Am I the only weirdo without spare car seats?

[keri1292]

We don't have spares. Not a one. That's the main reason that I got hooked on Britax. If it installs in 30 seconds, why buy 2? Obviously, this system only works if you're the main transporter of the child. I'm a stay-at-home mom and dh takes the van whenever he takes the kids (which is rare ~ we're an altogether kind of family) so, we've only owned...
1 Cosco Eddie Bauer infant seat (with a rear adjuster!!!:mad: )
1 Graco Snug Ride
1 Britax Roundabout
2 Britax Marathons
1 Britax Husky
For 3 kids! Not bad, eh? :cool:

ETA: Oops! Forgot the Roundabout. I love that seat!

[TxMomma]

We don't have any spares right now, we (dh lol) have been thinking about getting Recaro's for his car but I'm pretty sure we can't get 3 across in there. If doubt we ever get seats for his car, like ya'll we go everywhere together. So for us it's not really a neccessity.

[Susan in MI]

I like to have spares for two reasons:

1. If we get in a crash, I want a different seat now, I don't want to wait for my replacement to bought by insurance. And,

2. We have a narrow driveway and a single car garage. Our van, primary kid vehicle, is parked in the garage with dh's car in the drive in front of the garage. When dh is home, we have to play musical cars to go anywhere if the kids are going or we have to transfer seats frequently which is not fun even if you do have Britax. Technically, we are not allowed to park in front of our house, so one of us has to pull dh's car out while the other pulls out the van, then the first person pulls dh's car into the garage and we can leave. Reverse the process when we get home, or on Sunday, if it happens to be the weekend and we want the van accessable for a few days. It gets old. I do like having a second set of seats so we can all just hop in dh's car and go without all the fanfare.

[LuvBug03]

we didnt have any spares until I decided to go back to school/work. Then I needed mom to have a seat in her car and one in mine. I got a laptop until I could figure out what else might work with her forward fo the bite seatbelts, and after saving up I got a regent for her. Then I had the laptop left as a spare lol! He is in both our cars an equal amount of time, so I consider both those seats main seats lol! but the laptop is just a spare.

[natysr]

I have a seat in each of my cars. One a marathon, one a boulevard. I guess we are just too lazy to switch the seats out on the weekend. We car pool, so our SUV is only used on the weekends.

I think when we were first going to convertibles, I didn't realize that Britaxes were so easy to install, and it just made sense to have one in each car. I originally got the roundabout for my car...that was a baby shower gift. (I wasn't thinking about expiration back then...new mom mistake) Doesn't matter anyway, that one got crashed.

For a seat for our SUV, I picked out the Combi Victoria. At the time, that was the only seat that would recline FF independend of the belt path. I liked that idea, especially for long road trips. Well, that seat is pretty big and heavy. It sits on a really big base.

Anyway, about in the spring of this year it occurred to me that Jordan would probably outgrow the seat by height RF and by the time we would switch it to FF, he may be too tall for it FF and we may never get to use the recline on the fly feature. I also started to become uncomfortable with the seat because it has no EPS foam. So, we bought a boulevard for that car, and the Combi is sitting in the garage as a spare. So, I guess I'm saying that I didn't buy a spare on purpose.

On a plus side, the spare seat is pretty wide and can be used as a chair because it supports itself. I put it in the middle of the drive way for Jordan to sit in and eat a snack while we work on the yard etc. I can even fit in it, and it is pretty comfy.

[southpawboston]

we don't have any spares. we have one car. however, we do have two carseats installed in MIL's car for when we're at the inlaws. so one might consider those to be "spares"... i don't.

[AdventureMom]

No spares here, either. One Britax Marathon that goes in and out of a Jeep Wrangler and a Toyota Sienna. We have a Britax Monarch in the inlaws' car...

[chaoticoctopus]

We have only one vehicle to transport children, so generally no spares. Right this moment though I have an extra convertible (AOE 3-in-1) sitting around since the 2nd Radian came...

[twom]

We do have "spares" because our main seats are Huskies. Not only are they huge to move, but the other people they occasionally ride with (grandparents) don't have tether anchors. So we have a Laptop and a Turbo that stay in dh's car in case of emergency, and then can be pulled out to use in other vehicles on the rare occasions they ride with someone else.

By early next year we should have two Parkways to replace our current "spares" though. DD will be outgrowing her Husky by then, so we'll have a Husky in each car for DS and a Parkway in each car for DD, and then each kid can use one of the Parkways when they need to ride with someone else.

