2-car family but car seats only in one car? Anyone?

purplemama

New member
We are TTC so pretty far from this yet. Right now DH and I both have car seats in our vehicles. But DH almost never has to drive the little one anywhere. I don't work evenings anymore (I go in at 10pm) so he wouldn't have to drive to sports practices with 3 kids.
So there is a never used seat in DH's car. We were thinking that if we do have another baby, that we could just move the seat from his car to mine and just have two seats in mine and none in his. This would put a baby in a XTSL in the center and DS2 outboard in an MA.
Does anyone do this? We can't really think of any time we would need seats in both cars. We could just switch vehicles if needed. I guess if the one with seats was in wreck, that could be a problem, however.

Obviously, this is DH's idea. No way would I pass up the chance to buy two more seats. I'm trying to be financially responsible and listen to his ideas :rolleyes:.
 
ADS

mom2threeboys

New member
My husband and I do this. Whomever has the kids drives the family car ( mostly me) and the other one takes the car without the seats. Works well for us. I imagine if we both worked and it was questionable on who would take/pick up kids from daycare we would both need seats. Very rarley we split up and he takes a kid one place and I take the other kids to another place. It happens so little that moving a seat is no big deal at all.

Good luck ttc!!! :)
 

flutie128

New member
We have that vehicle arrangement right now. I only have 1 seat for DD because her second seat just expired. DS has the Nautilus in my car and Graco turbo HBB in DH's car. We only drive in my car as a family and if for some reason we need to use DH's car I just move DD's car seat over. I will be buying a second seat for her in the next month or two though. I find it comes in handy when traveling in another person's vehicle. It is always nice to have a back up seat.
 

bree

Car-Seat.Org Ambassador
We are TTC so pretty far from this yet. Right now DH and I both have car seats in our vehicles. But DH almost never has to drive the little one anywhere. I don't work evenings anymore (I go in at 10pm) so he wouldn't have to drive to sports practices with 3 kids.
So there is a never used seat in DH's car. We were thinking that if we do have another baby, that we could just move the seat from his car to mine and just have two seats in mine and none in his. This would put a baby in a XTSL in the center and DS2 outboard in an MA.
Does anyone do this? We can't really think of any time we would need seats in both cars. We could just switch vehicles if needed. I guess if the one with seats was in wreck, that could be a problem, however.

Obviously, this is DH's idea. No way would I pass up the chance to buy two more seats. I'm trying to be financially responsible and listen to his ideas :rolleyes:.

We have 2 cars, but only had seats in my car until my daughter was 3.5. We had a day where DH took my car to bring DD to preschool then went to his office to pick up work (he was going to work from home because I wasn't feeling well). He got caught in traffic because of an accident on the way back to get DD. Poor DD was stuck at pre-school because we only had 1 set of seats, and I had no way to take DS in DH's car to go get DD. It was only 15 minutes, and her teachers were very understanding about us being late, but after that day, I realized we should have another set of seats.

Having 2 sets of seats has come in very handy as the kids have gotten older; for instance, DD has been invited to a birthday with one parent and DS will be with the other parent who needs to go somewhere. It also comes in handy when we have to drop one car off for service. It saves us from having to switch seats back and forth, and it provides peace of mind for those bizarre scenarios that are completely unexpected, like DD being stuck at preschool.
 

2BunniesMommy

Well-known member
We only have seats in the van. None in DH's car. The only time he drives his car is to work, otherwise the van is what is used. Has worked ok for us.
 

kphil

Member
That was our arrangement for a very long time. If my dh needed to be the one to take the kids somewhere, he just used my van and I took his car, if I needed to be somewhere else. That was once in a blue moon, though. Whenever we went somewhere as a family, it was in my van. We do now have seats that can go in dh's car (he usually just moves oldest dd's booster from my car to his, but just last week I got another booster because we needed a narrower one, so he will now have one he can use for her). He never has seats installed in his car unless he has plans to be driving one of the kids, though. He takes them back out when he gets home. Has been no problem for us.
 

libranbutterfly

New member
We couldn't do this for us, too many unknowns. Especially when I lived with MIL. I was the only person in that house who knew how to install seats (or at least cared enough to install seats right) SO between my seats and theirs, we had 3 in MIL's car, 2 in FIL's truck, 2 in SIL's car, and 4 in my car. If MIL would be alone with all 4 children (VERY rare) She kept my van and I took her car. I often took all the kids to the park, because I tried to give niece and nephew a secure dependable relationship
 

soygurl

Active member
Eh... no personal experience, but I think it's always a good idea to have spare seats. But I'd go with uber-cheap in the case of almost-never-used seats. So a Scenera for the new baby. I would still move the XTSL to your car for the baby. Since DS2 will be at least 3 by the time a noob comes along I personally, would be ok with a FF seat for him since it would be so rarely used, so a Maestro would probably work great.

