Korean Job Discussion Forums

[greatunknown]

This is my rant for December

So, I might be slightly sensitive to this issue lately as my wife and I are expecting our first child to be born this spring.

Last week my wife, sister-in-law and her husband, newborn and myself took a trip out to gwangju together. This was about an hour and a half on a busy free way. My sister-in-law held the baby in her arms the entire trip in the front seat inches from the airbag. My wife and I sat in the back seat and I was ostracized for wearing my seat belt and my wife flat out refused to wear hers.

I kicked up a fuss about it and my wife is upset because I offended them. We ended up having a fight about this and my wifes entire family agrees I am being completely unreasonable about this. In the past week Ive had a phone call from my mother-in-law, Ive had mutual friends (korean) talk to me. All saying the same ridiculous stuff "this is Korea. Its Korean style for the mother to hold her baby in the cat to protect them. You should follow Korean style"

Ive decided I am going to put my foot down on this issue. My as of yet unborn child will not travel with relatives who refuse to take the most basic of safety precautions (child car seat.. ill buy it but you must use it)

Anyways thats my rant.

[lichtarbeiter]

Stand your ground on this one.

Such BASIC principles related to child safety are not subject to cultural interpretation. The laws of physics don't pay any attention to what country your child is riding a car in.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039850/Seat-belt-warning-baby-mothers-lap-catapulted-150ft-car-windscreen-80mph.html

[singerdude]

You can tell them that if they were in a collision there is no way she would be able to hold on to that baby and her baby would either be crushed to death on the dashboard or go through the windshield. Also, if the air bag were deployed the baby would crushed to death by that as well. Let's not even forget the fact that the person holding the baby would be forced forward as well and crush the baby.

Show them this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsAUFzam4SU

When it comes to my child's safety I don't like to cut any corners. I even went so far as to order a rear facing child seat from Sweden for $700. Sweden has the toughest tests in the world for child seats and only a few seats have passed them. I bought one of the ones that passed. He will stay in there until he is 4 or 5 then I will face him forward. Rear facing in the rear middle seat is by far the safest.

[sligo]

Koreans think wearing a seatbelt is an insult to the driver as it implies you do not trust their skills. They don't seem to realise that an accident usually needs 2 drivers and wearing a belt isn't a judgment against them (well maybe a little) I tell anyone in my car to belt up or we don't move. MY CAR MY RULES!

As for the child seat, it makes me very angry every time a see an idiotice parent holding a baby in a moving car. to make it worse, seatbelts are left unused also. Even with the highest driver, passenger and pedestrian deaths in the OECD, they refuse to push car safety. Apparantley this was attempted a few years back and the government was told to butt out and not to interfere with people's families. Some people are beyond help. Even in those yellow school busses, the kids are not made to wear belts.

[BigBuds]

I stood my ground on this one too. Caused a couple of blow up with the wife's relatives but in the end they got the hint.

Several years back they did bring in a law that all children under 7 should be in approved car seats but it only lasted 6 months before it was repealed.

Guess which group fought for the law to be repealed?






















The Parents Rights Group were the ones to get the law removed of all people. Huge face palm moment.

They argued that Koreans shouldn't have to follow what other countries do as Korean parents know what's best for their own children. The simple fact that it had nothing to do with what other countries were doing and everything to do with basic safety commonsense went completely over their heads.

Commonsense is a rare animal in Korea indeed!

[CentralCali]

There is no such thing as common sense.

[kimchi_pizza]

I post from a cellphone so beg your patience

Automobiles are a way of life for westerners. Here, it is still
an way of travel. The appreciation of it's benefits AND
Dangers is new in the broader spectrum. I trust in my in-laws
That love for my son is equal if not better than i.
I encouage and trust them to use common sense and by my
Experience, they do just that as they love and cherish
That babe as any in the world.

It is hard to trust one's new born love and flesh in the hands
Of ANYONE but that is part of parenthood for a working
Soul.

Even wearing a winter coat whilest in a car seat posses a risk.
Everything is a risk. Protect your babe and learn to trust others.
It's hard~ but is for the best. Trust their love, the rest is
Beyond a parent's powers and control.

Anywho~ in-laws can be exasperating but patience, a good hug and smile will
Convert them to your ways more than anger and impatience.

[3DR]

So idiotic. My wife and I don't have kids, but I deal with this every time we go somewhere with her family. Her sister and her boyfriend usually refuse to put on their seatbelts, but I make a big fuss about my wife putting on hers. She's gotten the hint.

I will do the same thing when we have kids.

What is it with this country and seemingly not being able to use common sense? Your pride is so hurt in your passengers wanting to be safe and wearing seatbelts that you are offended. Then when everyone dies in a car crash everyone is like "I can't believe this happened!"

It's like they have no concept of certain things in life being out of their control.

[Fox]

My wife and I wear our seatbelts, and we have car seats for our children. The Koreans with whom I drive generally seen to wear seatbelts, and the Korean parents I know use car seats. I am not denying the reality of other people's anecdotes here, simply sharing my own observations. Many Koreans do seem to use both seatbelts and car seats.

[greatunknown]

[coralreefer_1]

I cant help but laugh at the irony of this thread. People are moaning about other not wearing safety belts, or the laws not enforcing such use, ...yet most would be the same people passing around gifs and articles that link back in one form or another to their government back home infringing on the rights of their people and being too much of a "big brother" to the citizens.

I'm not sure why things are so difficult for some. Wear the seat belt...or dont. Have your family wear it, or dont. Have in the laws wear it...or dont. Have a child seat, or dont.

Any guy having to deal with a wife or in-laws that resist the notion of wearing a seat belt or using a child safety seat in their own car likely faces such because they were a pushover weak man in the past...giving that wife and those in-laws the impression that you can be negotiated with or otherwise manipulated on even the most basic of principals. They resist because they know (or have been led to believe) that you are not strong-willed enough to stand up and law things down in concrete.

Its not a shot at Korean culture....its a shot at being a man from day 1.....not day 890.

[tophatcat]

[Fox]

[Plain Meaning]

[greatunknown]