[wondering1]

I don't have any spares but I may get the Graco Air Booster with the coupon I have for Amazon (from doing a baby shower wish list). That'll make a nice spare and I may use it for after a plane trip we are planning.

I have one child, swap cars for people taking care of my child and have only owned two car seats ever. My child will be 5 soon!

[becca011906]

well i have two spares sitting in the closet right now but i want to get rid of them... the uptown and the scenera ... I also have moved the turbo into grandma's car as her spare b/c all she had was a backless booster and Austin's ears were getting close to the hump head rests in her car so she needed a HB in there for austin and abby. She also has a cenerty seat that allie has about 1/2" left before it's out grown so i'm temped to keep the uptown for her to use but then again the FPSVD is so easy to put in i don't mind using it either..
We have two cars that we use about 70/30 ... i just move the seats, it's a radain wich installs in about 3 min with LATCH in both, and the FPSVD wich is about the same, then the parkway I can trust dh to move himself! LOL :)

[tumblebug]

I have many spares becauses I have been a nanny of children ranging from 6 wks to 5 years, I also have 3 nieces that I drive around occasionally ranging from 20 months to 5 years. I keep them all because I can use them all as the younger ones get older.

Currently I have:

a graco snugride
An evenflo something that I just junked because it expires the end of this month
An evenflo chase booster
A cosco scenera
A cosco highback booster
A britax Marathon and A britax Boulevard (that is on the way) which I bought to replace the scenera and evenflo

Often times when my nieces are here my mom will take them places as well so I like to install seats in her car because it's a pain to remove and install them just because they want to go to the store a few blocks away and I don't want her driving my car :p I also have a new niece or nephew on the way and hope to be replacing the snugride with a SS1, also saving for a regent so I can junk the highback booster. Also none of the cars except mine have LATCH so it's a blood/sweat and tears install every time ;)

They definalty take up a lot of storage space but I don't mind as long as the kids can be safe when they are here (and they are here A LOT) besides the britax seats I've only spent $30-$50 on the first five seats which isn't a huge amount.

My sister is sick a lot and they only have one car, so when her husband is at work he has the car with the carseats so a lot of times I will have to drive my car out there to pick up the kids. I don't regret any of my carseat purchases!

-A Kidless, kid loving Auntie/Nanny

[Mama2J]

We don't have any spares. Besides the Regent we are currently using, we've had one infant seat and one convertible seat. There is a Cosco harness booster installed in my husband's truck, but we hardly ever use it and not sure if he still fits the harness. I try not to let him ride in other cars, unless I can install the Regent in it.

[skipspin]

Are the only spares if they aren't instllaed in a vehicle?
We have three vehicles, two kids, and therefore 6 seats. ((eek))
I would only have 5, but I have a second infnat seat that's about to expire that I can use if I need to.

The Britax are easy to move, but NOT in a lifted wrangler when the seat has to be in RFing and the top is on. I did it for a year for DD, and I'm glad I don't have to move it now.

DDs Radian isn't the easiest to move since it's installed with the seatbelt.

I'll have a true spare when DD hits 40 lbs. I'm not going to use her Chase as a booster, and DS won't be FFing for a while, so unless I get sick of it and give it away it will be relegated to the attic, or maybe aunt's car for emergencies.

[hsjwmom]

I have a TB and Bodyguard for dds to use in dh's Explorer. Dd1's Regent is too big to be transferring back and forth and dh generally doesn't want to wait on me reinstalling the MA (even though it IS a snap, I usually don't feel like doing it either!). It has come in handy to have the boosters when dh had to take my van at the last minute...

[twokidstwodogs]

I have spares because DD#1 outgrew the Roundabout right when she turned 3. So we bought Marathons, but kept the Roundabouts because I love them and they aren't yet expired. DD#2 will go back in the Roundabout once she's FF, though I expect her to grow out of it long before she's ready for a booster.

So here's what I have in the basement:
2 Roundabouts with 30 lb RF limits, lying in wait until DD is FF.
One extra B510, from when Compass sent me a new (!) one after we broke the EPS foam on ours
One Turbobooster, bought before I realized how much nicer the B510 is
One Safeguard GO, bought for travel, but not used very much as DD#1 outgrew it too quickly. Maybe it will get used again.

[Melizerd]

I own one seat. Only one, no spare no second car even.

