Country: Cyprus
Name: Maria Demosthenous
Category: Article



Child safety in the car is a major concern for all parents. When they are babies, children can travel safely in their car seats.

What happens, however, when our babies grow up? There comes a moment when we can not use the car seats anymore and our children refuse to wear their seat belts. We often see children traveling standing up in the back of the car, putting their lives in danger, don’t we?

This was also my case when my little son grew up and could not use the car seat anymore. Although I always fastened his seat belt, he soon discovered how to unfasten and remove it. This became our daily scrap.

In spite of my explanations regarding his safety and fine threats from the police, my son would not take the slightest heed of what I said. So, I thought up a different idea.

Every time he unfastened his seat belt, I stopped the car at the side of the road. When my son complained that we would not get to the park in time, I responded: “There is a two-eyed device in the car (and I showed him the two small lights above the driver’s mirror) which makes the car engine stop as soon as it ‘sees’ somebody not wearing his/her seat belt. So, we can not drive to the park. I am sorry, but I am afraid your friends are already there. However, we can not drive to the park unless you fasten your seat belt, and I can start the car engine again.” After he hesitated for a moment while I pretended trying to start the engine unsuccessfully, he fastened his seat belt by himself and we drove to our destination.

When I told my husband about this, he immediately agreed to use the same tactics himself. In a few days, our son had learnt that our car would not start unless everybody was wearing their seat belts.

Today my son is 10 years old. Of course when he asked us about the two “eyes” in the car, we told him the truth. But now he has now acquired the good habit of always fastening his seat belt as soon as he enters the car.