We are in a predicament where my child is about to outgrow his current seat but be too young for the next option (by best practices), and our vehicle is not ideal for most car seat installs.
I’ve been spent hours scrolling the internet trying to figure out an answer.
All I know is that I feel like a useless human being who needs a fourth degree in order to figure out how to install my children car seats or to even know which car seat I could possibly use in my vehicle. That’s what a weekend of trying to find out an answer about my car seat problem has resulted in.
Nobody will answer your question unless its easy or been done before – which leaves all the questions about big children in Sienna captain seats unanswered by anyone qualified. I could scroll for days through the questions that never got answered on 5 point seats or high back boosters in the Sienna Captain Chairs. See the head rest which needs to remain installed with a seat is leaned slightly forward and incompatible with a large amount of seats. What seats? You don’t know unless you order one and it kicks the head rest forward, or prevents an install because they don’t make lists like that or answer questions.
If people answer your question, they probably aren’t qualified to answer them – leaving me with the earnest suggestion time and time again to buy a Frontier despite that being the only seat that Tech’s actually say doesn’t work in the vehicle.
Rumour has it if you message them there might be a different answer. Because we only share the best practices 1506% of the time to the point where people begin considering financial debt by trading in a vehicle instead of just using a booster seat. Not everyone is comfortable or knows that if you message you might get a better answer for your families needs. — note the fact that there is secret information being shared behind the scenes about installation makes me even less confident about the entire car seat process.
Why should one group of people hold such strict control over the knowledge shared? How come problem solving car seat problems isn’t easily accessible?
Americans do things very differently than Canadians. The Canadian Car Seat Techs are much more into following rules from vehicle manufacturers than Americans. There are things American Car Seat Techs do that would make Canadian Car Seat Techs roll in their grave. So make sure you’re connecting with Car Seat Techs in your country.
Don’t even talk about Boosters before age 5 but also don’t talk about 5 point harnesses after age 6 – because according to car seat groups doesn’t matter your child’s weight, height, or the impossibility of finding a car seat that fits, we’ll continue to make you feel like a piece of crap that you can’t buy a new vehicle to fit the Frontier into for the next 8-10 months.
This continual rhetoric has me exhausted and feeling like an insufficient mother.
Your Vehicle Sucks and you probably don’t know it. We talk about lower anchors and other anchors. We don’t talk about seat design and how your beloved seat probably won’t fit flush against the seat like it’s supposed. We don’t talk about how the seat is supposed to fit on bench or in the captains chair. Nobody talks about how car design is setting us up for car seat install failure. Time and time again it came down to the vehicle sucking and only a few seats being compatible for a good install
How is anyone ever going to get car seat install correct in that world?
Unless you’re already immersed in the culture of car seats you wouldn’t know this. Why would any, unsuspecting person, think, hey I should see if this seat fits in the car? They don’t. Car seats are seen as universal. Something that is bound to fit in any vehicle. The packaging doesn’t specify otherwise – but perhaps it should read, “fits in Rav4 2001-2019, Odyssey, and Traverses.”
You’ll try your best but you’re always doing it wrong – are we really doom and glooming our children? If only 5% of parents are installing seats correctly, what percent of wrong is acceptable? Every little thing is overanalyzed in a car seat group, but how much of it is actually achievable in day to day?
Can you even do your best?
The world of car seats is tricky and complicated. I
It feels like you’re set up to fail.
How can we keep our kids safe when information is not easily navigated?
It’s out there – the basics.
But the more complex understanding of diagrams, language, and manuals surpasses even this college graduate.
It’s not simple. It should be simple, and there should be easier ways to navigate finding a car seat that works for your family and your vehicles.
There’s so much to learn in motherhood and I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard space. I want to do the best practice but the best practice doesn’t work for my family. The choices I have in front of me don’t feel good either way.
Maybe we’ll just take the bus everywhere and never leave the house.
Just kidding, I’m buying my kid a Clek Oobr and that’s the end of this.
It is so frustrating as a parent to learn that so many of the vehicle manufacturers out there don’t make their vehicles car seat friendly. From minivans with seating for 7 quoted everywhere but only top tethers for 3 FF carseats to things like the tilted head rests that interfere with installing a carseat.
The fact that you spent any amount of time searching out ways to keep your child harnessed means you are a good parent and doing the best you can!!
The good news is that the information CAN be accessible to all parents! That’s why CPSAC.org (Child Passenger Safety Association of Canada) exists, and that’s why I did my training to become a car seat tech and meet with parents every week to give them the hands-on knowledge they need to use their car seats in their vehicles. You’re right, it SHOULD be easier. You’re right, car seats are NOT a universal fit for all vehicles. My best advice for parents is to meet a CPST (car seat tech) in person, or chat with one directly BEFORE purchasing the next seat. I help parents prenatally to choose the right bucket seat, then help them know what to look for beyond that. But I also help parents who are at the booster stage! My life goal is to demystify car seats for people, so please, message me anytime, you know where to find me! And to find a tech near you, cpsac.org/find-a-tech
I feel the same way. I have 5 kids that I need to be in some form of restraint and even in my odyssey, I have to arrange and rearrange them to get everyone in the best possible position. My head rests get in the way so my decision was to uninstall them. Most of my seats don’t reach that high but one of them (the only one the 2 year old fits in) does. It’s not an option to buy a new seat and she dosent fit into any of the smaller more compatible seats that I own. My oldest is tall for his age but very light. He just recently met the weight requirement for a belt adjusting booster though he outgrew the maximum height requirements for his harness booster almost 2 years ago. The choice was a hard one but you just have to make the best choice for you. To be honest, I still see people driving around my town with infants in their arms or lying on the front seat and toddlers running loose in the back seats. I feel any child restraint is better than none