One of those things.

So my wife decided to let our daughter play around in her car for a while. It's perfectly safe as the car can't roll anywhere if the handbrake is let off, the car will not start unless the clutch is depressed and the key in and the child simply likes to climb around between the front and back seats. The downside is that she presses every button and switches on EVERYTHING that can be switched on in the car which on this occasion she did. Again.

Being summer here in the UK the evenings stay light until later, t'was only spotted that the interior lights of the car had been left on about 5 hours later and so I went to switch them off. Of course the battery was flat as a pancake, the headlights auto function had been disabled and they were in the on position with no light actually coming from them. No problem, it's happened before, being the decent spud I am I decide to jump the wifes car from mine. It isn't the first time, it won't be the last I tell myself. Simple enough, get the cables, c'mon wifey let's get this done, yep pop your bonnet (hood for our American cousins!) connect the cables, red to red, black to black in that order, very important, my car is running, ok hit your starter.

Yes, we're off, NO we're bloody not. Oh. Silence. From both the cars. That's not happened before. Why is she looking sheepish? Why is my car off? Start again, get in start my ca………..hang about, electronic fault it says? Whaaaaaat??? Rubbish. Switch car off, switch it on………Electronic fault. Damn. Ah well, leave it a while, disconnect the battery. 10mm spanner out, battery disconnected, grab my cup of tea and have a quick gulp, back out reconnect battery. Here we go, no bother at all. Electronic fault. *&^!. Both cars dead. Checked the fuses on mine, all fine. Oh fiddlesticks…..or something like that, I can't quite remember.

Next morning, phone the mechanic, yep half an hour, he'll get it sorted. Or not. Car towed, diagnostics hooked up, ECU fried. Power surge probably.

Her car? All hunky dory, jump started just fine off the battery box he brought down with him. My car? Dead as disco.

My first thought? The Haiku will have to wait a while……

My second thought, ah well at least the Lummi's in the mail……

There's just no justice.

*Dusty* said:

So my wife decided to let our daughter play around in her car for a while. It's perfectly safe ...

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Man, that intro scared me. oo:

A motor vehicle is NOT a toy period! I'm sorry but I have absolutely no sympathy for you what-so-ever :nana:

You know vehicle electronics are sensitive to "jump starting" right? perhaps besides not letting children play in your vehicles you could/should invest in a pair of Smart booster cables (with surge & reverse polarity protection) :thumbsup:

TorchBoy said:

Man, that intro scared me. oo:

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It's a closed driveway etc, but the car cannot be started accidentally even at that. It requires the clutch to be depressed and the starter button pressed together, which is impossible for a 3 year old.

M@elstrom said:

A motor vehicle is NOT a toy period! I'm sorry but I have absolutely no sympathy for you what-so-ever :nana:

You know vehicle electronics are sensitive to "jump starting" right? perhaps besides not letting children play in your vehicles you could/should invest in a pair of Smart booster cables (with surge & reverse polarity protection) :thumbsup:

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Having jump started cars dozens of times, I've never once had a problem. And of the thousands of people who do it every day who also never have a problem who'd have thought ? Usual case of hindsight being 20/20..... even the mechanic said it was bad luck, but also advised the use of a booster box type thing. I'm no mechanic, it's not my area of expertise so I don't feel bad about not knowing. When it comes to other areas which I am qualified in, i don't take great pride in lording it over those who make mistakes :ironic:

as for the vehicle not being a toy, no it's not, through the eyes of a 3 year old however it's a playground inside with baby toys hanging for the little lad, and teddys etc I should clarify my wife was sitting beside the car reading a book, so the child was at no point unsupervised she just failed to notice that the lights had been left on as the weather here has been uncharacteristically sunny. Do you have children M@elstrom?

Still if only one person who didn't realise learns from my error then the post isn't wasted.

M@elstrom said:

A motor vehicle is NOT a toy period!

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I'm with this.

and it's got nothing to do with trying to lord it over the original poster or anything else condescending.

At first my reaction was actually similar to everyone elses, basically "a car is not a toy, no 3-year old should be left alone in one" but then I thought about it a bit. The circumstances described pretty much make injury impossible, and letting a kid do something like this satisfies their innate curiosity about how things work. It's actually refreshing to see permissiveness like this after seeing the kind of stifling, over-protective parenting typical in the USA. Sure, fewer children here may get hurt, but by the same token many enter adulthood lacking any judgement at all precisely because they weren't allowed to be put in a situation where they might be hurt. I remember playing with Nicad batteries in first or second grade. I think I started soldering a couple of years after that. I'm still alive. I never even got hurt, at least enough to send me to a hospital. Children are smarter and can pick up on a lot more than we give them credit for. While not miniature adults, overprotecting them is only going to backfire down the road.

