Britney Spears admits she "made a mistake," but is that really enough?

by Stefania Butler (Subscribe to Stefania Butler's posts) Feb 10th 2006 7:22AM

Categories: Babies, Safety, Celeb Kids, That's Entertainment

By now we've all seen these pics of Britney Spears driving her SUV with her four-month-old son Sean in her lap. At first, Britney (or her publicist) explained, that she was "terrified that this time the physically aggressive paparazzi would put both me and my baby in danger.... I love my child and would do anything to protect him." Now that she probably won't be charged with endangering her child, Britney tells Access Hollywood, "I made a mistake and so it is what it is, I guess" People magazine has the full story.

"It is what it is?!?!" "I guess?!?!" You mean, stupid? I bet she wouldn't sound so smug if something happened to her son while she was driving. Celebrities crash their cars all the time because of "aggressive paparazzi." I'm going to say it: she should have had that child in a car seat, no excuses. In fact, I don't even care what the excuses are. I realize that there are countries in the world that don't require car seats and in New York people hop into cabs all time without car seats...This is different. Britney has one. The situation was dangerous. She didn't use it. If she got into the car while holding her child, and managed to get herself situated in the driver's seat, again, while holding the child, then she definitely had time to strap Sean into his seat. And notice she's not wearing a seat belt herself. Why? Because it's haaaard to strap on a seat belt while holding a floppy baby in your lap, y'all!

She'd "do anything to protect him?" I would have had my bodyguard (the one in this photos shown yacking on the cell phone) beat off the paparazzi so that I could get my child properly restrained. In fact, I would have done it myself. (According to X17, the agency that took the photos, there were only two photographers there thay day. Not "a throng.")

Everytime I see these pictures I get angry. The first thought that flashes through my mind is, "What if?..." I shudder to think. As someone who had both her infant and convertible child seats checked thoroughly by the CHP upon installation, this just irritates me. Britney should be made and example of. The continued special treatment for celebrities who put innocent children in harm's way is ridiculous. If this were anyone else—a father, a nanny, a friend of the family, the bodyguard—would we be letting her/him off the hook so easily?

[photos: X17]

Comments (30)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Tammy 2-10-2006 @ 8:54AM

I am sorry but this whole thing has been blown way out of perportion, I am the mother of a happy healthy 4 year old and a new set of twins.... my 4 year old spent very little time in a car seat due to Colic... you could drive for hours and he would scream... never falling asleep, so who ever was not driving at the time would hold him, so that he would calm himself, because he would get so worked up that he would vomit. I am not a big car seat fan to begin with, America (the govt) has decided that it has the right to tell me how to raise my children and what is best for them.... I am sorry but they are my children and I will decide what it best.... I am sure if you speak with your own parents very few of us that are now in our 30's were never in a car seat and we have all lived.... stop trying to push your beliefs on me or anyone else....

momma2mingbu 2-10-2006 @ 9:11AM

I pray to God that you are never in a wreck where you regret the decision to not restrain your children properly in your vehicle. Do *YOU* wear a seat belt in your car? Why shouldn't your children? You are very lucky if you have never been pulled over and cited for driving without your child properly protected.

Emily 2-10-2006 @ 9:18AM

I agree with Tammy. Whether somebody else's child is in a car seat is none of my business and none of the government's business. I think it's fine that the public is made aware that car seats help keep children safe in accidents, but that's as far as it should go. People should raise their own children as they see fit and not spend so much time trying to control others.

texascheibel 2-10-2006 @ 9:20AM

Tammy, Are you for real? Stop trying to push our beliefs on you?! Wow. What the government has decided as law is based on research which states a car seat is the safest place for a child DEATH AND INJURY rates from accidents where children were not properly restrained. Would you say the same to other "laws" that protect children from child abuse or neglect? In my opinion, not putting your child in a car seat is the equivilent of neglect.

momma2mingbu 2-10-2006 @ 9:27AM

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/OccupantProtectionFacts/children_youth.htm

Terri Mauro 2-10-2006 @ 9:28AM

You know, I don't condone driving with your baby on your lap, and I'm not in the business of feeling sorry for celebrities, but ... man, how horrifying would it be to have photographers following you around for your first year as a parent, ready to snap and publish every evidence of your stupid mistakes? Who among us hasn't done things with our kids that we would not like to see on the cover of People, or even a family album? Sometimes "Hey, I made a mistake, okay?" is really all there is to say.

