Buckle up, kids!

This was how Isabel looked liked after crying all the way from USJ to Puchong. See how swollen her eyes were?
Why did she cry? All because she was forced to wear a seat belt!

Isabel does not like to wear her seat belt and at times, she will scream and shout and cry for as long as she could, trying to make me let her unbuckle her belt. No amount of reasoning or consoling would help at these times.

But I guess Isabel is not the only toddler who dislike wearing seat belts. I mean, look around you when you are on the road and you will see most kids are not even seated down  properly, let alone buckled up.

It's really surprising that even though news reports and also statistics have shown that unbuckled kids (and adults) face a higher risk of injury and death if there was an accident, many people choose to ignore this fact. You can still see lots of people carrying their young babies and toddlers on their laps or let their kids stand and play around in their cars. In fact, I have a friend who even let her one-year-old sit on her lap while she was driving! Can you imagine how much risk the baby faced if an accident were to occur? The baby would be crushed against the steering wheel!

However, most of my friends who do not enforce the seat belts on their kids claim that it's because their kids refused to be buckled up. They will scream and cry if they were forced to do so. To them, it's easier to just let their kids do as they please rather than face the loud screaming monsters. However, there was one quote that I read somewhere. It says that IT'S BETTER TO HEAR TO YOUR CHILD CRY THAN TO HAVE SILENCE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. How true.....

I found that one of the ways to teach the kids the importance of safety belts is from books and TV. Ethan watched the animation Megamind and there was a scene where Megamind was thrust forward and hit the windscreen when Roxanne suddenly stepped on the brakes. So whenever I reminded the kids the dangers of not wearing a seat belt, Ethan would say, ''Yeah, if you don't wear a seat belt, you will hit your head against the winscreen like Megamind". And I would add to it by saying that if it was a really bad accident, then you will break the windscreen, fly out to the ground and get hit by a car! That would be really, really horrible... So I normally do not need to force Ethan to wear his seat belt. He would even remind me if I forgot to do so.

All that being said, I have to admit that, at times, I am guilty of this 'crime' too, even though it's only for a short distance to the shops right outside our condo.