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It's much safer now and that's good. The only thing that bothers me is that, as in everything, there are always people interfering in what is not their business. When my oldest daughter (now 15) was a baby, we had a pickup. I did not usually drive her in it, but one day I had to do an urgent errand so I hooked up her carseat. On the way home, at a stoplight, the woman in the car next to me made frantic gestures for me to roll down my window, so I did.
"You're supposed to put your baby in the BACK SEAT!" she called.
"Um, I don't have a back seat!"
"But what about the air bag?!"
"This truck doesn't have a passenger side air bag!"
Fortunately, the light turned green then. I know, I know, that the front seat of a pickup is not the safest place for a baby, but I had made it as safe as I could and it was a necessary trip. I suppose there are many people like this woman who would say that if that's the only option, you should just stay home--but that's their opinion and they should keep it to themselves.
We only had a single cab pickup truck when our daughter was born, and we couldn't afford to buy a different vehicle, so we only took her to the doctor, to the grocery store that was a mile from the house, very short trips like that. One time we were getting gas on the way home from her doctor's appointment, where we'd found out she had to have surgery, and the man on the next pump came over and said, "You are going to kill that child riding in the front seat. People like you shouldn't be allowed to have children." I told him unless he was offering us a different vehicle, he should buttModerator cut: edit out of our lives.
Looking back, I'm sure he was speaking up out of concern for my child, but there's a way to approach someone and that wasn't it. There's also a limit to the amount of stress one person can tolerate and I was at mine already.
Last edited by Miss Blue; 12-26-2014 at 05:54 PM..
Reason: language
We only had a single cab pickup truck when our daughter was born, and we couldn't afford to buy a different vehicle, so we only took her to the doctor, to the grocery store that was a mile from the house, very short trips like that. One time we were getting gas on the way home from her doctor's appointment, where we'd found out she had to have surgery, and the man on the next pump came over and said, "You are going to kill that child riding in the front seat. People like you shouldn't be allowed to have children." I told him unless he was offering us a different vehicle, he should butt out of our lives.
Looking back, I'm sure he was speaking up out of concern for my child, but there's a way to approach someone and that wasn't it. There's also a limit to the amount of stress one person can tolerate and I was at mine already.
He sounds like he may be a poster on C-D.
Last edited by Miss Blue; 12-26-2014 at 05:55 PM..
I can remember riding in the front seat when I was 4, riding in the hatchback (no back seat) of my mom's car all through elementary, riding on my step-mom's lap in the front seat regularly, etc. Looking back, it's shocking how lax the safety was for kids in cars.
Not with my kids though. We are very stringent on our carseat rules in our home. My oldest rear-faced until 3.5 years old, stayed in a harness until 7, and now at 8 is still in a high-back booster for the foreseeable future, in the backseat. My youngest also rear-faced until 3 and is still in a harness now at age 5.
I see people we know making different choices on carseat safety all the time, but I don't say anything to them (unless they ask or something). I might make a comment to my husband, but mostly I just make a mental note not to let my kid ride with them in the future.
I think it's a good thing for sure that we know so much more now about how to keep kids safer. Even people who are not following the "best practices" are still generally doing a lot better than what was common when I was a kid.
It's been a long time since I had little kiddos that needed car seats, but I have wondered the same thing. There was no way any of mine could have rear-faced in the seats we had for more than a few months. Are the portable infant seats - the ones that come out and have the handle across the top so you can carry them - bigger now to accommodate a larger child? Aren't their legs folded up in their own laps after a few months?
In my day, you turned the infant around to forward facing (and into a bigger leave-it-in-the-car style seat) when they reached 20 pounds, which put my oldest forward facing at 4 months old.
I am glad we have them, but at the same time, they need to be easy to operate. Some of them, like the 3-point harness types, using them is like wrestling a greased pig. When my children were that age, I used the ones with 1 single latch because it was easier. Some thought I was evil because I factored convenience into the equation and thus rejected the supposedly safer 3-point harness design, but I think convenience matters too, to an extent.
As for children riding in the back of a pickup--I think it should still be legal, or there needs to be something else available just as fun (like riding on a 4-wheeler with another adult etc if you have the space). Life is supposed to be fun and adventurous as well. Think of all of those fun memories. Yes, some people died--but there is nothing on this planet that is 100% safe, other than maybe sitting in your basement and never leaving it, and I'm not sure that's 100% safe either. If you're not able to engage in adventure because "someone might die," you're pretty much dead already anyway.
It's been a long time since I had little kiddos that needed car seats, but I have wondered the same thing. There was no way any of mine could have rear-faced in the seats we had for more than a few months. Are the portable infant seats - the ones that come out and have the handle across the top so you can carry them - bigger now to accommodate a larger child? Aren't their legs folded up in their own laps after a few months?
In my day, you turned the infant around to forward facing (and into a bigger leave-it-in-the-car style seat) when they reached 20 pounds, which put my oldest forward facing at 4 months old.
Where I live, that's actually illegal. Children under one MUST be rear-faced or you can be pulled over and fined. If your child exceeds the weight or height limits on their infant seat, you're supposed to buy a convertible car seat that can both rear and forward faced.
My toddler rear-faced until she was a little over 2 years old. She has a car seat that goes up to 65 pounds forward-facing or 45 pounds rear-facing. She should be able to use it until she is 4. At that point, she'll go into the next size up seat. She'll probably be in some sort of safety seat until 8 or 9. I also don't say anything to anyone unless I see them doing something really bad (told my BFF that I wasn't riding with her if she was going to rear-face her 5 month old seeing as it's illegal). I see parent's not following car seat "rules" all the time though: children wearing puffy winter coats in their seats, loose straps, chest clip at belly button level, etc... Isn't my kid though and the parent's usually get offended if you try to tell them anything. I know I'd want someone to tell me if I was putting my kid in danger by not properly putting her in the car seat.
To answer OP's question... If I could change anything, it would probably be making the car seat laws stricter, maybe even require a brief class before leaving the hospital on how to properly put your child in the car seat. I know before I was discharged from the hospital, they had all the new moms meet in a room for a similar class about caring for your newborn and they addressed a lot of popular (bad & good) parental advice you get. It would have been easy for them to toss in a quick car seat safety demonstration.
Kids can put their feet in their mouths. Nothing wrong with staying rear-facing until age 4. They aren't squished.
my kids couldn't put their feet in their mouth until they were 4...
It kind of depends on your kid and their tolerance to staring at the back of the seat and feeling smashed. I respect people who do things safely, I think for me, and my kids, it wouldn't have worked. My kids were involved in family convos by 3 years in the car.
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