OMG She put him in a BOOSTER!!!!

OMG! I found out this morning that my MIL put my not even 3 year old at the time in a backless booster! Oh HELL No! I was LIVID! Here is how I found out.

I went to drop Marcus off this morning at my MIL's. She had to go get a friend, so I dropped him off at their house where my MIL was waiting. I get there & she is outside waiting on me. I get him out of the car, out of his RF seat no less, & she tells me he will be sitting a in big boy chair today. I am like On HELL no he will not. She asks me "Why Not?". To which I respond b/c he is to small & will not be safe. Well then she proceeds to tell me that she did it the other day & my DH didn't say anything. Well, that is b/c my DH didn't know it. I absolutly REFUSED to let him ride in a booster, much less a backless. She then replies, well I guess you have to put his seat back in. Yeah, I do. She gets pissed at me. Oh well. She said his seat is to big & takes up to much room. Oh well.

So......I was absolutly LIVID when I left him with her this morning. I reinstalled his seat & put him in it. I will be talking to her when I am more calm about it again. However I was to pissed to talk more about it. How she puts him in a booster when she KNOWS how I feel about it. He is barely 30lbs fully dressed with shoes on. The backless boosters start at 40lbs. She also puts the shoulder belt behind them. There is absolutly no way in hell I will let him be in a booster at this age. He JUST turned 3 today. WTF was she thinking. I know she sees nothing wrong with it as both of my nephews were in BB's by age 2, but seriously. I am shaking just thinking about it.

I know alot of you think I should not let her watch him anymore. However I have to let her watch him sometimes as if I cut it to where I only work night shift then I loose ALOT of hours at work & we just simply can not afford that. Not to mention I would NEVER see DH if we worked opposite. It just does not work for us. I just really need to sit down & talk to her when I am calm about this. This is the only thing I ask of her. I do not complain about what she feeds him, where she takes him, what she buys him, or anything else. The only thing I ask of her is to keep my baby safe in the car.

So please do not flame me for this. I fixed it QUICKLY today. However I might need to look into a smaller profile seat for her car. He is in a Marathon in her car FF. What would be a smaller profile, smaller in general seat that would be easy to install in her car? I have a TF, but I really do not want to put that in her car. Would a Nautilus be a good choose for her car? It needs to have locking clips as her seats do not lock. HELP me! I NEED to find a solution.

OMG! I would be beyond pissed too! But, the good news is he is fine. WHEW!
Yes, sit down calm with her and talk to her. That is the only way to do it. Explain exactly why, show videos if you have to.

What about an Evenflo Chase? That is pretty thin. I use this in my inlaws car for logan and they love how thin it is.
What about a Graco Cargo, Evenflo Generations65, Radian65

*Spoiledinmyhouseofblue* said:

OMG! I would be beyond pissed too! But, the good news is he is fine. WHEW!
Yes, sit down calm with her and talk to her. That is the only way to do it. Explain exactly why, show videos if you have to.

What about an Evenflo Chase? That is pretty thin. I use this in my inlaws car for logan and they love how thin it is.
What about a Graco Cargo, Evenflo Generations65, Radian65

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How easy are the Cargo, Chase & Generations to install?? I am not sure about a Radian. She has a 94ish Toyota 4 Runner without locking seat belts. I really wanted a seat I would not have to use a locking clip with. She needs a seat that can be easily be installed as well as uninstalled. Easy for me to install b/c I do that myself, but she does unistall as needed. I am fine with this. However I am quite sure she would NOT taking the locking clip off the belt to use it with another child & I know this is a NO NO! So I was hoping for a seat with locking clips on the seat itself. I am asking for alot. LOL!

The Graco Nautilus Premier, whenever it hits market, will have built in lock offs.

I can install my chase and cargo in about 2 seconds with Latch and maybe less than a minute with seatbelt.

I installed the chase in my husband's car with a locking clip and it was very easy.

My sister who can't install carseats for the life of her can install the cargo.

