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Image by Tina Tiller, who prefers a comfortable recline.
Image by Tina Tiller, who prefers a comfortable recline.

SocietyJuly 11, 2024

Hear me out: You should drive sitting bolt upright

Image by Tina Tiller, who prefers a comfortable recline.
Image by Tina Tiller, who prefers a comfortable recline.

It’s the driving position of dorks, squares, and goodie-two-shoes, and you should adopt it.

In my family of three – boyfriend, toddler and I – we share two cars. One is a 2004 Toyota Ipsum, AKA the family wagon, containing a toddler’s chunky rear-facing car seat and enough room in the boot for strollers, bikes and toys. The other is a zippy little Honda, an A-to-B car that’s mean on gas and perfect for the solo operator that day. My boyfriend and I switch regularly between the two, depending on who has charge of our daughter.

What this means is that I am constantly entering a car to find it has been totally readjusted for another person’s comfort. I perch for a minute in a driver’s seat set too far back for my stumpy little legs to reach the pedals, seeing only an expanse of grey ceiling in the rearview mirror. These adjustments I cannot begrudge my boyfriend, for he is tall and needs to drive safely. But begrudge him I can and do the following: the driver’s seat is reclined to a leisurely 45 degree angle, which I need to crank up, every time, to my preferred position, an erect 90 degrees. 

This is always a confronting moment for me, because it marks me as a dork; a square; a goodie-two-shoes. I briefly contemplate leaving the seat in its laid-back, devil-may-care slant, as though I were Puff Daddy in a maroon convertible circa 1997. Then I lose my nerve, crank the seat bolt upright like a nana en route to church, and face the fact that, in this respect at least, I am hopelessly, painfully uncool. 

A cool but thoroughly impractical way to drive.

But the more I think about it, the more I realise mine is the correct posture, in every sense, for the roads. My boyfriend, and everyone in between, is wrong. 

The rapper lean – the one my boyfriend favours – is ultimately ridiculous. Cool as it might be to drive as though you’re sitting in a dentist’s chair, it’s not safe, even if you’re tall, because you can’t see over the steering wheel. Most people have to hunch forward to even reach it. Look, for example, at Snoop Dogg below, another fan of the deep recline. Standing at an impressive 6’3, even he needs to crane forward to rest his hands comfortably on the wheel:

Deep recline = leaning forward to reach the steering wheel. Silly!

OK, I hear you saying, I agree no one should drive with their seat reclined like a 90s rap king. But why sit at a totally neurotic perpendicular angle? What’s wrong with the comfortable 10 degree recline recommended as ergonomically ideal by esteemed medical publications like WikiHow

Listen: the 10 degree recline is a coward’s bargain. SIT UP STRAIGHT. You’re on the roads, where it’s more important to be alert than comfortable. Sitting at a perfectly erect 90 degrees, as though you were a Tibetan monk beginning his morning meditation, is the ideal posture for focused driving. Give your vital organs room to breathe; let the blood flow freely through your body; and face any potential hazards head-on. 

Is this advice based on any medical or scientific evidence? No. But I’m not appealing to the medical establishment here. I’m appealing to fundamental truths about human nature. 

The most useful quality to cultivate on the roads, aside from focus, is humility. Think of all the worst drivers you know: what they have in common is either distraction or entitlement. The woman sitting at traffic lights that turned green four seconds ago, mouth agape as she scrolls through her texts? Distracted. The guy riding up your arse on the motorway, spittle flying and neck vein bulging, furious that you cut into “his” lane? Entitled. The rubberneckers? Distracted. The people who hoon up a lane that’s ending in 200m then push back into the queue? Entitled. 

This is the key reason you should sit bolt upright, like a huge dork, in the driver’s seat: it’s one of the best ways to cultivate humility on the roads. It’s a constant reminder that you are not a 90s rap king. You are of the ilk of the grandmothers, monks, teacher’s pets, and cartoon posture guides. You are not cool, but you are safe and focused, and that is better. 

It is. The more people who deeply internalise this, the more likely it is that driving bolt upright becomes the norm, and I won’t have to undergo the minor inconvenience – and major character assassination – of adjusting my seat each day.

Thank you. *Insert cardinal two-finger wave of gratitude*

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Alice Neville
— Deputy editor
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SocietyJuly 11, 2024

Help Me Hera: How do I raise my kid to be a reader?

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Is it selfish to want your children to love the same things as you?

Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nz

Dear Hera,

As a kid, I was a voracious reader. I spent all my spare time reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. I have a few nieces who are about to be teenagers soon, and even though I’ve given them heaps of books over the years, neither of them have expressed much of an interest in reading. Which is fine! They are both beautiful and interesting people with their own weird hobbies and passions (worm farms and surfing 😂). But I can’t help feeling like they’re missing out on something!  

