Lord Snooty

Would someone please tell me what is the point of those irritating yellow "Baby on Board" signs you see on cars, other than to make the parents feel they are being careful and protective super-parents

More specifically, why is the death of a baby or a child so much worse than the death of a young adult or a senior that it requires a warning sign?

I was told the original idea was to alert the emergency services in case of an accident that there was a baby in the car, who might get missed in the crisis.
Pretty weak rationale, since it assumes that the emergency personnel are so incompetent they are likely to miss some of the occupants of a car crash without it being pointed out to them..!

Perhaps some people use the sign because they are still under the impression that having children is somehow an incredible talent that makes them special?.
(I also notice those same people don't bother to remove the sign when the child is not in the car..) Fortunately, these days, they are not as widespread as they were.


So, does anyone actually drive more carefully when they see that sign..?

Kadath

I usually ram those cars.

Seriously man, they were created in the 80s. The whole point of that decade was "Me and mine are better than you and yours." The sticker echoes that sentiment.

__________________
it's quiet in here

Charlatan

I've always hated those signs and I agree with Kadath's read on it.

It was a yuppie thing in the 80s.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Jetée

And it still is annoyance to this day.

What purpose does having said sign of "Baby on Board" have on the recipient drivers other than a bubbling feeling of contempt and consternation about their driving capacities and priorities.
A very nonsensical, over-protective, yuppie maneuver that conveys nothing more than an arrogance one should best keep concealed.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

analog

Holy shit, did I write this??

Alright... you're freaking me out now.

But yeah... those signs are annoying and pointless status symbols. Self-important pompous yuppie jackasses love to mark their things and shout out to everyone in the world just what they have.

I find this to be about on par with the "my child is an honor roll student at blah blah elementary/middle/high school." What a bunch of self-centered crap... there are many good ways to teach a child about pride in a job well done. A "look at what my kid did" bumper sticker on your minivan/SUV is not one of them.

Also: what about those decals that have soccer, hockey, football, ballerina, etc., designs and then the kids' names underneath them that people stick on the back window? That's pretty much the ultimate nonsense yuppie status-symbol you can get for your vehicle, aside from the vehicle itself.

This is, of course, not to mention the fact that between those stickers and the "blahblah middle school" sticker, child predators now know the names and hobbies of your children, what your car looks like, and where they go to school. Congratulations, you're making it easier for people to track down and abduct your children! Hooray for vein stupidity!!

ratbastid

Those signs always jar me awake and make me pay strict attention to the road and what's happening on it. Because, you know, as much as I'd love to plow right into that car, turning both vehicles into a mangled, twisted heap of steaming metal, and killing all occupants instantaneously... I'd hate to hurt the baby.

Crack

Pull them over and ask them to remove the baby then run into them?

__________________
Crack, you and I are long overdue for a vicious bout of mansex.

~Halx

World's King

I'm sorry... I wasn't aware it was still 1986.


I haven't seen one of those things in years.

__________________
heavy is the head that wears the crown

Nimetic

I think of the driver as the baby. Usually I notice this on the back of SUVs, which further annoys me.

Anyways, on the emerg services thing. I don't think it'd matter. First up - the back window is likely to have shattered (taking the sign with it). More likely the sign of a baby having been on board prior to a crash will be the presence of baby-toys, basket etc.

Shit, on that note... if they've used the sign and not strapped the baby down... they're obviously hopeless failures as parents. But I suppose this could happen.

blahblah454

Haha, good call on that one.

ItWasMe

That was about the year my first husband's kept running a danged taxi service for his ex-girlfriend. I put a sticker on his car... it read "Ex-Girlfriend in Trunk."

__________________
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .


"Ok, no more truth-or-dare until somebody returns my underwear" ~ George Lopez

I bake cookies just so I can lick the bowl. ~ ItWasMe

hambone

or you can assume that not all people are pompous jerks and that they may happen to be proud they have a baby....

I dislike the signs too and actually saw one yesterday and told my wife I never want one of those. However, I could very easily see my mother purchasing one for us when we have a child because she would think it was cute.

__________________
"Like liquid white from fallen glass,
Nothing to cry over"

shesus

Maybe the people are really lazy, never in the backseat anymore and the baby is actually 20-something.

I think anything stuck to a car is tacky. The Garfield was the worst I think.

__________________
Whatever did happen to your soul?
I heard you sold it

Choose Heaven for the weather and Hell for the company

QuasiMondo

That's nothing compared to the truck balls. That's tacky.

__________________
Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.

-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator

Willravel

Can you imagine what it'd be like to be unable to conceive and be haunted by the careless and ignorant who think their child deserves more respect than others?

hambone

You really get this from a window sticker?!?

btw, my parents could not conceive (my sister and I are adopted) and as referenced before, they are the exact type who would buy such a thing.

__________________
"Like liquid white from fallen glass,
Nothing to cry over"

Willravel

I'd call that ironic, but I'm too busy looking at your avatar.

Sultana

Heh, I take it as a warning that the driver is a parent, and therefore more likely to be self-destructive and distracted.

Yeah, it's just a hold-over from the 80's.

__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

hambone

my parents are just very prideful of us, even if we aren't their blood.

