Mary Fisher wrote:

You said load - that means bending down to pick up sprog to load it into the
vehicle.

Bending down outside the car to pick up said sprog is not the bit where
you do yourself a mischief though. Its the bending over leaning into the
car.

And you said associated kit ...

More load space...

(it was no coincidence that when we replaced SWMBO's 2+2 coupé with a
large estate car, it was within a year of the arrival of the second sprog).

But wriggling two year olds aren't the only sprogs. Most sprogs - in my long
experience - like to load themselves into a vehicle. The extra height of a

Yup, ours load and unload themselves - can't manage the seat belts /
harnesses though.

high modern vehicle makes it more difficult for them. We have a son who has
one, his daughters have to climb, inelegantly, into the back. They're far
too big to be lifted by their parents.

Once they get to that size, I doubt it matters much... they seem pretty
keen of climbing anything anywhere ISTM ;-)

Is that your experience - or what you imagine to be the case?

Not tried it personally with an off roader, although I have tried it with
a friends Renault Scenic. It does actually help... (although not enough to
make me want a diesel Renault!) ;-)


It wasn't an advantage when we had children and a Thames. We had to lift the
small ones in. The bigger ones used the step. Of course, we didn't have

That was Ford's small van before they introduced the transit IIUC?

child seats in those days (works of the devil) but in any case it was easy

Having child seats or not having them?

And how many can - in any vehicle, of either sex (or none)?

Statistically speaking probably none of us if being totally honest. Some
are obviously more aware of these things than other though.


That's not defined by sex.

Did not intend to imply it was...

There are some drivers (men and women) who seem to have little clue
about appropriate driving behaviour in reaction to different conditions.

And it's nothing to do with the type of vehicle one is driving.

It is partly - in the sense you need to be aware of any special factors
about the vehicle that will affect how it behaves should something
unexpected happen.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/