My partner and I are having our first baby this year and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve always talked about having a big family. Maybe it’s selfish to want your kids to love the same things as you. But I really, really want my kids to be readers. I want to share the books I loved with them, and have them love them too. But do kids even like books anymore? Am I just trying to foist my own hobbies on them? And how do I compete against the tyrant Bluey? 

A line of dark blue card suit symbols – hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades

Dear,

First of all, congratulations on your baby! 

It’s very wise and philosophical of you to acknowledge that your future children are people with their own personalities and interests. But if it’s selfish to want kids to love to read, then call me Ulf Mark Schneider, CEO of Nestlé.

There’s been a lot of panic about kids’ literacy rates in the news recently, and I don’t know what to think about it. But trying to solve the problem through rigorous standards-based assessment, while funnelling the education budget to charter schools doesn’t exactly seem like a visionary approach. Forgive me for being sentimental, but books are more than just structured literacy units for maximising phonic comprehension. Books open the door to children’s linguistic and imaginative potential. A good book can make you feel at home in the world. 

The evidence proves, again and again, that the best way to teach children to read, is to get them to love books. And the best way to get kids to love books, is to read to them. Every night, if possible. Even after they’ve learned to read, and no longer need your help. Even when they have a mortgage and a family of their own, and are working in a small rural vet practice. Make it a special routine you look forward to at the end of every day. 

If you don’t know how to read aloud to kids, don’t worry. Children are good teachers. They will let you know when they’re bored. For babies, stick to short books with noises and flaps and rhyme. (The Noisy Book by Soledad Bravi.) As they get older, it’s fun to pick something with lots of potential for interaction, or a great rhyme. Do you see where the mouse has hidden his toothbrush? Can you see the monkey in the apron? What noise does a crocodile make? (Would You Rather by John Burningham. Dazzlehands by Josh Morgan and Sacha Cotter.)

If you’re planning on having a baby shower and don’t want a thousand Scandinavian bamboo onesies or infant scalp massagers, you could ask people to bring a picture book they loved as a gift. Books are relatively inexpensive and last forever.

As your kid or kids get older, let them choose their own books. That doesn’t mean you can’t pick a few of your old favourites to read. But it should be a shared activity. Make a habit of going to the library and letting your kid borrow whatever they feel like, even if you suspect Michael Caine’s autobiography is too advanced. Make it a special outing. Take them to feed the ducks on the way home. Take turns reading to the ducks.

Don’t stop reading to your kids when they learn to read. Kids get turned away from books when books stop feeling like an escape, and begin to feel like homework. Keep up the nightly storytimes. If you want to work on their reading skills and comprehension, find another time – 10 minutes after school, say, where you read a book together. Ask them words you know they already know. Take turns reading the Elephant and Piggie books in different voices. Turn on the television subtitles (apparently). Let them read graphic novels and comics. The speech bubbles provide good clues and context for new words. 

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Calum Henderson
— Production editor

Ignore recommended reading ages. Never tell them something is too young or too old. If your seven-year-old wants to read Where the Wild Things are, let them! I’ve seen so many grandparents come to the bookshop, and try and talk their beloved grandchild out of buying the latest Captain Underpants in favour of Wild Fang. If you want them to love Wild Fang, you better read it to them yourself, and howl at appropriate intervals. Only being able to read developmentally appropriate books is boring. If your child is having nightmares about plane crashes, it makes sense to keep Hatchet by Gary Paulsen on a high shelf. But any book that gets a child interested in reading is a good book, even if that book is ‘Terrible Tales of Medieval Torture’ or ‘Even MORE Facts About Hammerhead Sharks!’ 

Going on a long car trip? Get an audiobook and listen to it together. Let your kid have extended bedtimes if they are reading. Pretend not to notice. Let your children see you read, and that reading is not just for children. 

And talk to a bookseller or librarian! The best part of the job is trying to find a book for a fussy child, with a fervent passion for scarecrows or ladybirds. Or even the “tyrant Bluey”. 

There’s a beautiful and entertaining book by Daniel Pennac called Rights of the Reader, which might be of interest to you. But as long as you’re introducing your kid to a steady diet of books, and having a nice time together, you have nothing to worry about. 

I also don’t think you shouldn’t give up on your almost-teenage nieces yet! The transition from children’s fiction to the YA section can be startling. But there must be some good books about worm farming and surfing out there. Please leave any suggestions in the comments below. Sometimes all it takes is the right book at the right time.

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