The Official Shotgun Rules

By Miss Cellania in Everything Else on Nov 4, 2009 at 10:39 pm

I have four kids who all want to sit in the front passenger seat as I drive. There is an elaborate set of rules they must follow to decide who gets the honor of “riding shotgun”.

You must say the word “Shotgun” to stake your claim on Shotgun. This must be done clearly and loud enough so that at least one other to-be occupant of the vehicle can hear you. No variations of this word are acceptable. After you have rightfully called Shotgun, you have exclusive rights to Shotgun for that ride. However, if no one hears you call Shotgun it is still fair game for everyone.

But that’s just the beginning! There are many more rules to learn, such as the importance of having your shoes on when you yell “Shotgun!” and the crucial “hand on the door” rule. Link -via Bits and Pieces

Tags: front seat, passenger seat, shotgun

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C.F.
Nov 4th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
We have a rule concerning the radio. The driver always gets control of the radio. Everyone else already has their own music player in our car. The driver doesn’t have that benefit in order to be safe.
pwscott
Nov 4th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I just put both kids in the back so there would be no fighting. Then they fought over which side.
Crazyhorse
Nov 5th, 2009 at 12:15 am
I had not tried this kind of game when I was young.
sky
Nov 5th, 2009 at 1:13 am
I always like the chauffeur rule. If one player calls shotgun another eligible shotgun player may call chauffeur in order to force both he and the shotgun caller into the back seat leaving shotgun open for another. This rule is awesome when there is only 3 passengers because the front seat remains open making it appear as though the driver is a chauffeur.
Tim Giachetti
Nov 5th, 2009 at 2:26 am
I thought the only “shotgun” rule was:

“He who has the shotgun rules!”
Skipweasel
Nov 5th, 2009 at 3:05 am
“Are we nearly there yet?”

We put a stack of 10p coins on the dashboard. Every time the kids are annoying on a long journey we take one away. Whatever’s left at the end they split between them. It rarely amounts to more than a pound, but when they see “their” money vanishing they suddenly stop poking each other.
Fran
Nov 5th, 2009 at 10:43 am
We didn’t have money on the dash, but our dad would offer us coin for the first sighting of a particular type vehicle going in the opposite direction. It was always a different car (whatever he could think of). One time he offered $100 to the first one to spot a Stanley Steamer. None of knew what this was, but we were quiet for some time eagerly looking for something that fit the description. We were very young.
Lewen
Nov 5th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Kids don’t belong in the front seat period.
Air bag will break their little spines.

I told my neices no one under 16 in the front seat.
Johnny Cat
Nov 5th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Instead of “shotgun,” we call “Chewbacca,” as in the movie Fanboys.
Miss Cellania
Nov 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Lewen has a point. I didn’t let my kids ride in the front until they were 5 feet tall. My husband’s vehicle does not have air bags.
Ali S.
Nov 5th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Back when I used to live in residence the guys I used to live with would have a rule where when two or more of you call out shotgun…you drop your pants and shuffle towards the car. The first one who makes it to the car wins the seat. Of course, we learned the hard way not to do this in public and only on campus where one doesn’t think much about 4 guys shuffling towards a car with their pants around their ankles.
johnnybluejeans
Nov 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Wow, fun how we all have our own interpretations. For my group of friends in high school it was simple. If indoors, when the driver said “Let’s go” then shotgun may be called. If we were returning from a movie or somewhere outside, shotgun could be called once the car was visible.
Seattle
Nov 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Other spots in the car have names too. “Cobain” is the rear seat on the passenger side (behind the shotgun).
Skipweasel
Nov 5th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Lewen – not all of us have passenger-side airbags. Hey – I got my first car with an airbag only five years ago.

The UK has rules about kids in front seats…
http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/law/index.htm
Luvneatorama
Nov 5th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
In our family, with 4 girls, we traveled by car on our annual vacations. We only got to go shotgun if we could navigate. All four of us now have excellent map reading skills (we never get lost).

During my first shotgun, at about 12 yrs, my Dad was pulling a trailer, and I had to navigate Hwy 101 through San Francisco. Yikes!!!! I think we made it through without intervention from my mother (the official family navigator.)

FYI Hwy 101 through San Francisco is a maze of one-way streets.
Skipweasel
Nov 6th, 2009 at 3:21 am
When we used to drive round France in the late 60s early 70s Dad used to sit me down with a map the night before and tell me our objective for the next day – and I had to get us there. He taught me how to orient the map and how to make route cards, but if I told him a wrong turn he’d take it and just keep going until I noticed we weren’t hitting villages in the right order and then I had to fix it on the fly.
Buffalo Bob
Nov 17th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Plain and simple, I carry a silver dollar in my pocket. I have two teenagers and they constantly fight for the front seat. So the simple thing to do is flip the coin. Looser of the last toss gets to call it.
If they fight while driving they both get evicted to the back seat and i sit up there alone. Cures the fight very quickly.
Sucks on a long trip but hey, live and learn…

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