Easy solution to prevent this from happening again is some kind of audible low-battery indicator. When you hear it, you tell your daughter playtime is up.

JaguarDave-in-Oz said:

I'm with this.

and it's got nothing to do with trying to lord it over the original poster or anything else condescending.

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So you never in your life pretended you were driving the family vehicle?

jtr1962 said:

At first my reaction was actually similar to everyone elses, basically "a car is not a toy, no 3-year old should be left alone in one" but then I thought about it a bit. The circumstances described pretty much make injury impossible, and letting a kid do something like this satisfies their innate curiosity about how things work. It's actually refreshing to see permissiveness like this after seeing the kind of stifling, over-protective parenting typical in the USA. Sure, fewer children here may get hurt, but by the same token many enter adulthood lacking any judgement at all precisely because they weren't allowed to be put in a situation where they might be hurt. I remember playing with Nicad batteries in first or second grade. I think I started soldering a couple of years after that. I'm still alive. I never even got hurt, at least enough to send me to a hospital. Children are smarter and can pick up on a lot more than we give them credit for. While not miniature adults, overprotecting them is only going to backfire down the road.

Easy solution to prevent this from happening again is some kind of audible low-battery indicator. When you hear it, you tell your daughter playtime is up.

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Common sense like this is fast dying out and i'm not going to apologise for allowing my daughter to have a little adventure in her mother's car under supervision. Nor will I apologise for her having a climbing frame and slide in the back garden, or her 8ft trampoline. Or indeed a sandpit and water tray.

I can't actually believe the reaction some people are giving here, i guess it proves how everyone else is perfect behind their keyboards. The post was only meant to be a little bit of fun, possibly help someone else not make the same mistake I did.

Just so you know, she's allowed sweets/candy in moderation and sometimes gets to sit up late and watch Bambi, you know the Disney movie where an animal gets shot........

I knew a guy who got back from a rabbit hunting trip and proudly held up a rabbit in each hand to show his family what he'd caught. He wasn't too popular for a while as they were in the middle of watching Watership Down.

I'm glad your wife was near by. We've had some sad incidents in this country where parents have found that the hand brake could be released surprisingly easily and the car taken out of gear or park without trouble.

+1 on it's OK.

My 3 year old boy loves to sit in the drivers seat waggling the steering wheel and play with the switches. To be honest, I think any father that says their son can't 'play' driving the car is more than a bit harsh and I'm glad mine wasn't like that.

TorchBoy said:

I knew a guy who got back from a rabbit hunting trip and proudly held up a rabbit in each hand to show his family what he'd caught. He wasn't too popular for a while as they were in the middle of watching Watership Down.

I'm glad your wife was near by. We've had some sad incidents in this country where parents have found that the hand brake could be released surprisingly easily and the car taken out of gear or park without trouble.

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Talk about timing, fortunately we have no deer near us. We once flew home from one of the Spanish islands (Tenerife) though on Christmas eve, encountering turbulence we told our youngest brother the plane had hit Santa and Rudolph while he was on the way to our house :naughty:


Even if the child had knocked the handbrake off AND put the car in neutral it's on a flat loosely stoned driveway. Even if she could get out and get the car rolling while my wife watched, there's a fence behind it (with enough room to reverse turn out of the driveway) and a small raised kerb in front leading to the grass. The car simply couldn't go anywhere.

*Dusty* said:

So you never in your life pretended you were driving the family vehicle?

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Nope, though I was taught to drive at twelve like so many Australian country folk of my generation (our local sporting car club even to this day still opens motorkhana competetion in closed bodied cars to twelve and ups).

It's all about different strokes I guess but I believe that the early habits taught to children stay ingrained for a lifetime and I taught my children the same as I was taught - that motor vehicles, machinery and implements are never to be treated as playthings and that all of those items in the paddocks and sheds are never to be touched or entered until taught to operate them properly and permitted to do so. I think I may have added something in their education about not shooting mockingbirds too......

*Dusty* said:

It's a closed driveway etc, but the car cannot be started accidentally even at that. It requires the clutch to be depressed and the starter button pressed together, which is impossible for a 3 year old.

