze it up, not ask their twelve, yes TWELVE, year old daughter to do the driving.

On Wednesday, Jennifer Lynn Rosenberg’s 12-year-old was pulled over for turning the family minivan into a driveway while not using her turn signal and proceeded to bump into a house at low speed. The police, after discovering that the driver was a pre-teen, asked her where her parents were and she told them she had just dropped her mom off at the bar.

The police arrested mommy Rosenberg, who confirmed that her daughter did the driving, at the bar in question and she currently is in the Gregg County Jail in Longview, Texas on a $2,500 bond. Needless to say, the Child Protective Services will get involved…but at least she had a designated driver!

The Biggest Driving Mistakes Moms Make

Amy Kuras — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:32:00 GMT

As responsible parents, we'd never drive drunk, tailgate out of road rage, try to apply makeup or read while driving, right?
But turns out some very common behaviors are just as dangerous. According to this story from MSNBC, a recent University of Utah study found that subjects using cell phones in a driving simulation had three accidents, while those who were drunk had none (although I take major issue with the story for this: "Tempting as it may be to use free minutes to schedule a playdate…." Sure. Because everything we do as mothers has to be about our children. It's not like we have jobs or friends or volunteer activities we might need to check in with, no, we're just shopping, cooking, cleaning, playdate-scheduling machines.).

Other dangerous behaviors are eating behind the wheel, drowsy driving, and tending to our kids while in the car (passing out snacks and handing over sippy cups, for example). It all comes down to driver distraction. Distractions of just three seconds cause fully 80 percent of accidents.

I know so far, I've been lucky – the multiple times I've reached or glanced back to tend to my kids while driving have resulted in other drivers not hitting me, (but probably wishing they could because I'm driving like an idiot). I must say, my cell phone's been broken for about a month now and while I miss the convenience of catching up on calls while I am out and about, I'm glad I have had a chance to break the habit.

No Empty Threats For This Mom

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:40:00 GMT

When I was a kid, my mother told me and my sister that if we didn't clean our room before we left for vacay with our grandparents in Florida, she would throw away our toys. We didn't, and she did - at least, according to my sister, who remembers this even though she's two years younger than I am. I must have repressed the memory.

But that's small potatoes compared to Jane Hambleton, of Des Moines, Iowa, who is selling her poor 19-year-old son's car for the minor infraction of underage drinking. I mean, isn't DUI almost a rite of passage for teens these days? And what are the odds of actually hitting another car in as sparsely populated state as Iowa? At worst, he might hit a pig, seeing as there's seven pigs for every person in Iowa (according to a high school friend who went to Grinnell), and that's a month's supply of free bacon.

Seriously, I love this ad Hambleton took out in The Des Moines Register: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."

Rock on, Jane. When your son is a dad himself, he'll realize he grew up with the coolest parents on the planet.

Some Things Transcend Time, Culture, and Language

Karen Murphy — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:32:00 GMT

When I was a kid, my older brother and I rode every morning with our mom in the anient turquoise Chevy Nova to the school where she taught and we purportedly learned (yes, I had my mom as a teacher one year, and yes, I was scarred for life by that experience, but we won't talk about that now, but if you utter the words "teacher's pet" I will bite you). The drive involved a stretch of northern California highway where it was our pleasure to pass the time by counting VW bugs and convincing truck drivers to honk their horns for a couple of kids who never lost their sense of wonder that they could be seen through the windows of said Chevy Nova. I think you know what I'm talking about. You haven't forgotten about this, have you? Do your kids do this:

via The Mike Stand

So That Explains the Bald Tires

Matt Wood — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:26:00 GMT

When I was a teenager, I was fairly convinced that my mother either had my car bugged, or worked for the FBI, because no matter where I went or who I was with, she knew. I couldn't do anything without it getting back to her, not that I was trying to get away with anything terrible, but it just got to the point where I stopped trying because it wasn't worth the interrogation later.

Now teenagers may have to deal with their parents literally bugging their cars. Some insurance companies are offering systems that can monitor how well freshly-minted teen drivers are handling Daddy's Escalade. The pilot program by American Family that Alisyn wrote about in March has been a smashing success (figuratively), and will be expanded to 18 states. The systems captures video, GPS data, stats on speed, braking, etc, and send it to the insurance company, where parents can later shave decades off their life at a time by watching the video on the web.

Normally, I'd give this my usual, "If parents just paid attention and kept tabs on their kids like mine did, this wouldn't be necessary" treatment, but I'm inclined to think this isn't such a bad idea. Like I said, I wasn't much of a hell-raiser as a teen, but I still did some pretty stupid things with my car. FBI agent or not, I never thought my mom would find out about every time I peeled out or tried to fishtail it on gravel roads; knowing there was a camera in the car definitely would have made me think twice. But then again, having a video of my finest Cannonball Run moments on the web that I could show my friends may have been worth getting grounded.

California to Drivers: No Smoking Around Kids

Madeline Holler — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:47:00 GMT

Nothing takes me back to childhood more than the smell of a freshly lit cigarette.

