My Car Seat Heads Off to a New Home

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

Just two days ago, I asked you to help me find a deserving home for my overpriced, top-of-the-line car seat. I got about 15 emails almost immediately, with suggestions ranging from “Sell it on Craigslist” to “I think my girlfriend is pregnant and we’d like to save a few bucks.”

One of the emails stood out as the immediate and obvious winner.


This isn’t an “Ask Jack” so I’m not going to cut-and-paste the communication here. I can, however, give you the details. I was contacted by a mother of teenage children who met a fellow recently, got pregnant, and had the dad skip out on her before she delivered the child. She’d long since gotten rid of her existing kid infrastructure because she thought she’d never need it again.

“I don’t want to start a pity party for myself,” she stated, “but I could use some help.” She included a few pictures of her new son. I think the little fellow deserves the very best child seat out there so I’m shipping it to her tomorrow.

I could go on at this point about how our society should do a lot more for women who make the difficult choice to have children under the current economic and social conditions, but given that half of my readers think I’m a neo-Nazi and the other half think I’m Bernie Sanders with long hair I doubt it would result in much of a productive discussion.

I remain thankful for the fact that my son was born under the protection of an old-style “Cadillac insurance policy” that allowed him to survive, and thrive, despite being just three pounds at his birth. I’m thankful that I had the wherewithal and the sense to put him in a decent child seat for the day he needed it. And I’m thankful that he survived the circumstances of his birth and a near-fatal car crash to become a friendly, malice-free eight-year-old who likes racing his Birel go-kart and jumping his BMX bike and sleeping untroubled nights with a full tummy in a house where nobody is drunk or angry or dangerous. I would like to see every other child in this country grow up with those same underrated advantages.

Have a great day, everybody. I’m off to drive a ZX-14-powered dune buggy around a racetrack or something like that.

[Image: Honda/ YouTube]

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Felix Hoenikker Felix Hoenikker on Sep 28, 2017

    Well done Jack. I used to sell household furnishings, bicycles, kids toys, etc for a few bucks, but now I just give anything in good condition that we don't need to Goodwill or other local charities. It's more important to me that someone in need benefits than me making a few bucks on these items that I really don't need.

  • Dave M. Dave M. on Sep 29, 2017

    Well done Jack.

  • Slavuta CX5 hands down. Only trunk space, where RAV4 is better.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Oof 😣 for Tesla.https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-05-03-nhtsa-probes-tesla-recall-over-autopilot-concerns.html
  • Slavuta Autonomous cars can be used by terrorists.
  • W Conrad I'm not afraid of them, but they aren't needed for everyone or everywhere. Long haul and highway driving sure, but in the city, nope.
  • Jalop1991 In a manner similar to PHEV being the correct answer, I declare RPVs to be the correct answer here.We're doing it with certain aircraft; why not with cars on the ground, using hardware and tools like Telsa's "FSD" or GM's "SuperCruise" as the base?Take the local Uber driver out of the car, and put him in a professional centralized environment from where he drives me around. The system and the individual car can have awareness as well as gates, but he's responsible for the driving.Put the tech into my car, and let me buy it as needed. I need someone else to drive me home; hit the button and voila, I've hired a driver for the moment. I don't want to drive 11 hours to my vacation spot; hire the remote pilot for that. When I get there, I have my car and he's still at his normal location, piloting cars for other people.The system would allow for driver rest period, like what's required for truckers, so I might end up with multiple people driving me to the coast. I don't care. And they don't have to be physically with me, therefore they can be way cheaper.Charge taxi-type per-mile rates. For long drives, offer per-trip rates. Offer subscriptions, including miles/hours. Whatever.(And for grins, dress the remote pilots all as Johnnie.)Start this out with big rigs. Take the trucker away from the long haul driving, and let him be there for emergencies and the short haul parts of the trip.And in a manner similar to PHEVs being discredited, I fully expect to be razzed for this brilliant idea (not unlike how Alan Kay wasn't recognized until many many years later for his Dynabook vision).
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