A Surprising Debate: The Front Seat When is a child old enough, or large enough, to ride in the front seat of the car? Let us declare this unresolved, and note that we are a nation divided. On the one side, number the safety conscious, the emergency room doctors, the better-safe-than-sorry and the American Academy of Pediatrics: children, no matter how heavy or how tall, belong in the back seat until they are least 13 years old. On the other side are the small risk-takers; those who point out the inconsistency of the rule (what about tweens who are larger than small adults?) and the "why do we infantilize our children?" argument. Along with them are those who say children need to observe adults driving before they drive themselves, who like sharing the privilege of the front seat and who consider the above group a pack of namby-pamby overreactors. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. And - unlike most of these areas of parenting, where we're a little defensive about our positions, and maybe not so sure that we've made the right call - both sides of this question seem comfortable in their skin. Virginia writes: When you ask "Would I really risk my child's safety so he could be cool in front of his friends," you're implying that the safety risk would be great. In reality, the actual risk of dying in a car accident on any given trip - regardless of where you're sitting - is pretty small. You need to weigh that against the "risks" of keeping your child in the back seat until he's in his midteens: he'll almost certainly feel infantilized. You'll both almost certainly miss out on some good conversational opportunities. Riding in the back also diminishes his opportunity to observe you driving the car - something that may be important in a few years when he starts driving himself. Then there is SF, who simply sets a rule and enforces it: Not only do my kids sit in boosters until they are 4-foot-9, no other child rides without a booster in my car either, unless they are at least 4-foot-9 - which in practice means that all my children's friends (which with six kids = many friends!) sit in a booster in my car years after their parents don't require it in their cars. I have even gone so far as to scratch a mark in the paint on the side of my minivan according with 4 feet 9 inches tall, and tell all friends of my kids that if they aren't taller than that, then they ride in a booster. I'm still surprised that there isn't a definitive rule on this. Maybe it's coming off a decade of life with young children and precision car-seat laws that leaves me surprised when anything concerning auto safety is left to my discretion. In keeping with the calm, balanced tone of this discussion, I'll strike a balance myself: my freshly minted 11-year-old still belongs in the back seat, but when the dealer gives me a loaner car because mine is in for warranty issues, I won't worry about his riding up front. Will we revisit when he weighs 100 pounds, when he hits 5-foot-2, when he turns 12? I suspect we will. Until then, I have plenty to think about.