Andrea 2-10-2006 @ 12:27PM

I'm right there with you Stephania, it is our job as parents to keep our children safe, and she failed horribly on this one. Let's hope she has learned a lesson from this and it will only be a one time thing. Read the studies and get informed, driving with anybody unrestrained in a moving vehicle is just plain stupid.

dakims 2-10-2006 @ 1:03PM

I'm not big on government intervention in our daily lives, but if laws need to be written to protect children from IDIOT parents, then that's what's necessary. A squirming infant in a driver's lap? How is that acceptable to ANYONE? Sheesh, Britney might as well let kfed pierce the poor kid's ears, at least that wouldn't endanger his life.

Tine 2-10-2006 @ 1:26PM

I have to take issue with

"The continued special treatment for celebrities who put innocent children in harm's way is ridiculous. If this were anyone else�a father, a nanny, a friend of the family, the bodyguard�would we be letting her/him off the hook so easily?"

I see cars all the time with young ones in the back with no car seat in sight. I have to believe that they've been seen by police but ignored. I think most people get off the hook for this type of infraction - unless they encounter some Dudley-Do-Right LAPD officer who'd rather harrass some harried mother than play drug-bust lottery by pulling over a DWB. The only "special treatment" I see being applied here is all the attention she's getting.

angelica 2-10-2006 @ 2:22PM

We got pulled over in Los angeles on Thanksgiving Day for not having a front license plate on our car. Yeah, we encountered Officer Do-Right, it doesn't take away from the fact that she's a twit and an idiot who CAN raise her child with all the amenities and most expensive equipment and chose not to because of her selfishness (had to get home fast, had to not let latte get cold...whatever). It's total neglect and the LAPD should definitely answer to the fact that they have proof of someone breaking the law and they aren't dealing with it accordingly. The photos are the equivalent of those "red-light cameras", can't they send her one of those "tickets"?

Amanda 2-10-2006 @ 2:31PM

Wow... I dare you to go speak to any person who has ever had to clean up a highway fatality that included a baby out of a car seat and still hold that opinion.

My father was a tow truck driver that had to clean up after a baby was killed in a freeway accident before Christmas; the mom had it out of the seat because it was fussy. When the family came to collect their personal belongings, the pile of stuff my dad pulled out of it (so they wouldn't have to see the bloody van) contained lots and lots of baby toys -- Christmas presents for a kid that wouldn't have its first Christmas. The mom was in hysterics; even my dad was in tears.

I have actually rolled down my car window and shouted at someone to put their kid in a carseat, and I am so not ashamed of that.

Tammy 2-10-2006 @ 4:21PM

I understand that there are studies that show car seats reduce injuries and such, however again, it is my choice if I choose to put my child in a car seat. What is more humane to you, to put them in a car seat and let them scream and make them self sick or break a stupid/unnecessary law and make your child happy and content.... my child's welfare is more important than those of the govt or other people who think they know everything because someone told them that's how it should be. Since when have we stopped thinking for ourselves? Even my mom who is a car seat fan, understood and even told me to take him out and hold him.... I was a much better driver with a quiet and content child than I was with a screaming infant.

Think about it people... let's use some common sense and understand that car seats, seat belts and lot of other things should be a choice not something regulated by the government.

heather 4-08-2008 @ 12:52AM

Tammy is right, for several reasons:
1. Gov't's right to make laws about such personal things is VERY shaky, according to the federal & many state constitutions. If you don't like that, the thing to do is to amend the necessary constitution(s), NOT just ignore them. Ignoring them on little things just gives gov't the idea that they can ignore the rules on big things--like torture.

2. A baby is safer in a car being driven by a calm parent who is not distracted by screaming. In an ideal world, it would always be feasible to pull over and deal with the screaming baby. In real life, it ain't always the case.

3. Circumstances alter cases. Example: Last fall, we moved from Missouri to California. In a full U-Haul, so it was a slow trip to start with. With a not-quite-6-month-old. We're talking a week on the road, except for meals and some sleep. Was my baby in the car seat most of the time we were moving? Yes. All of the time? Impossible. It would have added a couple of more DAYS to the trip to stop every time a teething baby needed to nurse. HOWEVER, much of this trip was on straight freeway with basically NO traffic. And Daddy gets rattled by screaming (he drove the whole trip, due to a seat that would not adjust for a 5'2" person to reach the pedals). Definitely a situation where a baby is safer being nursed with a calm parent behind the wheel, rather than screaming with a rattled parent driving. We now live in Silicon Valley. Traffic-wise, a place where I would never drive with a baby not restrained. But out in the middle of Kansas, Wyoming, Nevada, etc., the practical aspects are quite a bit different.

Andrea 2-10-2006 @ 4:40PM

Tammy,

What would have happened if you got into an accident? What is more humane to you, a living child or a dead or severly injured one?

