I spent a half hour wrestling a car seat this afternoon.
I am sweaty, exhausted and LIVID! I want to hurt the people that manufacture these awful contraptions! And the beaurocrats that require them!! Of course it goes without saying that I don't mind that if we're hit by a train, my children will most likely not suffer catastrophic injury, BUT STILL!!!
Can't we have it both ways? Can't we have our children safe and not be completely and utterly inconvenienced at every turn? Why can't the car manufacturers figure out a way to put safe, child-friendly seating in their vehicles? A pull down seat, like a pull down armrest, only with a five point harnass? Is that too much to ask?
My car is in the shop this week, courtesy of an autodoor malfunction caused by yours truly. My mom was kind enough to let us use her Toyota Highlander, which drives like a DREAM if you're interested. But it's about as big inside as a Camry with an extra jump seat - you can't fit my mammoth Britaxes, plus children and gear. So for the first time I let the big guy sit without his booster seat. At 8 years old and 55 pounds, he's met the age requirement for booster free riding, but has 15 more pounds to gain before he meets the weight requirement. Miss M is technically old enough for a booster, but is oodles safer in her Britax. So she used the booster for the first time, and the little guy rode in Nana's good old Eddie Bauer car seat.
Oh my HEAD! It was SO MUCH EASIER!!! The two oldest were able to get themselves in and out in a flash, and there was so much ROOM without those ginormous Boulevards taking up the whole middle row! The kids felt like FREEDOM was theirs for the taking.
Life was good.
I'll get my car back this afternoon and LATCH (no really, it's an acronym, as well as a verb) the car seats back in, putting the children back in their safety prisons. Why? Read one story about children being internally decapitated by a parent not heeding best practices and you'll understand. How can you NOT, when your child's life and limb are at stake. But if I added up all the time I have spent as a parent
- latching car seats in to cars
- buckling and unbuckling children into car seats
- wrestling screaming toddlers who don't WANT to be buckled into their car seats
- listening to crying, screaming infants/toddlers/children who HATE their car seats
- worrying to the point of NAUSEA about my crying/sreaming infants who HATE their car seats
- Pulling over to the side of the road to check on my crying/screaming infants who HATE their car seats (have I mentioned that my children as infants HATE their car seats?)
- Nearly killing us all trying to hand things to children strapped into car seats who can't reach past their knees because they are tethered within an inch of their life
- Dismantling/Washing/Rebuilding car seats that have been pooped on, peed on, puked on or jacked up from a snacking mishap
If I added up all that time? It would be CONSIDERABLE. I'm thinking with three kids and 8 years of mothering, I've spent at least a year of my life dealing with car seat issues alone. (have I mentioned I'm prone to exaggeration?) But still! It is a nuisance, a bother, a blood pressure roller coaster, a HUGE expense, not to mention a pain in the NECK! And a pain in the BACK if you've ever fought with a car seat in your mother in law's new Ford microcar, like I just did.
And because the headrests in said car are not removeable? There was no way to tighten the top LATCH enough to keep the car seat from moving less than one inch side to side (you know, the golden rule of "is your car seat in right?"). I should have just used the extra booster seat. Would have saved a whole lotta cursing under my breath! Not to mention I might have been WAY more productive in the last hour with the little guy napping and the two olders with Nannie.
Okay, maybe not, but a girl can dream can't she?
No comments:
Post a Comment