'It's incredibly unsafe and illegal to have a baby in the front seat like that': 24-year-old drive-thru worker confronts customer with baby in front seat with no car seat, mom claims she did it because the baby was crying

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
May 24, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

A lot of drivers are all too willing to break the rules of the road if they feel like they can get away with it. I don't really understand why you would drive without a seatbelt or refuse to use your blinker, even if you don't technically feel like you need them in that moment. Maybe I just really internalized the Driver's Ed safety propaganda that was drilled into my head when I was 15, but I know that a car accident can happen anywhere at any time and with anybody. It doesn't matter if you're on a remote country road without another soul in sight: you still need to wear your seatbelt because you can get into an accident all on your own. You need to wear your seatbelt if you're only driving across the street to another parking lot. Being momentarily uncomfortable is much better than injuring yourself and others irreversibly. 

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  • It's one thing to risk your life with unsafe driving, but it's extremely selfish and stupid to neglect to follow car safety rules when your children are in the car. The mom in this story was totally blasé about her baby being in the front seat, and got annoyed when the drive-thru worker called her out. 

  • 01
    DRIVE THRU
    via Zack Yeo

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    AITA for telling a mother that having a baby in the passengers seat without a car seat is dangerous?

    So I (24f) work at starbucks and yesterday a woman pulled up to the drive thru window with a baby sitting in the passengers seat without a car seat. I asked her if the baby had a car seat and she said "yeah but he was crying when I put him in it." Her drinks were still being made so I stepped away to calm down.
    via u/Willing_Path6224
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    Cheezburger Image 10508161536
    via Vladyslav Melnyk

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    When I handed her the drinks | said "Its incredible unsafe and illegal in ohio to have a baby in the front seat like that." She just looked ped and rolled her eyes as she drove away. I was at work so maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut?
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    Cheezburger Image 10508162304
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 06
    Tanyec NTA. If you have her license plate and a spare minute I'd consider calling the cops. It only takes one sudden jolt of that car for the baby to get seriously injured or worse. Doesn't need an accident. Just a slightly more sudden than average brake.
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  • 07
    Rdbjiy53wsvjo7 I've made those calls before, saw a toddler climbing around in the back seat, clearly not in a restraint, the operator was very fast to send a cop looking for them. Even if the driver was the safest, you can't account for other's drivers stupidity.
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 08
    liltrex94 ANYTHING can happen with a baby or toddler not strapped in. But I will disagree with the last sentence, if the person driving was the safest, the baby/toddler/child would already be strapped in. I know it isn't the point you were trying to make, because a baby can be strapped on and the driver being the most responsible person ever and can still be hit by a less responsible driver. Whenever I get in the car with my sister and my 3yo neices I am on high alert as a passenger. They're str
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  • 09
    Mindless_Giraffe4559 NTA ...I come from a generation where you left the hospital with your newborn in your arms in the front seat. In fact a nurse usually put them there. We have a lot of rules and regulations now and most of them for good reason. Hopefully this mother won't learn that lesson the hard way.
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  • 10
    trekqueen Yea my dad is a boomer, born in 1948. He mentioned that he flew out of the car on the highway when he was maybe 3-4yrs old cuz he was futzing around with the door and also had no seatbelt. Obviously lived but he did get busted up a bit.
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  • 11
    ThisOneForMee I saw someone on Twitter the other day present a study called "Car Seats as Contraception" which concluded 140 baby births were prevented for every 57 lives saved by car seats. The logic is that most normal cars can't fit 3 carseats, therefore there is a large economic barrier to having a 3rd child, and people are not having the 3rd child which they otherwise would've if there were no carseat laws. The poster was advocating for less child safety laws, because it just makes having c
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 12
    Traveller13 You have to wonder about someone who values the possibility of more babies being born over the safety of actual living babies.
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  • 13
    MyFaceSaysItsSugar Now they will not let you leave the hospital with a child unless they're put into an age-appropriate car seat. My sister had to deal with a lot of angry parents when she worked in anesthesia recovery because she had to send them to get an appropriate car seat.
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  • 14
    Snurgisdr NTA for telling her. YWBTA if you didn't call the cops on her. That kid's life was in danger.
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  • 15
    DjQball When I was a drive thru jockey at starbucks nearly 20 years ago, I had a shift lead who used to call the nonemergency line for every unharnessed kid. NTA.
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  • 16
    msbrooklyn Although I wholeheartedly agree with children need to be in the backseat and with an appropriate restraint I feel like it is possible it was temporary for some of those kids. Of course if there is no car seat in the back at all then yeah 100% but I've had my kids in the front seat while in the drive through if it was taking a long time. Then we park, eat and back in the seat you go! It's a bit much to always assume they're actually driving like that, of course some people do. It is da
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 17
    roo-bear-root-beer This! When a kid is miserable in their car seat, it's fine to let them out if you're parked in a parking lot. Drive thrus are barely different from a parking lot. In my area they're always in parking lots, they're isolated from the road, and people drive super slowly in them.
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 18
    I think the most likely scenario is that mom pulled into the drive-thru line with kid screaming, put the car in park, unbuckled the kid, and the kid climbed out of their seat. Then the drive thru line moved so the mom pulled forward about 20ft at about 4mph, then put the car in park again. Repeat. Then she got to the window, did her stuff, and got lectured on safety standards she was already well aware of. So she pulled out of the line (going maybe 10mph because of the stress), parked the
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 19
    car in a parking spot, and turned the car off. Then she and kid sat there for a bit consuming the drive thru stuff, with mom trying to calm her kid before they had to get back in their car seat to drive off. Then mom buckled the kid back in safely before turning the car back on and leaving the parking spot/parking lot.
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 20
    SGTPepper 1008 NTA. I'm a mandatory reporter and I would absolutely be calling the cops with her car description and plate number. That baby could di on the way home. That is INSANE. Yeah, babies cry. It's still a parent's job to keep them safe.
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 21
    chartyourway Maybe don't go to Starbucks if your baby is too upset to ride in the car? Priorities seem out of line.
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 22
    Bizlbop NTA but.... If you are on the clock a comment like that could cost you your job. You're better off just getting the license plate number and calling the cops and let them deal with it.
    via u/Willing_Path6224
  • 23
    rrodrick386 As an employee you can sadly get in trouble for this as Starbucks s ks a . They wrote me up for going to my boyfriend's funeral and for explaining frappuccino's to somebody. The correct thing to do would be to call the police, because she is endangering a child. NTA
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  • 24
    camiblabla NTA, You can Only imagine how many people with babies and small children actually follow the correct use of the car seat when they DO have one. I'm always very surprised when I see all my friends having their kids younger than 4-5 facing forward. I can't Say anything though... People prefer to be offended, lose a friendship and get angry than admit they're wrong and protect their children. Some people are really not well informed.
    via u/Willing_Path6224

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