*Spoiledinmyhouseofblue* said:

I can install my chase and cargo in about 2 seconds with Latch and maybe less than a minute with seatbelt.

I installed the chase in my husband's car with a locking clip and it was very easy.

My sister who can't install carseats for the life of her can install the cargo.

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Thanks I might look into one of those. How long would he have left in any of those? He is still below the 2nd from top slots of the MA by about 1/2". He has about a 14 inch torso. So.....Would I get him to booster age in any of those? I am guessing I would with as little as he is. Just want to make sure. DH is going to kill me if I tell him we need another seat.....LOL!

How come she has to install and uninstall it? Can't you just install it nice and tight in the middle and TT it.. then she can have people who sit in the car sit outboard?

The Chase and Generations aren't hard to install, but you really have to put your knee into it to install it.. I dunno if your mom would do that.

If you get a Radian, it's thin enough where she could easily have passengers sit outboard and not have to worry about the seat taking up much room in the middle, or armrests to get in their elbow space or whatever...

Mommy2Marcus said:

Thanks I might look into one of those. How long would he have left in any of those? He is still below the 2nd from top slots of the MA by about 1/2". He has about a 14 inch torso. So.....Would I get him to booster age in any of those? I am guessing I would with as little as he is. Just want to make sure. DH is going to kill me if I tell him we need another seat.....LOL!

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I agree with the knee in the seat install. I do that to all my seats though.

Logan has about 1 inch left in the chase. I am thinking his torso is about 15.5 inches I can measure for sure tomorrow. He is on the second to top on radian with about 1 1/2 inches to go before going to the top slots of the radian. He is on the top slots of the chase. My sister has my cargo and logan is on the top slots of those as well.
I can tell how close he is on the triumph advance if you want(my neighbor has that seat).

I do that with most of my seats too.. except for my Britax convertibles. They sit too high for me to do that easily, but it works perfectly me just pushing down with my hand. But they are easier to install..

Here is my former foster son.. he prolly has a 13/14 inch torso. He weighs about 25 lbs, but he has a long torso and shorter legs. He does have the pad under him which boosted him a lil, but he was still at that slot, so I just kept the pad in so that he was closer to it.

*Disclaimer- This child would normally be RFing.. but he puked all over my RFing seat I had for him, so I had to borrow mom's FFing seat.



If you want him to go to booster age with it, I'd prolly get the Evenflo Generations. It'd last him longer with weight too. But I would see if there is anyway you can just keep a seat in her car. I'd feel much more comfortable with that if I were you, not having to trust her install skills..

Blondie87 said:

How come she has to install and uninstall it? Can't you just install it nice and tight in the middle and TT it.. then she can have people who sit in the car sit outboard?

The Chase and Generations aren't hard to install, but you really have to put your knee into it to install it.. I dunno if your mom would do that.

If you get a Radian, it's thin enough where she could easily have passengers sit outboard and not have to worry about the seat taking up much room in the middle, or armrests to get in their elbow space or whatever...

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I am not worried about her installing it. I do all the installing myself. She only ever uninstalls them. She removes the seat b/c sometimes she has others that ride with her & she sometimes needs enough room for 3 people in the back seat. That is the only time she uninstalls his seat. So no issues with her installing.

*Spoiledinmyhouseofblue* said:

I agree with the knee in the seat install. I do that to all my seats though.

Logan has about 1 inch left in the chase. I am thinking his torso is about 15.5 inches I can measure for sure tomorrow. He is on the second to top on radian with about 1 1/2 inches to go before going to the top slots of the radian. He is on the top slots of the chase. My sister has my cargo and logan is on the top slots of those as well.
I can tell how close he is on the triumph advance if you want(my neighbor has that seat).

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Thanks! I think he would get to 5 in them at his current growth rate. As for the Triumph Advance, I own. He has a TON of room to grow. I am trying to stay away from seats that are high up on bases b/c I think that is part of the problem. She has to lift him into it. I think IF I could get her a lower profile seat that she would be more okay with it. I need to find something she can deal with better than the MA I think. I am nixing the Chase b/c of the adjuster on the front of the harness. I think that would create more issues than help. I am really interested in the Generations though. Just which one.