[stayinhomewithmy4]

We have spares (a Touriva, Radian, and a Protek HBB) but I don't really think of them as spares because they're for my daycare kids. They're sort of like spares because they don't get used all that regularly, but when they do get used, it isn't usually for my own kids, which means that they're not actually spare seats. I do call them my 'spare seats' though!

[SingleMomTo2Girls]

I don't really have a spare right now. My Scenera is loaned out which just leaves the Two Way. So we have 1 spare I guess.

[Peony]

I have 3 seats for 2 DD's right now, and will soon have 4, but I don't consider them spare. DD1 has two MA's, one in my Sienna and one is DH's Audi wagon, I often drop her off at swim, art, etc... and DH picks her up so a second seat is a must. I'm waiting on a Regent for DD1, and then DD2 will get one of DD1's MA's to use until her Signo arrives. I guess when DD2's Signo gets her then that MA will be a spare seat cause I don't "have" to have two for her.

[amyg530]

we only have one seat, and it stays in my truck and dh never drives him. if for some reason we do take the car i just switch the seat, i dont see the need for extra seats, at least not for us, i stay at home so i drive the kids (well kid till november) wherever they need to go

[Jordynsmama]

Just two seats. Regent in mine and PW in my mom's. But I will be getting probably a FPSVD for my mom's car and have the PW as a spare for her dad.

[cdncasper]

I have 2 seats and I use them 5 days a week. It is easier for me not to have to take the parents carseats out everytime we go out. I guess you can say I have 2 spare seats since I have built ins but I do use them usually once a week when I have 4 kids in my van--my friend and her 2 kiddos.

[LuvMyGirls]

I guess I have spares. I have three seats for 13 month old, but they are all usually installed. I bought ComfortSports for dh's truck and the sitter's SUV. When Meredith was in the SnugRide, it stayed with her so whoever dropped her off or picked her up had her seat. Once she outgrew it I needed a seat in my van to drop her off in the mornings, sitter needed one so she wasn't tied to the house, and dh needed one for occasions when I need him to pick her up and don't have time to go to his work and install a seat after I drop her off.

At the same time I bought the ComfortSports, I bought a Radian for my van. I ended up returning it and dh and I are sharing his ComfortSport until the Princess comes in. Sharing a seat is a royal pain!

[katiesmommy]

I don't have a spare. I had a second seat (a scenera), but it stayed in a friends car, so i don't really count that as a spare. But we got rid of it before moving. Now all we have is our Decathlon, and no car to put it in.

[Dillipop]

I have a lot of seats, and some spares. We have 2 cars and 2 kids, so 4 seats- husky, safeguard, ss1 and fpse. My mom has the kids 1-2 days a week and she has a ss1 base and a radian. I also have a marathon that switches with the fpse sometimes, a backless turbo that has never been sat in (it was $8 at target) and an evenflo titan that has been sitting in the basement for 2 years (I hate that seat).

[bethng]

no spare seat here. Well, actually I got my daycare provider a Roundabout for her car but I dont keep it here. She always has it. If we are in a different car (which is about 1x a year) then I just install the decaths in the other car.

[mimieliza]

No spare, not even a spare base. The Safeseat is so easy to install, we just move the whole thing, base and all, whenever we need to use DH's car.

I'm thinking about getting a convertible seat now and installing it in DH's car, though.

[Starlight]

We have 12 seats (I returned the Evenflo). So, obviously we have spares.

In my car, I have 5 seats. 2 RF MA's for my ds2, and my best friends ds, and 2 FF Radians for my ds1, and my best friends dd. I drive her kids almost daily, so it's important to have seats for them. I also have a HB TB in there. I'm not sure why. We could use it, I suppose. But not likely. It just happens to be a good storage spot, I guess.

In my dh's truck, we have 2 seats. A RF Scenera, and a Recaro booster.

There is a HB TB in my ex's car for ds1.

We have 2 Cosco backlesses at g-ma's houses for ds1. One is used frequently, the other, very rarely. Another g-ma has a backless TB, again, used rarely.

I have a Compass infant seat in storage. For the next one.

That's 12, right?

Other than the rarely used backless boosters, which were really purchased to make it easier for me when traveling - it really is a PITA to haul 2 kids (plus dh) and 2 carseats every 2-3 months - all of our seats are used several times a week.

[singingpond]

Depends on the definition of spares, I guess.

