Grandma Held for Driving with Child on Roof

Sify News ^ | 08.11.2008 | Sify News

[Coffee200am]

Marathon: Authorities say a grandmother was arrested for driving around the parking lot of a Marathon grocery store with her 3-year-old child sitting on the roof of the car.

Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to the Publix store and arrested a 54-year-old woman after she had been driving around with her three-year-old granddaughter on the roof of her car.

The grandmother was released from jail 15 hours later.

The woman said she would never let anything hurt her granddaughter. She says she was driving at "snail-speed" and holding the child's leg.

Authorities say the woman told police she was giving the child some air and letting her have fun.

She faces charges of child abuse. The child is back with her mother.

[Coffee200am]

In the 60's my grandma drove us around town without seat belts on in her yellow 58 Buick.....while she smoked Kools!

[dalereed]

In the 70s in Glendale CA, there was a wealthy shrink that drove his 3 kids around the neighborhood on the roof of his station wagon every Saturday.

How times have changed.

[devane617]

...and I bet you were slammed in the mouth a few times, as I was, when my mom would reach over while braking to keep us in the seat. Her right arm flew out automatically when her foot hit the brake. fond memories of my mom smoking tarelton cigs, and driving a 58 blu/white pontiac star chief.

[Coffee200am]

When I was little I always wanted to that.

[reagan_fanatic]

On the roof of the car? Sorry granny, fun is fun, but that was stupid. If your grip would have slipped, that kid probably would have hit the pavement, likely on her head.

I wouldn’t have jailed her, but I would have put the fear of God into her about doing stupid things like that in the future.

[kbennkc]

Holding car-sick children out the window at high speed is good training for the future years of college drunkenness . There is that disturbing cause and effect question still to be resolved however .

[Coffee200am]

Lol....Yes, I remember the “Grandma Arm Restraint” at every red light!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Child seats are only required inside the vehicle.

Case dismissed.

[Coffee200am]

She also wore white gloves...

[The Lumster]

Anybody else remember riding on the rear dashboard up against the window?

[ikka]

The Nanny-state was tough on this nanny!

[Popman]

She faces charges of child abuse.

What Grandma did was exactly smart, but it certainly wasn't child abuse, how about child endangerment?

Doesn't actual abuse need to occur to be charged with abuse.

I bet she lets her grand daughter ride her bike without a helmet too!!!

[devane617]

my mom passed last december...i would give anything to take a ride in that pontiac with my mom driving down newton rd in albany ga. we would stop by mr rudds store before we got home. she would tell me not to eat to much because supper would be ready in about an hour...

[Westlander]

Couple years ago around my house, some idiot father used his 10 year old daughter as weight to hold down a mattress on the roof of his car. Mattress flew off with the kid. Kid got splattered by a semi-truck that was driving behind dear old dad.

[TheBattman]

In the 60's my grandma drove us around town without seat belts on in her yellow 58 Buick.....while she smoked Kools!

AT least you were IN the car!

[BallyBill]

I have a 10" scar on the side of my leg from the hood ornament of a 56 Chevy. Of course I was 14 and it wasn't my grandma who slammed on the brakes while we were Hood Surfing.

35 years ago and that scar still itches when the weather gets just right.

[Coffee200am]

Sorry. My parents are still alive. I too would give anything to ride again with my parents in the 62 Chevy Impala my Dad had when I was little. Windows down....AM radio going....Moms hair 2 feet high on top of her head....going to to the Drive In or Snow Cone place...

[Popman]

Couple years ago around my house, some idiot father used his 10 year old daughter as weight to hold down a mattress on the roof of his car. Mattress flew off with the kid. Kid got splattered by a semi-truck that was driving behind dear old dad.

Normally, I would say that must be a urban legend, but after watching numerous shows where people do the absolutely stupidest things, it's hard to doubt you

[Westlander]

Inkster, MI. Middlebelt Rd. 2005

[McKayopectate]

Anybody else remember riding on the rear dashboard up against the window?

YES! I want to get a car like my dad had just so I can let my kids do that!

[Nick Danger]

I knew a kid who fell off the roof and landed under Obama's bus.

[xc1427]

Your grandmother must have not been to tough...she smoke a cigarette with filter. :)

[Coffee200am]

Lol...She did drink ice tea from a mayonnaise jar...

[xc1427]

There’s a start. Now if she would have consumed the mayonnaise through a straw....

[Coffee200am]

Lol...Actually they were Miracle Whip jars...

[tiki]

My kids didn’t tell me until they were grown but they were riding on the tailgate of their grandmother’s pick-up and she hit a bump so hard it threw them into the bed and slammed the tailgate closed. The really scary part is that she never knew it happened.

[Westlander]

[Manic_Episode]

Obligatory

[Conspiracy Guy]

It is called the hat rack. And yes I have ridden there. But I am 54 years old.

[xc1427]

She must have been an airman during WWII! That’s great! Thanks for making my day.

[fleagle]

In the early 70s my dad used to let us kids sit in the “well” behind the back seats of his white VW beetle. Being on the roof might have been a little safer.

[Grammy]

"Anybody else remember riding on the rear dashboard up against the window?"

I did that! I also remember curling up in the well of the floor of the back seat, on one side of the "hump".

[tiki]

There were 8 of us, including Mom and Dad so we rode everywhere. That’s where you rode if you wanted to sleep.

[tiki]

Lucky duck, we didn’t get radio or air conditioner because my dad said they used too much gas. We knew he was lying about the radio but he was the boss.

[HundredDollars]

Child abuse?

It sounds more like child endangerment. If I’m on the jury deciding a child abuse charge, she walks.

[maine-iac7]

Please explain

[Freedom4US]

Dad is 80 something, and I still have to remind him to crack a window when he smokes. (Yes, he should quit, right) It just doesn’t occur to him, he was a diesel sub guy in the late 40s so nothing bothers him, except cheap internet smokes, being too cheap has its downsides. (Avoid floor sweepings!)

As a child we used to take the riding lawnmower around the block and he’d let me drive, strictly speaking that isn’t “safe” but it sure was fun. His method of bicycle instruction was great, too - pull training wheels, push down hill, go for a beer. lol

[xtinct]

70s Muncie, Indiana... orthopedist drove his 8 girls to school on the back of a pick up truck... all survived...

In the case of granny and the 3 year old, a psych exam is most likely warranted.

[Manic_Episode]

That pic has been posted a thousand times at FR but it was so fitting I felt obliged to post it once again.

[devane617]

on sunday, my family would get in my dad’s 48 ford pu and go see granny. my dad, mom, and baby sister in the front, me and my brothers in the back. we would drive 23 miles on dusty, bumpy roads. we would stand up in the back, laugh and play. if that happened now, the parents would be jailed, and the kids put in child protective custody. our world has changed.

[Doomonyou]

....and I bet you were slammed in the mouth a few times, as I was, when my mom would reach over while braking to keep us in the seat. Her right arm flew out automatically when her foot hit the brake.

LOL! Been there, Done that! (In a baby blue Galaxy 500!)

[Disciplinemisanthropy]

thats the type of child abuse i could have only hoped for