Anna V. 2-10-2006 @ 4:44PM

I have never once even thought of taking any of my kids out of their seats. If they are fussy/screaming/whatever, I pull over to deal with them (provided I'm the only one in the car). If it is both my husband and I, the passenger will reach back to soothe the child. My kids are squirmy; they need to be confined in a seat where they can do no harm to themselves or anything in the car.
It's okay if people think the law is stupid. That's their right, but it doesn't mean that they can break the law.

Amy 2-10-2006 @ 5:58PM

I was in a car accident (I rear ended someone and my air bags deployed. I was alone in the car, and I was wearing a seat belt). The air bags left 3 inch x 6 inch bruises and chemical burns on my arms. They are deployed using the same technology as a solid rocket booster. If I had had a baby in my lap at the time, the crying would've stopped right quick, because that baby would've been killed instantly. Tammy, you just have no idea what kind of physics are involved, obviously.

My husband the rocket scientist is going to assist us with the physics. Assuming a 20 pound baby and a 30 mile per hour collision, the baby is going to hit something (the dash, the windshield, the back side of the front seat, whatever) with 140 pounds of force. That's the equivalent of dropping a 140 pound weight onto the baby. And that doesn't take the airbags into account. Double it if whatever you hit is also moving at 30 miles per hour - a 280 pound weight on the baby. I don't even want to calculate what the forces would be at 65 or 70 miles per hour...

My daughter hates the car seat, too. You know what I do? I tune her out. I stay as close to home as I can. And when we have to go somewhere and she cries, I explain to her that she's too little to break the law, and that we'll be there (wherever 'there' is) soon. And I allow enough time that we can stop if we need to so that I can soothe her. But I would much rather have her vomit than have the firemen have to pull her dead body out of a tree because I had her out of her seat and we got hit. It happens.

If you can honestly read this and continue to do what you've been doing, then I think we'll just have to call it "natural selection" - you and Britney can stupid yourselves right out of the gene pool.

Amy 2-10-2006 @ 6:14PM

Ok, I don't want to flog this, but here are some videos for you, Tammy, to consider. I really hope, for the sake of your children, that you will change your mind.

Yeah, sometimes the government gets all up in our business, like tapping our overseas phone calls for stupid reasons... But this? This is a really, really good reason.

See also:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?C3DC21E9C
(refers to www.regentsprep.org - a quicktime video of what happens when an unrestrained parent is holding an unrestrained child is in a collision)

http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z62D21E9C
(refers to the same site - this time a video of a child in a flawed car seat in a 55 mph crash - it makes me nauseated just watching it, and I know that it's a crash test dummy)

http://makeashorterlink.com/?V43D52E9C
(refers to the same site - this time an unrestrained child in the back seat becomes a projectile in a collision and decapitates ... DECAPITATES the restrained driver - both would be killed instantly)

Horrifying isn't a strong enough word. Now, Tammy, go back and watch all of those again, but picture your darling children in place of the crash test dummies. Then go light a candle and thank your major deity that you've been really, really lucky. And change your ways before your kid becomes a projectile, ok?

Missy 2-10-2006 @ 6:54PM

Amanda, I read your comment and couldn't read any others. I had to post. Your post gave me chills and gave me the sickest, empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. As a mother, I cannot, just CANNOT imagine the horror of finding your child dead by something preventable by a couple of extra seconds of inconvenience. That poor, poor woman. Your poor father. That poor baby. Okay, now I'm crying.

As much as I think the government oversteps its bounds sometimes, protecting the little ones who have no ability to protect themselves is, in my opinion, appropriate.

Missy 2-10-2006 @ 7:02PM

Geez, Tammy. I've gotta say, uhhh, it's not your choice. When you're pregnant, under the law, it's your choice what you do to your body. Once that baby is out of your body, it isn't your choice anymore. That child has to be protected to a certain extent, mandated by law, and as the evidence suggests, a car seat is the SAFEST place for your child to be in an accident. There might be the occasional accident where being restrained is a bad thing. Most of the time, though, a car seat is best.

Is your mom an expert on crash tests? Does she work for the NHTSA or one of the private non-profits that does crash test research? I suspect she and you are both wrong.

Wise up. Protect your child. Don't be another statistic like the one Amanda mentioned.

Lisa 2-10-2006 @ 10:19PM

"I am sure if you speak with your own parents very few of us that are now in our 30's were never in a car seat and we have all lived...."

The ones who didn't survive the accidents aren't here to tell their story. I'd love to hear what those who died would have to say, though.

"Whether somebody else's child is in a car seat is none of my business and none of the government's business"

We all pay, literally, for the deaths of lives in car accidents. It isn't just the families insurance that goes up.

I sympathize with having a baby that screams while driving in the car. There were days I had to remind myself that I could live with the screaming, but I could never live with the silence had something horrible happened.