I spent countless hours of the first 16 years of my life sealed inside a Buick with my father, who would puff away on pack after pack of Winston Lights. Ashes settled like snowflakes in my hair, fiery airborne cherries burned holes in my shirts, the turbid, smoky air burrowed deep into the fibers of my winter coats, creating memories like Proustian cookies.

By then, everyone had figured out the dangers of tobacco, but harm from second-hand smoke was just rumor. Car wrecks attributed to dropped cigarettes or lighter mishaps had yet to be calculated. Americans and their black-lunged offspring were left in peace with their nicotine addictions.

A new law has halted the formation of these special memories for California families. There, it will soon be illegal to smoke inside a car where children are passengers. What next? Canceling Christmas?

Motorists caught smoking around passengers 18 years old or younger will be fined $100 starting next year. California will be the third state to come down on exposing children to second-hand smoke in the airless confines of an automobile. The other two states, Arkansas and Louisiana, set the ages at 6 and 13 respectively.

Smoking drivers won’t be pulled over just for having a kid gasping for fresh air in the backseat. Much like safety belt laws, puffing drivers will have to commit another offense before cops can ticket them for smoking-while-carpooling-to-school.

Image: Charles Harbutt, Laurence Miller Gallery

Wasted Mom Promotes 5-Year-Old Son To Designated Driver

Alisyn — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:02:00 GMT

I know what you're thinking - this is another Britney Spears story - but alas, no. What we have here may be the direct result of too many Brit stories floating around the blogosphere: The (inevitable?) if-she-can-do-that, surely- I-can-get-away-with-this! mentality. It would certainly be less shocking - pedestrian, even - if this was another tale of Britney's stupidity. If only...

Being whacked-out on sleeping pills and Percoset and itching for something to do, Holly Schnobrich promoted her 5-year-old son to the station of private chauffer - I can only assume she was heading out to get her head shaved - and shamelessly admitted doing so to local police. A neighbor called the cops while watching Holly and her sons zoom out of their driveway. Though Holly insisted that her son was "a good driver," she was arrested anyway, and booked for two counts of felony child endangerment and misdemeanor public intoxication.

No word on whether or not she was booked for driving her children crazy.

Life-Sized Kid Photo Signs Freak Speeding Drivers Out

Karen Murphy — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:52:00 GMT

So you're blithely driving down the road, enjoying the day and the sunshine and maybe the tunes, and maybe you're going a bit faster than the speed limit, but so what, everyone does, and besides, you're in the groove, you're one with the road, you're WHAT THE HELL IS THAT??! OMG IT'S A KID! PRACTICALLY ON THE ROAD!! I ALMOST HIT HIM! OMG! OMG! OMG!

...breathe...

What the FUCK was that??! Where does that kid get off, scaring me like that? What kid plays on the road like that? I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind! That kid should know NOT to play by the road like that, why, he could get KILLED or something!

He's a...it's a...HEY! It's not real! It's a...cardboard cutout of a kid??!

I swear, this guy is BRILLIANT. He makes life-size photographic cardboard cutouts of kids (interesting hobby), and noticed that drivers slowed waaaay down when he put a few at the side of the road to advertise them. Yeah, I'd slow down too! WTF!

Seriously, though, isn't this brilliant? At least, until drivers get conditioned to the idea, like we do with the Fake Highway Patrol Guy, but doesn't a part of you react with the brake pedal anyway? Even if you know it's a fake? And maybe slowing drivers down a bit will one day save a real kid's life.

Teaching Your Kid to Drive: White-Knuckling It

Karen Murphy — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:29:00 GMT

I never knew just how tightly-wound I was until it came time to teach my older daughter to drive, and to be her passenger for the requisite number of training-hours so she could get her license. Is it any wonder that after two years of this she still didn't have enough time logged in? Of course, by that time, at 18, she could bypass the underage driver regulations and get her license no matter how little experience she had (makes you feel so confident out on the road with them, doesn't it?). At any rate, I can completely relate to the advice given by Mary Fagan at Motherwise, who basically advocates the Deter, Delay, and Deny technique of driver training:

1. "Forget" to pick up the learner's permit application. Forget the next day, too.

2. Take forever locating important documents to complete said application. Where is that birth certificate, anyway?

3. Roll your eyes a lot and sigh (this shouldn't be difficult).

4. Have your kid perform some dry runs in the car, taking an imaginary trip to the grocery store. And then to the opposite coast. Your kid will tire of this eventually and then quit asking you to teach them to drive.

5. If they're still undaunted, practice driving in parking lots and cemeteries. Places where no one (besides your kid) can hear you scream.

6. If they still want to learn to drive after all this, hand them the number to your local driver's training course. Which is how you planned it from the beginning.

Is your child still too young to drive? Still in diapers? No problem. You might as well have that driver training course number handy anyway. Believe me, you'll thank me later when it's not you who has to sit in a moving car with your kid behind the wheel.

