A friend wrote a letter to Straits Times on Child Safety on the Road. I was so glad that the letter was published.
In Singapore the law does state that it is compulsory for all children under 8 to be secured in an approved child restraint whether seated in the front or back of a vehicle. Drivers will be fined $120 & receive 3 demerit points if children in their cars are not secured in the child seats.. This law was however not enforced by the Traffic Police as you can often see adults carrying their kids in the rear passenger seats, sometimes even in the front passenger seat. It is no wonder when young Singapore parents came overseas, the 1st cultural shock we faced was, strapping our babies, toddlers or kids in car seats whenever we are on the road. Coming from a country where such law was not really enforced, we were not used to the idea when we first came overseas and it doesn’t help when your kids start to cry, scream, wail and throw fits whenever you try to strap them in. I guess many of us don’t understand the impact and danger of not using a car seats for our kids and it seem like everyone else back home are doing the same thing. I was guilty of being one of them.

I was however lucky in a way as when we were back home, most of the time I had to drive Mal out on my own and there was no way for me to drive without putting Mal in a car seat. There were still times when Daddy was the driver, and whenever Mal fussed in his car seat, I will pick him up to comfort him. It was definitely a very bad habit.

Another reason why parents back home did not bother to get car seats for their kids maybe is because they are so damn bloody expensive! Compare these 2 sites, one based in Singapore, a shop which I used to shop for baby’s stuff First Few Years and Amazon.com and you will know what I mean. The people in Singapore selling car seats were just trying to reap a hefty profit from the consumers, which I am not surprised. This is just one example of shops selling car seats at exorbitant prices in Singapore. With such prices, I am not surprised at all that people will just skip the car seats altogether, as it is simply too costly and maybe even unaffordable for the lower income group families.

For me, I had tried shopping for my Mal’s carseat at big departmental chain such as Robinson and had given up the idea when I found out that the price is so much cheaper in the US. After doing my research we settled on a Britax Roundabout and thanks to ?? who helped us bring back the car seat from States. Since then we have never looked back, it was by far, one of our best investment.

Having said all these, I think the bottomline is…Singaporeans need to be educated on the importance of strapping the children in car seats whenever they are on the road. It is the life of our precious little one that we are talking about here. The traffic police might have missed it, the law back home might be a bit lax on this, but the ultimate responsibility still lies with the parents. We should do it for the safety of our kids, not because, so that we don’t get caught and fine by the traffic police!

Since we are in the States now, we thought we should get Mal’s next car seat before going back. For older children, many parents had settled for booster seats which are more convenient and are easier to strap the kid in. We were about to follow suit until we came across Kyle’s tragic story some time back. After reading my friend’s letter to Straits Times, I thought I should not delay anymore in sharing this video. So the next car seat for Mal, will most likely be a Britax Regent!