Comments on: Want Safe Driving? Forbid your Au Pair to use the cellphone in the car. Period. http://AuPairMom.com/want-safe-driving-forbid-your-au-pair-to-use-the-cellphone-in-the-car-ever/2008/07/01/celiaharquail/ Helping Host Parents and Au Pairs build great relationships. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:01:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Why Safety Rules Matter http://AuPairMom.com/want-safe-driving-forbid-your-au-pair-to-use-the-cellphone-in-the-car-ever/2008/07/01/celiaharquail/comment-page-1/#comment-6083 Why Safety Rules Matter Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:34:51 +0000 http://aupairmom.com/want-safe-driving-forbid-your-au-pair-to-use-the-cellphone-in-the-car-ever/2008/07/01/cvharquail/#comment-6083 [...] Want Safe Driving? Forbid your Au Pair to use the cellphone in the car. Period. Using Your Car is a Privilege, not an Entitlement: Best practices After the Car Accident: Advice on what to talk about with your Au Pair [...] [...] Want Safe Driving? Forbid your Au Pair to use the cellphone in the car. Period. Using Your Car is a Privilege, not an Entitlement: Best practices After the Car Accident: Advice on what to talk about with your Au Pair [...]

Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0

]]> By: cvh http://AuPairMom.com/want-safe-driving-forbid-your-au-pair-to-use-the-cellphone-in-the-car-ever/2008/07/01/celiaharquail/comment-page-1/#comment-19 cvh Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:35:46 +0000 http://aupairmom.com/want-safe-driving-forbid-your-au-pair-to-use-the-cellphone-in-the-car-ever/2008/07/01/cvharquail/#comment-19 Your comments and extra data really help to make the point. I want to highlight your additional point too -- we should not use phones in the car simply because it's safer for <em>everyone.</em> --Thanks for the reinforcement! Your comments and extra data really help to make the point. I want to highlight your additional point too — we should not use phones in the car simply because it’s safer for everyone. –Thanks for the reinforcement!

Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0

]]> By: Bob E http://AuPairMom.com/want-safe-driving-forbid-your-au-pair-to-use-the-cellphone-in-the-car-ever/2008/07/01/celiaharquail/comment-page-1/#comment-18 Bob E Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:27:21 +0000 http://aupairmom.com/want-safe-driving-forbid-your-au-pair-to-use-the-cellphone-in-the-car-ever/2008/07/01/cvharquail/#comment-18 GREAT post! I'd especially like to echo two points. First, I think the notion that a hands-free phone is noticeably safer is ludicrous. This passage from a Malcolm Gladwell article explains why: "Talking on a cell phone and trying to drive, for instance, is not unlike trying to count passes in a basketball game and simultaneously keep track of wandering animals. "When you get into a phone conversation, it's different from the normal way we have evolved to interact," David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah, says. "Normally, conversation is face to face. There are all kinds of cues. But when you are on the phone you strip that away. It's virtual reality. You attend to that virtual reality, and shut down processing of the here and now." Strayer has done tests of people who were driving and talking on phones, and found that they remember far fewer things than those driving without phones. Their field of view shrinks. In one experiment, he flashed red and green lights at people while they were driving, and those on the phone missed twice as many lights as the others, and responded far more slowly to those lights they did see. "We tend to find the biggest deficits in unexpected events, a child darting onto the road, a light changing," Strayer says. "Someone going into your lane. That's what you don't see. There is a part of driving that is automatic and routine. There is a second part of driving that is completely unpredictable, and that is the part that requires attention." http://www.gladwell.com/2001/2001_06_11_a_crash.htm Second, I like to urge all of you not to talk and drive for a "non-au pair" reason -- it's safer for you and for everyone around you. Finally, a thought that I intend to offer gently, given that the focus of this blog is on moms. Au Pair Dads should be just as vigilant about this subject as moms are/should be. And Au Pair Dads should set an example by refraining from talking and driving not just to be a role model for the au pair, but also to be a role model for your kids! GREAT post!

I’d especially like to echo two points. First, I think the notion that a hands-free phone is noticeably safer is ludicrous.

This passage from a Malcolm Gladwell article explains why:

“Talking on a cell phone and trying to drive, for instance, is not unlike trying to count passes in a basketball game and simultaneously keep track of wandering animals. “When you get into a phone conversation, it’s different from the normal way we have evolved to interact,” David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah, says. “Normally, conversation is face to face. There are all kinds of cues. But when you are on the phone you strip that away. It’s virtual reality. You attend to that virtual reality, and shut down processing of the here and now.” Strayer has done tests of people who were driving and talking on phones, and found that they remember far fewer things than those driving without phones. Their field of view shrinks. In one experiment, he flashed red and green lights at people while they were driving, and those on the phone missed twice as many lights as the others, and responded far more slowly to those lights they did see. “We tend to find the biggest deficits in unexpected events, a child darting onto the road, a light changing,” Strayer says. “Someone going into your lane. That’s what you don’t see. There is a part of driving that is automatic and routine. There is a second part of driving that is completely unpredictable, and that is the part that requires attention.”

http://www.gladwell.com/2001/2001_06_11_a_crash.htm

Second, I like to urge all of you not to talk and drive for a “non-au pair” reason — it’s safer for you and for everyone around you.

Finally, a thought that I intend to offer gently, given that the focus of this blog is on moms. Au Pair Dads should be just as vigilant about this subject as moms are/should be. And Au Pair Dads should set an example by refraining from talking and driving not just to be a role model for the au pair, but also to be a role model for your kids!

Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0

]]>