Vent *sigh* Tell me I did what I could.

I'm the resident 19yr old car seat freak around here, and nobody takes any of my advice remotely seriously. Had to get that out first.

My 22mo old DD is enrolled in a playgroup with her 14mo old cousin. We are currently w/o a car at the moment, so we typically use my MILs Ford Explorer, in which DD rear faces in her Complete Air and the 14mo old rear faces next to her in our Maxi Cosi Priori. Anywho. My DH borrowed MILs truck today, so we were stranded.

Being this the big halloween costume party at playgroup, I felt the need to bring DD anyways. the 14mo old cousin's mom had her Tahoe there, so we took that. I hauled my 8 month pregnant butt up to the garage loft and got down our scenera, and installed it RFing in the captain's chair behind the driver (I'd also like to add at this point that I ENVY all of you who own Tahoes!).

14mo old cousin sits in a FORWARD FACING MR65. I've discussed this numerous times with his mother and like I said, nobody cares to take my advice. Anyhow.. being it just ME in the car, i decided to check out the MR65's install.

The harness straps were twisted umpteen thousand times, they still had the infant pillow in there (he doesn't fit with it, but not sure if that's unsafe.. I'd imagine it's not supposed to be used for a larger kid though), the harness straps were in the TOP slot (yeah.. my DD with her 15" torso probably wouldn't have needed them that high!), and here's the icing on the cake.. the seatbelt was used to install it, but wasn't locked. The seat seriously flew around if I pushed it with my pinky.

I had maybe a minute left to correct whatever errors I could, so I untwisted the harness (that alone took up a chunk of time), and I got a tighter install. I was tempted to re-route the harness straps (I'm sure his mom wouldn't have noticed), but I don't have the manual and it would have taken much time. I'm actually the one who would re-thread the harness as he needed growing room in his SafeSeat.. behind his parents back, of course. I'd be a lunatic to try and get a baby to fit safely in their carseat!

I got the eyeroll when the mom saw my Scenera RFing. She also stuck her kid in there with his coat on, belly clip (if you can call it that), and loose harness. Again- nobody listens.

Tell me I at least did a bit of good by getting a tight install & untwisting the harness. Please?

You did good. It can suck when someone we know and love doesn't give a rats about what might happen in a collision. Just continue to do your best, that's all we can do. :thumbsup:

I completely agree. We can talk until we turn blue, but there are people who simply won't listen no matter what. You did everything you could, and that's fantastic! I know it's incredibly hard, I have friends who don't care either and I've decided not to even bring it up any more, because I've said all I can say.

Glad to hear that you're doing your research to keep your child as safe as possible. :thumbsup:

When a seat comes into a check, the goal is to get them to leave safer than when they came in. Ideally, of course, they would take every bit of advice we give and follow best practices 100%. That's usually not the case. As long as a child is made safer than they were before, you have improved the situation and YOU MADE THAT CHILD SAFER. Good job.

You did good. Tightening the car seat in alone may make a world of difference.

Just wanted to empathize with you about being the lone "nut." I, too, have taken to the 'fix it when they're not looking' trick, as I've noticed most of the time the parents don't notice that I've changed anything. At worst, they may change it back, but if not, at least there's the chance of keeping their child safer.

Also... don't totally underestimate your influence -- I had a parent who, despite not seeming to care a whit about car seat safety, came to me to install their seat when they got a new car... AND both asked about, and patiently listened to, the safety reasoning behind boosters. So you might just get a 'safety question' surprise some day.

Good on you for helping 14mo be safER than he was before.

Thanks everyone Makes me feel better knowing I did a little bit. I might look at a MR65 Manual online one day and have DH ask if he can borrow her truck to go to the store, and just totally do a re-install (even if it isn't rear facing ) of the seat.