My Car Seat Heads Off to a New Home

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

Just two days ago, I asked you to help me find a deserving home for my overpriced, top-of-the-line car seat. I got about 15 emails almost immediately, with suggestions ranging from “Sell it on Craigslist” to “I think my girlfriend is pregnant and we’d like to save a few bucks.”

One of the emails stood out as the immediate and obvious winner.


This isn’t an “Ask Jack” so I’m not going to cut-and-paste the communication here. I can, however, give you the details. I was contacted by a mother of teenage children who met a fellow recently, got pregnant, and had the dad skip out on her before she delivered the child. She’d long since gotten rid of her existing kid infrastructure because she thought she’d never need it again.

“I don’t want to start a pity party for myself,” she stated, “but I could use some help.” She included a few pictures of her new son. I think the little fellow deserves the very best child seat out there so I’m shipping it to her tomorrow.

I could go on at this point about how our society should do a lot more for women who make the difficult choice to have children under the current economic and social conditions, but given that half of my readers think I’m a neo-Nazi and the other half think I’m Bernie Sanders with long hair I doubt it would result in much of a productive discussion.

I remain thankful for the fact that my son was born under the protection of an old-style “Cadillac insurance policy” that allowed him to survive, and thrive, despite being just three pounds at his birth. I’m thankful that I had the wherewithal and the sense to put him in a decent child seat for the day he needed it. And I’m thankful that he survived the circumstances of his birth and a near-fatal car crash to become a friendly, malice-free eight-year-old who likes racing his Birel go-kart and jumping his BMX bike and sleeping untroubled nights with a full tummy in a house where nobody is drunk or angry or dangerous. I would like to see every other child in this country grow up with those same underrated advantages.

Have a great day, everybody. I’m off to drive a ZX-14-powered dune buggy around a racetrack or something like that.

[Image: Honda/ YouTube]

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Felix Hoenikker Felix Hoenikker on Sep 28, 2017

    Well done Jack. I used to sell household furnishings, bicycles, kids toys, etc for a few bucks, but now I just give anything in good condition that we don't need to Goodwill or other local charities. It's more important to me that someone in need benefits than me making a few bucks on these items that I really don't need.

  • Dave M. Dave M. on Sep 29, 2017

    Well done Jack.

  • El scotto UH, more parking and a building that was designed for CAT 5 cable at the new place?
  • Ajla Maybe drag radials? 🤔
  • FreedMike Apparently this car, which doesn't comply to U.S. regs, is in Nogales, Mexico. What could possibly go wrong with this transaction?
  • El scotto Under NAFTA II or the USMCA basically the US and Canada do all the designing, planning, and high tech work and high skilled work. Mexico does all the medium-skilled work.Your favorite vehicle that has an Assembled in Mexico label may actually cross the border several times. High tech stuff is installed in the US, medium tech stuff gets done in Mexico, then the vehicle goes back across the border for more high tech stuff the back to Mexico for some nuts n bolts stuff.All of the vehicle manufacturers pass parts and vehicles between factories and countries. It's thought out, it's planned, it's coordinated and they all do it.Northern Mexico consists of a few big towns controlled by a few families. Those families already have deals with Texan and American companies that can truck their products back and forth over the border. The Chinese are the last to show up at the party. They're getting the worst land, the worst factories, and the worst employees. All the good stuff and people have been taken care of in the above paragraph.Lastly, the Chinese will have to make their parts in Mexico or the US or Canada. If not, they have to pay tariffs. High tariffs. It's all for one and one for all under the USMCA.Now evil El Scotto is thinking of the fusion of Chinese and Mexican cuisine and some darn good beer.
  • FreedMike I care SO deeply!
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