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Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:37 am

When we picked up our 71 Super last year, the PO said he'd been fixing it up for his girlfriend because it was cute and she liked it, but then she got pregnant and they decided to sell it and get an SUV for her because "You just CAN'T put a kid in a car like this, they're way too dangerous."

Now, we don't have kids (I am allergic), but got laughing on the way home thinking of "back in the day..." I grew up riding shotgun in a dilapidated Ghia convertible named "Crate" that was missing its seat belts (among other things), my grandmother had an old squareback that I wish I'd inherited, and my husband's family used to cram themselves and the neighbors in an old Beetle, with him and his brother stuffed into the rear luggage space. Somehow we managed to survive all this VW danger, though I once got clocked in the head by a 35-mph beer can in the Ghia. Man, I miss that car....good times.

Did we just have inordinately hazardous childhoods? I'm actually curious, because a LOT of people have told me they'd never have "a car like that" because of their kids, and one lady I know refused to let her kids (5 and 7) have a 2-minute ride around the block because my seat belts were "inferior" (poor kids were heartbroken). Is it that the cars are safer now? Do safer cars make people drive like idiots because they think they can? Or is it just the increased speed and multitasking that people do now that increases the danger of driving an older, slower, less brutish car?

And for people here who do have kids, do you/would you let them ride in your VW? Is there an age where it would become more acceptable or less dangerous? I can actually see where a modern car seat would be an issue in a VW (disclaimer: I'm from the "baby on lap" days and never had a car seat), but what about older kids? Just curious...

Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:04 am

Kids today are too well protected.
I am in my 60's, and growing up, we got scars from being hit in the head by a swing. We played in the dirt. We did not live in a sterile environment.
We did not have every other kid has asthma and allergies. We rarely got sick, and humanity continued to increase the population.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:10 am

Mooncalf wrote: Do safer cars make people drive like idiots because they think they can? Or is it just the increased speed and multitasking that people do now that increases the danger of driving an older, slower, less brutish car?.

Yes :roll: I've ridden with people who rely on the ABS to stop. It's not optimal.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:18 am

My first car was a 61 that my grandparents had purchased in 65. Recently my grandfather passed away and we had brought up this subjuct, the stuff that the older generation used to let us do. Well, my grandparents had retired to a real small community up near Lake Isabella. I used to go up there and spend weeks with them during the summers. We also used to to quite a bit if squirrel hunting. I remember haveing my grandfather drive that old VW with me sitting on the front hood, holding my 20 guage while driving across these fields looking for squirrels to shoot. He'd probably go to jail for that these days. And for the record, I have no problems letting my 6 year old ride in my VW.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:29 am

My nephew took his 4 year old twins rock crawling with him in his Toyota pickup.
He rolled the truck with them in it. They wanted to do it again.
When they got home, their mother said no more rock crawling, so he sold the truck, and got a Porsche. Now the twins ride with him with the other idiots on the street.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:40 am

My 11 and 13 year old ride in my VW all the time. The also know how to drive a tractor and live around germs on the farm and shoot pigeons to get rid of them (we live on a wheat ranch). My husband helicoptors the kids alot, which is surprising given the things he used to do as a child. My family had a Volvo P544 that had no back seat belts, and if my mom had to slam on the brakes, the seat back would shove us kids forward against the front seats, we thought it was great fun. I am a safety conscious mom, but I also think my children need to know how to do things and solve problems in situations that can be potentially fraught with danger when it comes to mechanicals. I plan on them knowing how to drive a wheat truck safely, and know the limits of the machinery on this farm and others.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:40 am

I grew up hunting, fishing, doing things on a farm, riding in the back of a truck, riding motorcycles, and just about everything else that you can think of and made it to the ripe old age of 37 :D I teach now and see how parents protect their kids way to much IMHO. But to each their own.

Kids in VW's...I vote yes. I sold my street bike awhile back to get into the VW scene and have not missed it once. My 5.5 year old son loves my bug and we cruise around all the time. He loves it, I love it and my wife does too. I guess if you are into lots of safety things VW's are not it. I just try to make it as mechanically sound as I can and go.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:40 am

When I sold my '71 Westy H/T in '98, there were 2 sets of rust orange streaks on the back seat/bed, the buyer asked what that was from -I told him-from when my kids were small & had to ride in car seats, the seats left marks from 3-4 years of use, the guys wife just about Shiat !
"You drove your kids in THIS ?" :shock:
:lol: :lol:

Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:45 pm

Ride in it?!?

I let 'em drive!!!
Seriously, we have three children ages 10, 6, and 2 (pictured). The bus has become our daily driver until we can afford another car. I had to add a Vanagon jump seat so that everyone has a seat belt. But it's way safer than what we used to ride in when we were young. Peace!

Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:41 pm

Damn Kids!

Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:52 pm

I loved sliding around the back seat of my mom's 62 T-bird when she would take corners. She would jerk the wheel back and forth side to side just to make us laugh. She would go to jail if she did this now.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 4:11 pm

zuhaelter_82 wrote: I loved sliding around the back seat of my mom's 62 T-bird when she would take corners. She would jerk the wheel back and forth side to side just to make us laugh. She would go to jail if she did this now.

My Dad made us kids get out and walk in the middle of nowhere, because we were acting up in the back seat.
He drove about 1 mile down the road and around a curve and made use walk. You never saw 4 kids so happy to see that car.
We sure were quiet the rest of the way home.

Now days, he would be charged with child abuse.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 5:04 pm

Russ Wolfe wrote: zuhaelter_82 wrote: I loved sliding around the back seat of my mom's 62 T-bird when she would take corners. She would jerk the wheel back and forth side to side just to make us laugh. She would go to jail if she did this now.

My Dad made us kids get out and walk in the middle of nowhere, because we were acting up in the back seat.
He drove about 1 mile down the road and around a curve and made use walk. You never saw 4 kids so happy to see that car.
We sure were quiet the rest of the way home.

Now days, he would be charged with child abuse.

Makes you wonder what has happened to our society :roll:

Mon Jan 18, 2010 5:37 pm

Russ Wolfe wrote: Kids today are too well protected.
I am in my 60's, and growing up, we got scars from being hit in the head by a swing. We played in the dirt. We did not live in a sterile environment.
We did not have every other kid has asthma and allergies. We rarely got sick, and humanity continued to increase the population.

Word. It is good for them. I don't know how I would expect them to grow up as well-adjusted adults with a sense of what's real and important and what's not if they were brought up without knowing what it feels like to have things go wrong. Too many grown ups these days were brought up without ever getting skinned knees and elbows.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:25 pm

Well, I admit that I can see myself gradually sliding into comfortable curmudgeonhood because I so often find myself saying "When I was that age..." and "Back in my day, we..." I was considered a pretty overprotected kid for the times, but even I fell out of more than my fair share of trees, off the roof, faceplanted trying to use my plastic sled as a snowboard, rode in the back of trucks and on motorcycles, no seat belts or helmets. Hell, I played with lawn darts before they were illegal.

I just remember good times as a kid in those old VW's. They were cool to me then, and still are. I remember being completely awed by the first psychedelic bus I ever saw, and getting to ride in it made my entire life up to that point (granted, I was only three, but still...jumping on the bed while rattling down the road seemed like the greatest use for a vehicle ever...in college, I found a better use, but that's another story) I just can't imagine telling a little kid he can't ride around the block in the absolute coolest car he's ever seen because it only has lap belts in the back seat. I dunno, that just seems really sad to me because I remember it so fondly. Didn't mean for it to turn into a "damn kids today" thread...

Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:27 pm

You have to wonder how can you know the limits of things if you can never try them out???

Trial and error...Win and lose...I am not sure how this works but now-a-days if you play a sport you can get a trophy for last place????How does that inspire anyone to do or get better at anything???If I know that I can just screw around and get the same thing as someone that works hard I guess I will just screw around...wtf?

Sorry if I went off the thread, but this bothers me :x

Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:37 pm

I brought my first child home from the hospital in my 18-year-old VW bug. The car seat was backwards strapped in with rear seat belt.

Both mine later learned to drive manual shift on my '71.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:14 pm

My parents drove from Fla. to Northern Va several times when I was a kid- in a 63 Ford Country Squire using the back as a bed for us.
Friend of mine's dad had a Lincoln that he took the back seat out of and installed a playpen. Said friend was transported this way when he was small.
Either my dad or one of the uncles would 'volunteer' to take all the kids to Baskin Robbins- that meant 11 kids and the driver stuffed into someones car and god help us if we dropped the cone..
What about a pickup truck load of kids, dogs, coolers of food and beer headed off for a day at the beach when we were older?

The species will survive.

Please excuse me-I have to go supervise the boys cleaning their guns now.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:47 pm

I grew up in a family of ten kids in the sixties and seventies. So Moms car was a 65 Bus. Dad had takin the middle seat out so we could all fit in at the same time. Some of my best memories are playing who could stand up the longest without falling while Mom drove.

Good times.........

I now have a 73 Thing and a 66 21 window both with lap belts all around. I make my three kids wear a lap belt. I think it is safer then I ever was and I turned out kinda normal.

Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:48 pm

I drive my 68 bug daily and it is our second car besides the wifes van. With 4 kids its hard not to have the kids in the car. I have had all 4 in the car 16,12,6,5 just a matter of not worryin about it, if its your time its your time is how i look at. I have no problem havin my kids in the car and they love it. I know its just awful no ac no power windows and god forbid you have to listen to the sweet german engineering but my kids all know what it is to have to work on something and for something. When I get my bus runnin all 6 of us will be goin in it. man up kids are being raised to be big p@ssies in this day in age its terrible