How would you handle this?

Or maybe my 4 year old already did...

I am by no means a carseat expert. I have learned a ton from this board and you are all to blame for turning me into a Britax and general car safety fanatic!

Yesterday I picked up my girls from school (I have a 1 yr old and 4 yr old). A classmate of Kaylie's (my 4 yr old) and her mom were walking out with us. I don't them well, just to say hello. They were parked next to us and as I was strapping Kaylie in, I noticed that there was no carseat in their car. Kaylie, who is now as fanatical that I am, noticed it, too and asked Trinity where her carseat was. Her mom said that she forgot and left her booster in their other car. She proceeded to pull out a PHONE BOOK and have her sit on that and buckled her in. I was speechless. Kaylie asked me if that was OK and I told her NO WAY! Kaylie told her that she wasn't big enough for a seatbelt and that she should have a carseat with a "race car" seatbelt like her (my husband tells her how cool it is to wear a seatbelt like race car drivers).

This little girl is not much bigger than Kaylie, who is almost 32 pounds and 40 inches. She outweighs Kaylie by maybe 5 pounds and is about an inch taller, so she could absolutely still be in a 5 point harness.

This morning we got to school at the same time and as soon as Kaylie saw her, she asked her mom if she remembered her carseat today. her mom just laughed and said yes. I couldn't help myself. When I left, I had to walk past her car and she's got this backless booster seat thing that I have never seen before (but I've never paid attention to backless boosters). It looked like a low step stool to me.

I so badly want to say something, but she doesn't seem the type of person who would be very receptive. She's kind of a "know-it-all" mom. I don't feel like I'm qualified to give advice, but I see so many kids at their school who are just not safe. In my one year old's room, almost of all of the kids are already FF. I have asked the center director about holding a car safety class and offered to help, but they're not very receptive. I'd like to type up a sheet with just factual information and links to some of the utube videos and crash test videos, but I am NOT an expert, so I don't know if they would even distribute it. Any suggestions?

Show them/tell them about the Belle video of the little girl in Australia who was killed by the adult seatbelt which crushed her abdomen b/c the seatbelt was too high on her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2LFo8vVi04 I literally took my laptop to a friend and showed it to her (but she refused to watch it at which point I officially gave up).

I think most folks don't understand the impact during a crash and even if the child is seated correctly, the adult seat belt puts much more force on the soft tissues of the body - such as the abdomen. A 5-pt-harness is situated to hit the skeletal frame rather than soft tissue.

Okay - having said all of this, I am NOT a tech! So I may be wrong. Someone else probably knows more more info or more correct info. Please correct me if I'm off base

ETA: Perhaps write them a note and put it in a cute card or something...?

When there is gross misuse or illegal nonuse, always call the police (911) -- even if they don't do anything about misuse, continued calling will hopefully turn them around sooner or later.... They are required to respond to nonuse calls when the state law mandates use!

Otherwise, Skaterbabs has a great article in the Articles area of this forum re: booster use that you could print & leave on the windshield if you're nervous....

When all else fails, I'd actually (& have done so numerous times) buy another parent a $15-20 spare booster: I have used the excuse that my parents helped us buy a higher weight harness seat so I don't have to worry about Leila not keeping the shoulder belt properly positioned -- this often opens their minds up to paying closer attention to how kiddo uses the booster & even if I have to instist they take it because it's just "in my way" they always end up using it.

I think someone in my older dd's dance class uses regular pillows for kids to sit on. I've seen them on the seat in her van. To her she is raising the child up in a comfortable manner without the hassle of a booster (I guess). What do you say to someone who wants to know 'What's wrong with that? It makes the kid tall enough for the belt to cross the shoulder better'?
C.

When confronted w/ obvious misuse at my children's daycare center.... I go to the director and report it to her. It is legally part of the director's job to report such incidents to the authorities... unless it is corrected.

I don't feel comfortable approaching fellow parents directly but the director and I have helped a few parents out w/ car seats by having her approach the parent about the issue and then she says... oh and I'm not sure if you are aware that one of our parents is a certified CPS tech. Would you like me to give her your information for her to contact you?

One parent was using every seat belt in the back seat to install her son's ffing convertible.. in multiple belt paths. When I met w/ her I then discovered that she was only using the chest clip to secure the harness. The crotch buckle was stuck UNDER the harness. She told me that they had been doing it that way since they turned him ffing (he was about 3yo or so at the time!).

Mom was very appreciative and not only thanked me at the time, but found me two weeks later and thanked me again.

I've done a couple of car seat presentations at the center, but they generally aren't well attended.. unfortunately. We do have a seat check station 2x/month that is less than 5miles away... and I think it may be time for me to share some new notices for it.

Ditto Papooses.

I have confronted a few parents recently and was not received well, for the most part. I've been "working" on one particular parent for awhile now, and just gave them some flyers from SafetyBeltSafeUSA and also a printout of our state law. I've made up my mind that if this doesn't fix the situation, I will be calling to turn them in when I see them driving with the kid not in a booster.

okay, so at Shakira's Pre-K school, a lot of the kids are not in boosters or if they are in boosters they look too little for them. (the worse is the 4 year old triplets in boosters, they weight nothing each!) What do you tell the ones who's kids are 4-5 yo and will prob. be able to be in booster in about a year. I bet most of these parents are going to buy a harness seat for only year, and definitly prob. wont shell out 270 for a Regent. Also do CPS techs do presentations at pre-schools (not daycare). I think that would help at our Pre-K school.

If the kids are 4+ and in boosters, that's awesome and I wouldn't try to push them back into a harness unless they are friendly with you and would take your advice seriously.

If they are littler and in harnessed seats, maybe print out Skaterbab's booster article and hand them out, if the preschool says it's okay?

If the preschool wants a tech to do a presentation I'm sure a tech would do it! Talk to the director and find out!

Skaterbabs - would it be OK with you if I printed out your article and asked them to put out for distribution or at least post on the bulletin board?