I guess I could see how people might get upset, but again, to me its just a stupid way to express your joy in your child, not a malicious thing.

eh

__________________
"Like liquid white from fallen glass,
Nothing to cry over"

Baraka_Guru

I think the "Baby on Board" signs were replaced by cell phones as a symbol of self-centeredness in drivers. What makes those yuppies think their shallow conversations are more important than the safety of the drivers around them? Pay attention: hang up and drive already.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Grasshopper Green

I saw one of those for the first time yesterday...definitely tacky.

__________________
"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

Ourcrazymodern?

Okay. ...I get a kick out of truck balls.

I think killing babies is worse than killing senior citizens because babies have most of their lives in front of them. Let's not discuss abortion.

The B.O.B. signs generated a response that got silly. Those who displayed them would probably have been better served concentrating on their driving
and that of those around them, just like the rest of us.

__________________
BE JUST AND FEAR NOT

World's King

I prefer the "six Mexicans in a lowered truck with a giant Nike swoosh sticker on the back window."

__________________
heavy is the head that wears the crown

ngdawg

Best stupid thing to see: A 'baby on board' sign on a minivan with the mother driving while talking on a cell phone....

__________________
Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

tenniels

These signs piss me off the most when the person driving the vehicle with the "Baby On Board" sign is driving like a complete asshole. I'm like, if you want me to keep your supposed baby (sometimes there is no child in the car) safe, then show me that you're a good driver first. Mad speeding, cutting people off, failure to blink (that's what I call it), these are all things I've seen "Baby on Board" drivers do. Piss me the fuck off. I had never thought of it as an arrogant thing, but now that you all metion it, perhaps that is true. It has only every bothered me when they themselves are terrible drivers.

__________________

ItWasMe

Oh, I LOVE the truck balls! I've thought about getting a set for my suv. But I can't decide which style/color.

And I agree about it being sadder losing the younger ones, who have just begun what I am half way through. I am more careful if I see kids in someone's car. Because I know how distracting they can be.

__________________
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .


"Ok, no more truth-or-dare until somebody returns my underwear" ~ George Lopez

I bake cookies just so I can lick the bowl. ~ ItWasMe

spindles

I think the enormous child seat/capsule would be a pretty good indicator for anyone at a car crash that there might be a baby in the car.

When I see these signs I think to myself "what a wanker".

On a side note, when we were trying to conceive, we went to see a fertility specialist and he basically said "being healthy/fit is not a sign that you are fertile - spend long enough in delivery wards and you'll see the unhealthiest people still have babies". My point - the baby is not even necessarily something to be proud about - babies are born everyday.

__________________
who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

analog

The "baby on board" sign is not for emergency personnel... if the car is so badly mangled that you can't tell there's a person in there, you won't see that stupid sign hanging where the rear window used to be, either.

That's also assuming they strapped in the car seat properly to begin with, and the kid wasn't ejected on impact.

And yeah, there'd be a car seat, among other indicators, like probably a baby bag, toys, etc.

settie

There must be some really cool people in my city, because I rarely see those BOB signs, pretty much never. And I had to laugh at myself just now, because with the mention of those truck balls which I had never heard of before, I thought to myself "they can't mean that the driver hangs a set of fake balls somewhere off their truck..." and I image google it and alas....yes, they actually hang balls off the back (usually) of their truck...oy vey. I've never seen those around before...but I just might have not been paying attention to the back bumper that well. There are a lot of crappy drivers in my city, so the focus is best put on their driving skills and other things, instead of car graffiti and the like. :P

tenniels

Haha, the first time I saw those on a truck I was on the phone with my brother. I was like D_____, I swear to God the truck in front of me has a set of balls hanging from it! He was like, nope you're eyes aren't fooling you, there are balls for trucks now. I was like, wow, they really think of everything nowadays.

As for it being sad when children die, I of course think it's sad and do not mean to sound offensive with what I'm about to say. I tend to think it's slightly more sad to lose someone who is a teenager or young adult as they have already started to experience life and build relationships, so in my opinion, it would be harder to let go as the people around them have spent more time with them. I guess it's all relative to compare though, because death is generally sad period.

__________________

healer

I always wondered about those signs myself, more specifically, what the point of the sign was. I mean it's not going to make a car crashing into you do so any more softly, unless you're Harry Potter's mom and you put an impenetrable shield charm on it. But hey, do what you want...it's your car, right?

What pisses me off is when I see people with these signs on their vehicles, but the kids are jumping around on the front seat unsupervised. Or the kid is sitting on Dad's lap while he's driving and talking on his cellphone.

Is it really so hard? Get the necessary gear, strap in your kid and don't drive like an ass. Do all that and you know what I'll say?

"Here's your sign."

__________________

The_Jazz

Have all of you been hanging out with Doc Brown and his souped-up Delorean? I haven't seen one of these signs in a decade and you folks are still angry about them?

As for cell phones, my new car has bluetooth. Greatest. Thing. Ever. The only thing is I look like I'm crazy just chatting away to myself when I'm driving.

Nice signature, healer.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

Redlemon

I have the same reaction anytime I see a U-Hall rental truck: "The driver does not know how to handle this vehicle. Keep away."

__________________
I can't read your signature. Sorry.

*Nikki*

Who cares?? Pay attention to the road!!

seretogis

Clearly it is to display their prejudice towards homosexuals. Fucking bigoted breeders.

Off-topic, but, I would prefer to value determination. I'd rather MAKE what I hope for happen, than simply "wait for it up ahead."

__________________
seretogis - sieg heil
perfect little dream the kind that hurts the most, forgot how it feels well almost
no one to blame always the same, open my eyes wake up in flames