I hate being that mom

[papie]

I just "schooled" Sophia's best friends' mom about carseats. 

But her DS is 2.5 and was in a backless booster.  I said "already?" and gave her "the look" like this ^o).  She was like "Well, they are big enough now, no?"

Um, no.  I told her he had to be 40 lbs minimum and ideally 4yo, but that the 40lbs was a definite requirement.  She said she will look into it and probably buy him an intermediate seat as he was too big for his convertible one.  My 5.5 yo is still in a full back booster, and I am not even anal about these things, lol. 

So I'm all "good for me!" and "I'm embarrassed to be related to me" at the same time.  It isn't the first time at daycare too, I had to explain to a mom that infant carseats should not be installed FF before. 

No flames, I hate myself too. 

[pedanticwench]

Dude, you did the right thing. Don't beat yourself up for it.

[bania]

No flames! I wouldn't be offended if I was the other mom.

But I don't have children so what do I know.

[Deleted]

People just don't know what they don't know. It's okay to educate gently.

[jacquie]

I'm sure that, if she takes the time to consider what could happen to her kiddo if she doesn't put her son in a proper seat, she will be thankful for your insight. I really think that a lot of parents just don't have a community of parents surrounding them, or they don't educate themselves properly, so they honestly aren't aware of some of the requirements. It's unfortunate. The other day, I saw two adults and two small children riding in a pickup truck. Neither of the children were in seats. One wasn't even buckled. In the front seat of a truck. It made me sad.

[iamgrace]

I had to show my sister how to properly put her 13 week old into his carseat a few weeks ago. The straps were super loose and the buckle was down by his belly button, and she had no intention of tightening them or anything. She got pissed at me because she thought I was going to "hurt" him. Uh, no. I'm sure she's back to doing it wrong, but at least I tried.

[papie]

May 22, 2013 17:17:50 GMT -5 iamgrace said:

I had to show my sister how to properly put her 13 week old into his carseat a few weeks ago. The straps were super loose and the buckle was down by his belly button, and she had no intention of tightening them or anything. She got pissed at me because she thought I was going to "hurt" him. Uh, no. I'm sure she's back to doing it wrong, but at least I tried.

I hear ya! 

Our youngest is 2.5 FFS, and I STILL have to check every time DH puts her in the carseat because the straps are never tight enough.  Wouldn't he have learned something over the last 5.5 years??

[definitelyO]

somebody had to say something and as long as you said it nicely (like it sounds like you did) and not judgey then you're good. My 7yr old is still in a high back booster.

[imojoebunny]

As the mom of a 37 pound 7 year old, still in a 5 point, I have explained this to many, many people. I have DD for context, so that helps. I say, "I can't wait for DD to be in a booster, but she doesn't weigh 40 pounds.". if they have questions, they can ask, of not, well, it is their kid, and legally, they can do it at 30 pounds here, or whatever the lowest weight booster they can find says. I am no saint about it. I let dd ride in a booster to and from school when we have another child, but it is about 1/2 mile, and the average speed is less than 19 miles an hour.

[cleo29]

May 22, 2013 16:58:03 GMT -5 papie said:

I just "schooled" Sophia's best friends' mom about carseats. 

But her DS is 2.5 and was in a backless booster.  I said "already?" and gave her "the look" like this .  She was like "Well, they are big enough now, no?"

Um, no.  I told her he had to be 40 lbs minimum and ideally 4yo, but that the 40lbs was a definite requirement.  She said she will look into it and probably buy him an intermediate seat as he was too big for his convertible one.  My 5.5 yo is still in a full back booster, and I am not even anal about these things, lol. 

So I'm all "good for me!" and "I'm embarrassed to be related to me" at the same time.  It isn't the first time at daycare too, I had to explain to a mom that infant carseats should not be installed FF before. 

No flames, I hate myself too. 

I saw a car at a stop sign with an infant seat forward facing. I did a double take thinking I must not be seeing what I was seeing.

[Redpoppy]

I have DS in a Frontier w/ harness, but have a high back booster we use on vacation and when we bring his friend along. He's over 40 lbs, I just prefer him in a 5 point. I specifically make him sit in the booster when his friend comes because his friend is maybe 32 pounds. His mom went to buckle him in DS's car seat this weekend and she mentioned she had him in a booster in her car because he was no longer comfortable in his convertible car seat. I said something about thinking it was 40 lbs, but maybe it was 30, but DS was too wiggly so we upgraded to a larger 5 point. They will both be turning 5 in August.

Then we went for ice cream and drove separately. I noticed she had a car seat for her son and she said her husband just bought it. I sat in her car for a minute and looked back and saw that her other's son's infant seat was in the middle and at a weird angle. This car barely has a middle. It was totally loose and angled to the side since the older son's car seat was on the side. I could move it with a light push of my finger. I spent the next couple minutes til she came back trying to think of a nice way to bring it up. All I could think of was asking her if it was buckled in the middle and she said they had to move it there when they had to drive her MIL over the weekend, but that she thought it fit better squeezing an adult in the middle.

It was the worst car seat install I've ever seen but I don't know how to bring it up to her. It was also in her husband's car. The only thing I can thing of now is name dropping the narrowest convertibles for when he moves up soon. The only narrow one I can think of is a Radian and she won't spend that sort of money.

[daisybuchannan]

May 22, 2013 17:17:50 GMT -5 iamgrace said:

I had to show my sister how to properly put her 13 week old into his carseat a few weeks ago. The straps were super loose and the buckle was down by his belly button, and she had no intention of tightening them or anything. She got pissed at me because she thought I was going to "hurt" him. Uh, no. I'm sure she's back to doing it wrong, but at least I tried.

My best friend puts her son in the carseat with the straps loose. I said something when she put him in with a coat "hey, I just read this thing that says putting them in w a coat is dangerous bc....." but I feel awkward saying "hey, he's actually not in there right" since I've already said something about the carseat before. 

Ugh, I should just say something. 

[Deleted]

My family gives me shit every time they see that E is still rear-facing. They can't believe why I would keep him that way.

[iamgrace]

May 22, 2013 19:47:37 GMT -5 @sounderschick said:

My family gives me shit every time they see that E is still rear-facing. They can't believe why I would keep him that way.

We *just* turned Henry in one of our vehicles.  He still rear faces in my car.