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If your child keeps begging to sit up front every time you get in the car, you may be wondering when you can safely let your kids sit in the front seat. Long gone are the days of calling ‘shotgun’. A rite of passage for many, family car rides would often pit brother against sister for the coveted spot in the passenger seat. As the saying goes though, when you know better, you do better. The following guidelines will help you figure out how old your child should be before they can sit in the front seat.
Laura Sampson, a mom of adult children, remembers the rules being much more lax when her kids were small. “My oldest son started riding in the front when he was just 6 years old,” she told Mom.com. “As far I know, there weren’t restrictions on when it was safe to ride in the front seat way back then. With my two younger sons, I knew better, and followed the guidelines.”
Car seat safety laws and guidelines
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children from birth through the age of 4 remain in a rear-facing car seat. Car seats in this position protect the child’s head, spine, and neck. After your child has outgrown their rear-facing seat, they can transition to a forward-facing car seat. Generally, this is an appropriate seat until your child reaches the age of 5, but each seat manufacturer will have its own height and weight guidelines that you should familiarize yourself with.
Parents seeking a more hands-on approach with their child safety seats can speak with a child passenger safety technician (CPST) to learn more about how to keep their children safe.
CPST Alicia Stephenson runs a Charleston-area Facebook Page in South Carolina, Lowcountry Car Seat Safety. She and her business partner meet up with parents to provide one-one-one child safety seat assistance. “I became a child passenger safety technician after finding out that even though I thought I was doing everything correctly, I found out that I wasn’t and my son’s life was at a greater risk,” she told Mom.com.
“A high percentage of parents are unknowingly misinformed, just like I was,” Stephenson said. She invites parents and caregivers to locate a local CPST if they need assistance.
Is there an acceptable age or weight for kids to sit in the front seat?
Booster seats are recommended for children over the age of 5. A booster seat, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is designed to ensure the seat belt fits your child properly. Once your child has reached the proper height and weight, the seat belt fits appropriately and, when they’re over the age of 12, your child is then old enough to sit in the front seat.
To ensure a proper seat belt fit, the lap belt must lay across the child’s upper thighs while the shoulder spans across the chest. If the seat belt falls at their stomach and across their neck, they should remain in a booster seat. Once a child reaches 4 feet 9 inches tall, they should be ready to move to a seat belt, if they’re over 12 years old. This will depend on your vehicle’s seat belt itself and your child’s build, so be sure to keep those factors in mind.
Mom of two Clarissa Laskey told Mom.com that she took all of these factors into consideration. “I followed the rules based upon weight, height, the car, and more,” she explained.
Deciding to let your child sit in the front seat
Despite car seat guidelines that allow children to sit in the front at the age of 13, many parents use their own judgment. “I was and still am very strict with car seat rules,” mom Michele Brosius told Mom.com. “My kids didn’t get a front seat spot until they turned 12 and even then it was rare. Probably at 14 or 15, I gave in and let them sit beside me.”
If your child is physically able to safely sit in the front seat, there are additional factors to consider. For the last 22 years, federal legislation has mandated the use of frontal airbags. These are standard safety features that, according to the NHTSA, saved almost 45,000 lives through 2015.
Frontal airbags are designed for adults. Once airbags are deployed, they explode at a range of between 10 and 16 mph. This range depends upon the impact of collision. Many newer airbag models are equipped with sensors to determine whether or not the seat occupant is wearing a seat belt. The airbag will then deploy accordingly. The caveat of a frontal airbag is that the force at which it deploys can cause injury or even death to a young child.
Cyn Gagen is grateful that she followed the car seat safety guidelines to the letter. “My daughter was at least 13 before she was allowed to sit up front and even then it was only because she was tall enough and weighed enough that it was safe,” she recalled to Mom.com.
“Thank goodness we followed these because when she was 10, we had a bad car accident. Even with her sitting in the back, we were told that she was lucky to be alive.”