Then again, all this is a while away, so who knows what the options might be then!
 

Athena

Well-known member
For a while we had one family car with seats and one clean car without. :D It can definitely work depending on one's circumstances.
 

Tyler'sMom1117

New member
I have always been a SAHM so we always had the seats in my vehicle and none in dh's. If there was a rare reason he needed the seats we moved them but to tell you the truth that only happened a handful of time. With our last child I did buy boosters for both vehicles. Not because it was needed but because it was easy and cheap to do.
 

melniemi

New member
Ever since we had kid 3, we've only had seats in one vehicle. We do have 2 boosters in dh's truck for the big boys, but since it doesn't fit all the kids, there is no reason to have extra seats for all of them. If he's going somewhere with more than the 2 boys, he'll take the van. It almost never happens. I can't drive his truck since it's a company truck and I do 95% of the driving of kiddos. So we have 2 vehicles, but only have seats for all kids in one of them.
 

nmb

New member
Well, we've only got one seat right now for both cars while we wait for the new harness from SK, almost 2 wks now w/out 2 seats. And it's been a major PITA:twocents: I would want seats in the other car, or around the house as spares. Maybe a Scenera or keeps your eyes out for a good sale on a slightly nicer seat.
 

vonfirmath

New member
We have done it, on different occasions. I don't know if it would be as easy to do with 2 children instead of just one. The car with the car seats becomes the car of whoever has the child.
 

Peony

Member
We did it back when we had one and then when the 2nd was a baby. Now it does not work at all and DH has seats for DD1 and DD2 in his car. Once his lease is up, he wants a bigger car so that he can keep 3 seats in his and 3 in mine. We spilt up the kids all the time now, and it is such a pain to move things around constantly.
 

momto3girls

Senior Community Member
I have all the seat in my van. Dh didn't have a seat in his car until my oldest was 2 and she wanted to go with daddy. I went out a bought a spare seat for his car and installed it in there. We have three kids and he still only has one seat in his car. It's a booster for our 6.5yr old. I asked to put another one in there for our middle child and he said no. We can't switch cars either because I don't know how to drive a manual. If he goes someone where with the older two he'll take my van. Not ideal, but it works. We can't fit 3 car seats in his car anyway.
 

CaseyRN

New member
We only have a seat in my car now. With DH's new job he doesn't have an office....and our house it not that big....so he keeps a lot of inventory and files, etc in his car. We have no problem with this arrangement. 99% of the time I have the car with the seats....if there is the slightest chance DH may need the seat we just switch cars. Works well for us.

And with #2 coming we couldnt fit 2 seats in DH's car anyway with all his work crap. So, this is what we do for now. Now if we ever come into money and get a bigger house with an actual office space things will change.
 

canadiangie

New member
Two cars and 4+ seats here.

We switch vehicles all of the time and I cannot fathom having to move seats. We're not organized enough to know who is taking what vehicle for the day so I often open the garage door and discover what's left. I have a stroller and potty in each vehicle too.

I do think that you US mamas are pretty lucky to have seats like the Scenera and Uptown, etc for such amazing prices. A Scenera up here is $80 and once you add the tax it's really hovering close to $100. So really, I may as well spend $180 and get a TF. And once you add tax to that it's close to $200 so I may as well just get a RN for $250. Or heck lets just get an XT for $325. :eek:
 

swtgi1982

New member
We have seats for all three in my van all the time, only in the winter will we have three in DH car, as we have the IL seats while they are out west. They have seats for the oldest two in their car. After that we only keep one in DH car for emergencies when he would only take one of the two older ones. Hoping come tax time to get three and three in both cars.
 

karlatta

New member
We used to only have seats in my car. But as we had more children, and the kids got older (so they were invited to things like birthday parties and stuff individually), we found that we needed to be able to split them up.

We are about to have our 4th, so right now we have 4 seats in my car and 2 in DH's. So we can split the kids up in any combination of 2 and 2, 1 and 3, etc. DH's car is a small sedan, so he can't fit all 4 seats in his car anyway. If we really had an emergency where his car was the only one available, we would rely on nearby friends to either drive us or stay home with kids or whatever.
 

jennzee

Active member
Two-car family here as well, with seats in only one car. We also very rarely have kids shuttled back and forth between the two cars, so it's not a bit deal at all to just move seats over when it's necessary. I've never even considered buying extra seats for the second car....way more money that I'd ever invest on something that will get used so rarely.
 

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