With one child, having no spares at all worked well for us, as it was easy to move the seat between cars, even on the spur of the moment, and there was no real risk of stranding the other parent with untransportable kids. Now, with multiple children, multiple cars, and different subsets of kids going to different places, we have one seat per child in each car -- it's just a lot easier.

Briefly:

DC#1 no spares -- 1 seat total, moved between vehicles
DC#2 no uninstalled spares -- 4 seats total, 2 in each vehicle (oh, plus an infant seat for the first few months, so 5 really)
DC#3 no uninstalled spares yet -- 7 seats total, including 2 infant seats (3 seats in each vehicle, and our oldest convertible is still installed in a third vehicle, so it's not quite a spare yet... and it's about to expire anyway...)

The longer version:

With DS#1, we had no spares, even by strictest definition -- bought one AO when he was an infant (back when we believed Consumer Reports on carseat issues, LOL), and moved the seat from car to car occasionally.

When DS#2 was in the oven, we bought a second AO (had actually been pretty happy with the seat up to that point). I didn't know much about expiration dates at that time, so I bought the seat (on sale) almost half a year before the baby was due. Then, before the baby arrived, I started reading more about carseat stuff, and suddenly realized that DS#1's AO was unsafe -- we had moved the harness up to the infamous 'booster only' position, and he had been riding that way for over a month. I briefly tried the AO in booster mode, and was really REALLY REALLY unimpressed (DS#1 was around 3 y.o. at that point). Moved the harness back down, engaged in frantic research, and bought him a Wizard a few days later. That meant that DS#2 (not yet born) now 'owned' two AO's, so one was available for each car, which we hadn't planned on.

Next, I got a Snugride for the coming baby (DS#2 was a winter baby, so packing him up in the house was very appealing for cold weather). Once he outgrew that, he went into the AO (one in each vehicle now). At that point, we started realizing how CONVENIENT it was to have permanently installed carseats in more than one car, and a few months later I bought a Parkway booster for DS#1, so he had a seat in each vehicle also.

With DD on the way, we needed to fit 3-across, so one of the AO's was replaced with a Radian in the smaller car, to make enough room to shoehorn in an infant seat. I also got a second base for the Snugride (also acquired a second Snugride in the process), so all three kids have seats in both cars.

The oldest AO is not quite a spare yet -- we moved it FF into the pickup truck that we use for plowing our driveway during the winter, so DS#2 has a safe place to sit when he rides with DH -- crashing through the snow is as good as an amusement park ride for the kids, LOL.

With DD about to outgrow the infant seat, we are getting perilously close to having actual uninstalled spares -- but maybe infant seats don't really count ;) ?

Katrin

[amy919]

I don't right now and I hate it. I like having spares, actually I NEED to have spares since there are occassions when I need DH or someone else to transport the kids. And I don't like swapping out my seats.

It's a major thorn in my side right now!

Amy

[Momto1bigkiddo]

I haven't had a spare seat yet for my only child who is 3 years old, but we haven't really needed a spare too often so far. :o

[SarahP]

I have 3 children and 3 seats. I'd like to have spares, but it is not in the budget. I have not found them that hard to move when needed, and I often offer to drive and then I dont have to move them :)

[papooses]

I've always had spares because my college schedule usually had me in enough of a rush that I didn't want to change seats + my parents never knew until the last minute which car they'd use ... since they were/are my babysitters, it did make sense to keep spares installed in every vehicle knowing that I'd only have a few moments to kiss my baby & eat between errands, classes, work, etc.

It does kinda bother me though that they can't just simply put a booster into whichever vehicle they're driving on a given day or whatever now that Leila can use boosters, instead demanding still that 1 always stays in each vehicle.

[harnessed4ever]

I have spares from raising one kid. As long as they are still functional for Helena I plan on her using them too.

[lovinwaves]

I have spares from raising one kid. As long as they are still functional for Helena I plan on her using them too.

.....AND haven't expired ;)

[harnessed4ever]

yes that too. Mine are from 2003/4 or later so they should be good for a couple more years. I'm going to have to get a reagent for Helena when she reaches that point because my husky will be a few years expired

[ChristyJoelnSosi]

We don't have any spare seats either. We have 1 AOE installed in dh's Doge Dakota and 1 MA installed in my chevy malibu. Oh and a snugride that I use for my daycare baby.

[NanceXToo]

I don't have a spare. We always use my car to travel with the kids and if for some reason my car had to go into the shop or something, we'd just move the car seat into my husband's car.