Thanks for the picture Blondie! I am deffinatly going for the Generations instead. I posted above that she will not be installing the seats herself. She refuses to & I am just fine with that. I feel better if I do it myself. I do climb into the MA to get it tight enough though. It is not easy, but I do it. So I am fine with using the knee inside to install as I already do that for any FF install.

What about having him climb into the MA himself? My kids have been doing it since before (if not at) 3 if need be. Then you can keep the easy install/uninstall and not have to buy another seat.

Mommy2Marcus said:

Thanks for the picture Blondie! I am deffinatly going for the Generations instead. I posted above that she will not be installing the seats herself. She refuses to & I am just fine with that. I feel better if I do it myself. I do climb into the MA to get it tight enough though. It is not easy, but I do it. So I am fine with using the knee inside to install as I already do that for any FF install.

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Yeah... it was hard for even me to get him tight enough in that seat.

If she's not installing the seat, then no worries! lol. I think the Generations would be an awesome choice. :thumbsup:

If it were me I would probably get the 65lb version just because if he eeks up over 40lbs before you are ready for him to be in a booster (especially in her car) you wouldn't need to worry about a new seat at that time. For the record I would have went OFF, you are so much more self controlled than I am apparently! LOL

myliljunebugs said:

If it were me I would probably get the 65lb version just because if he eeks up over 40lbs before you are ready for him to be in a booster (especially in her car) you wouldn't need to worry about a new seat at that time. For the record I would have went OFF, you are so much more self controlled than I am apparently! LOL

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Oh, I DID freak out on her. I was VERY loud about it. I said "Oh NO he is NOT riding in a big boy chair". I was however alot nicer about it than I thought I would have been. I however managed to control myself as we were not at her house OR my house, so I felt that I should not make a HUGE scene about it at friends's house. KWIM! I am still not quite sure HOW I was as controlled as I was. I was proud of myself. However I was seeing red & shaking like a leaf during the entire time!

Thanks about the thoughts on the 65lb version. You're right. I will deffinatly go for the 65lbs version if I go for the Genrations!

If I were you I'd do anything I could to find a new babysitter. Maybe even trade off with someone else in a similar situation. If she knows how you feel about this and has already completely disregarded your wishes I'm sure she'll have no problem doing it again in the future.

Chris10AS said:

If I were you I'd do anything I could to find a new babysitter. Maybe even trade off with someone else in a similar situation. If she knows how you feel about this and has already completely disregarded your wishes I'm sure she'll have no problem doing it again in the future.

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I have tried to find someone else. There is just not anyone else. I know that it is not good, but I plan to talk to her about it again. She has only put him in a booster one time. I plan to make it the last time. IF she disreguards me on this again, then DH & I will be having a talk & then finding a way around her having him.

Mommy2Marcus said:

I have tried to find someone else. There is just not anyone else. I know that it is not good, but I plan to talk to her about it again. She has only put him in a booster one time. I plan to make it the last time. IF she disreguards me on this again, then DH & I will be having a talk & then finding a way around her having him.

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I'm so sorry you're put in this position. It must be really frustrating.

Chris10AS said:

I'm so sorry you're put in this position. It must be really frustrating.

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Thanks SO much for that. I needed for someone to understand that I am doing everything I can to keep him out of a booster. It is VERY frustrating. I can not afford to loose a ton of hours at work as I usually do not even get 30 hours as it is. So If I loose much then I loose alot of money. Thanks again!

I'd get the generations 65lb version... the generations is pretty simple to install/uninistall, it's very low profile, very LIGHTWEIGHT (good for when grandma has to carry it after uninstalling it), and it makes an okay booster in most cars (in the ones we've had, it made a great booster, but every kid and vehicle is different)

it's also inexpensive, so your dh will like that.