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For now... by letting your child "play" in the vehicle you've inadvertently set the ground rules for behaviour in relation to vehicles etc. what if one day down the road your little one thinks it's still okay to go and play in Daddy's car when it's NOT in a closed driveway OR when you've just hopped out of the car (and left it running) to open a gate oo:

*Dusty* said:

I'm no mechanic, it's not my area of expertise so I don't feel bad about not knowing. When it comes to other areas which I am qualified in, i don't take great pride in lording it over those who make mistakes :ironic:

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I wasn't gloating at your ECU's misfortune sorry if it came over that way

*Dusty* said:

as for the vehicle not being a toy, no it's not, through the eyes of a 3 year old however it's a playground inside with baby toys hanging for the little lad, and teddys etc I should clarify my wife was sitting beside the car reading a book, so the child was at no point unsupervised she just failed to notice that the lights had been left on as the weather here has been uncharacteristically sunny. Do you have children M@elstrom?

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Sure do almost a soccer teams worth, and no I don't permit "playtime" in any of our vehicles...

*Dusty* said:

So you never in your life pretended you were driving the family vehicle?

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Once, and I accidentally broke the indicator stalk of an "Austin 1800" the results were less than savoury...

*Dusty* said:

Common sense like this is fast dying out and i'm not going to apologise for allowing my daughter to have a little adventure in her mother's car under supervision. Nor will I apologise for her having a climbing frame and slide in the back garden, or her 8ft trampoline. Or indeed a sandpit and water tray.

I can't actually believe the reaction some people are giving here, i guess it proves how everyone else is perfect behind their keyboards. The post was only meant to be a little bit of fun, possibly help someone else not make the same mistake I did.

Just so you know, she's allowed sweets/candy in moderation and sometimes gets to sit up late and watch Bambi, you know the Disney movie where an animal gets shot........

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Well that was certainly an over reaction, sand pits, trampolines, climbing frames and the like ARE toys and excellent healthy outdoor activities, and I'm glad your wife's vehicle has added safety features but many cars down here do not and can easily be turned into a 1+ tonne battering ram, I'm not perfect in front of OR behind my keyboard but I can recognize unsafe behaviour and allowing children to play in cars is a recipe for disaster IMHO clearly NOT "common sense"

The obvious solution?

M@elstrom said:

For now... by letting your child "play" in the vehicle you've inadvertently set the ground rules for behaviour in relation to vehicles etc. what if one day down the road your little one thinks it's still okay to go and play in Daddy's car when it's NOT in a closed driveway OR when you've just hopped out of the car (and left it running) to open a gate oo:




I wasn't gloating at your ECU's misfortune sorry if it came over that way




Sure do almost a soccer teams worth, and no I don't permit "playtime" in any of our vehicles...




Once, and I accidentally broke the indicator stalk of an "Austin 1800" the results were less than savoury...





Well that was certainly an over reaction, sand pits, trampolines, climbing frames and the like ARE toys and excellent healthy outdoor activities, and I'm glad your wife's vehicle has added safety features but many cars down here do not and can easily be turned into a 1+ tonne battering ram, I'm not perfect in front of OR behind my keyboard but I can recognize unsafe behaviour and allowing children to play in cars is a recipe for disaster IMHO clearly NOT "common sense"

The obvious solution?

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I'm going to put it down to cultural differences if thats your outlook, my kids will never be allowed to do anything which puts them in danger or sets bad ground rules for later life. I'll continue to raise MY children how I feel is best for them and in a similar vein to how i was raised, if that means that some people disagree with me then so be it unfortunately thats always going to be the case, I'll certainly never tell anyone else what they should or should not be allowing their children to do.

What started off as a slightly tongue in cheek post intended to get a chuckle out of someone has gone completely askew, this forum never ceases to amaze.

All the best to all.

*Dusty* said:

I'm going to put it down to cultural differences if thats your outlook, my kids will never be allowed to do anything which puts them in danger or sets bad ground rules for later life.

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Without question children require elements of risk taking for their developmental progress but this is more about curbing that exposure whilst their decision making processes are immature & learning respect for adults property, if you've got money to replace items broken OR destroyed through inappropriate use by children then you've got plenty of dollars & no sense LMAO :laughing:

*Dusty* said:

I'll continue to raise MY children how I feel is best for them and in a similar vein to how i was raised, if that means that some people disagree with me then so be it unfortunately thats always going to be the case, I'll certainly never tell anyone else what they should or should not be allowing their children to do.

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Good for you

*Dusty* said:

What started off as a slightly tongue in cheek post intended to get a chuckle out of someone has gone completely askew, this forum never ceases to amaze.

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Glad to be of service