Could Your Family Kill Its Car? This Guy's Did

thezeroboss — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 14:34:00 GMT

I was reading The Stranger's blog today, and came across this intriguing write-up about Alan Durning, who has reported on his family's attempt to go one year without owning a car. What's interesting about Durning's case is that most of these attempts at going carless are performed by single people, or by DINKs (dual income, no kids). And yet or the past year, Alan and his wife Amy have transported themselves and their two kids everywhere - work, the store, soccer practices - using a combination of pubic transit, FlexCar, and plain ol' walking and biking.

How did they fair? Pretty well. Alan laments, though, that traveling without car ownership requires a lot of planning, and that most of the burden unfairly falls on his wife. Still, he's optimistic about the future, and sees more and more families trying to brave it without an auto.

Given that my car is currently in the shop for thousands of dollars of repair work, I have to admit that this is a tempting challenge. Still, we live in the 'burbs. Ditching the car might be an option if we lived in downtown Manhattan. But I can't see spending several hours planning a trip to the store to buy vodka. Has anyone else in the 'burbs attempted the carless life? How many of you city dwellers manage family life without wheels?

Need More Quality Family Time? Get in the Car!

Karen Murphy — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:51:00 GMT

Another page from the book of Tell Us Something We Don't Know: parents spend a lot of time in the car with their kids! SC Johnson (makers of handy things to have in the car with kids, like Ziploc bags and, uh, Ziploc bags) created this semi-suspect survey to make us feel better about the time we spend driving around with our kids. For one thing, it's like a part-time job - 90 percent of parents and guardians report spending up to 20 hours per week in their car with their children. Yikes! So that's where the time goes!

Most of that, the survey reported, was spent in going to doctor/dentist appointment and restaurants, and of course, schools. I personally have spent over 2000 hours in the past 7 years in the car with my kids. (ohhh, I think I'm getting carsick. Pass me a Ziploc bag, willya?)

So what do we do with all that time? It looks like it's being wasted, either that or we're multi-tasking, as mostly there's a lot of listening to music going on, and of course eating (which seems to be a major player in my car, judging by the state of the seats and the floor in the ~~Cheerio Zone~~ back), IMing, and DVD-watching.

So I say let's take back our cars, let's take back our time with our kids, and let's invent something to do with them while driving that doesn't involve license plates, Twenty Questions, or anything that sounds remotely like E-I-E-I-O. Any ideas? How do you pass the time in your car with your kids?

Astro-Diapers -- the Choice for Crazy Parents Everywhere

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:38:00 GMT

What's the best adult use for baby items? Gin in a bottle? Pacifiers for ecstasy users? Breast milk as coffee cream? In my book, nothing tops the bizarre saga of Lisa Marie Nowak -- an astronaut who was just arrested on attempted first-degree murder charges for trying to kidnap a "romantic rival."

Long story short, Nowak, a married mother of three, didn't like that another woman had the hots for her co-pilot. Knowing the other woman had just boarded a flight from Houston to Orlando, Nowak tried to beat the flight to confront the woman -- driving 800 miles and, the best part, wearing diapers so she didn't have to stop for bathroom breaks.

Apparently astronauts wear them during takeoff and re-entry, so she must have grown accustomed to the feel. I'd just like to see what type of changing pad she uses. And who applies the cream? Or gives her a shoe or a book or a rattle to distract her during changing? So many questions in this bizarre tale. So many questions.

Teen Driver Crashes When Fake Baby Loses Its Shit

Dad Gone Mad — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 12:00:00 GMT

In the ridiculously named town of Pleasanton, CA, they give high school kids "realistic-sounding baby dolls" to teach them what it's like to be a parent. This represents a quantum leap from when I was in high school in the late 80s. We had to carry around a raw egg for a few days, pretending it was our baby, and if the egg broke, the kid was a goner.

But up in Pleasanton, the "realistic-sounding" doll thing wrought major havoc on one 17-year-old girl: she swerved her car into a freeway guardrail and slammed into a pickup truck after the doll in her care suddenly began to cry.

"The teenager had just picked up the doll as part of a school project on responsible parenting minutes before the accident occurred Tuesday on I-580, said Steve Creel, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol."

"No one was seriously injured in the crash, but the CHP will pursue charges because the girl was driving without a license, he said."

I'm fascinated by this story because I wonder exactly how realistic this doll could have been to make the kid crash her Mini Cooper. According to the story, "The educational doll cries and wets itself and has a recording device that monitors how long it takes the doll's "parent" to respond to its crying."

Cries and wets itself? That's it? Hardly realistic. If they wish to show these high schoolers what being a parent really looks like, they should add the following features:

When the baby is in the car seat, make it poop. And make it one of those loose baby shits that pour out its diaper and drench the whole onesie in Hershey Squirt.
Make the baby fascinated by everything dangerous, like electrical outlets and small shiny things and steak knives.
Make the baby want to watch Sesame Street every waking minute of every god-damned day, so much so that the teenager will develop a white-hot hatred for that Elmo motherfucker and fantasize about scooping out his furry red trachea with a spork.