The Car Seat Taboo

Palin is back among us not only as a God-loving runner (is that a strange shot with the flag, or what?) but also as a hard-charging mama bear. In Todd Purdham's Vanity Fair profile, which Dayo and Jess dissected earlier this week, are new tidbits about Troopergate, Palin's corrupt-seeming axing of Walt Monegan, who was Alaska's head of the Department of Public Safety. My favorite: Twelve days before he was fired, Monegan sent Palin an e-mail telling her that a state legislator had reported that she'd been seen driving with her baby Trig not in an "approved car seat." "I have never driven Trig anywhere without a new, approved car seat," Palin wrote back. "I want to know who said otherwise—pls. provide me that info now." For me, the most interesting thing about Palin (and yes there is lots to choose from) is her success in forthrightly making sexy motherhood the core of her image. The Runner's World spread misfires because it makes her seem ever more lightweight, and also vain. But the car seat story resonates. Oh, the shame of ever driving a child anywhere without one. What mother accused of such sin wouldn't want revenge on the tale-bearer?

Photo by Getty Images.

Tags: car seat, Sarah Palin, Vanity Fair

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Emily Bazelon is a founding editor of Double X, and a writer and editor at Slate.

Comments

Carseat hysteria

By: geml | Thu, 07/02/2009 - 12:45

I'm waiting for the pre-teen version to come, complete with make up kits and video games attached to the arms with washable velcro. After all, we need to "protect the children" and isn't it always "better safe than sorry."

Sorry is right....I'm not saying that carseats aren't a necessary part of young childhood (mine always used them, and no exceptions were made), but we've made them less about keeping children safe and flaunting ourselves as "good" parents far greater and far longer than has any bearing of these seats in reality.

Question about the pic of Palin linked to in article:

By: WSLers | Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:11

What is she holding in her left hand? At first I thought she was holding a wallet open to flash some ID, but that's not it. Is it a cameraphone, or digital camera?

I've had my kid not in a car

By: mary jane | Thu, 07/02/2009 - 07:44

I've had my kid not in a car seat. Try as you might to always have a car seat with you, sometimes you miss the last train and have to pack the stroller into the trunk of a friend's car and get in the back seat with the baby.

Car seat mania!

By: KJ Dell Antonia | Thu, 07/02/2009 - 06:57

My theory on the car seat? Invented by someone who took one look at their evil 2-year-old bouncing around like mad in the back, standing on his or her head and trying to crawl into the front constantly and thought "Damn--if only I had something I could strap that kid into." Because there's no better restraining device out there, and I know plenty of parents--me included--who love no sound more than the final "click" when you've wrestled in that recalcitrant child. I love car seats, and I've misused them...But I've absolutely driven without one. You could catch plenty of Brittney pics of me on our back roads...bet the same could be said of Palin, and for that, I can't say I blame her. There are times when i don't need the nanny state, and one of them is when I'm driving up my driveway.