'04 Hyundai Accent, Add A Kid?

I want to know if ANY carseat combination in my car could get me a 3-across OR 2 seats and one outboard position open for a booster kid OR boosterless older child.

HELP?

I looked in the 3 across thread already, no luck.

I was thinking about taking on a kid this summer break (so probably older school aged.) My car has lap only middle belts, so I need to find a way to cram two carseats together to open the outboard if I do this.
I know that my Radian can get an outboard 30* install. I don't know about center install. Baby still needs at least a 42*ish recline or more.

Because baby needs the recline, the only place in my car he can be is passenger outboard. The front seat is all the way up to allow this. (I'd LOVE to get a teeny little Coccoro to fix this, doubt we could finagle the money, though.)

If I took an older child, boosterless per state law (MA is 8) how dangerous would it be to have said child in front seat, all the way forward, for the few short car trips me might take?
Out of the question?

I don't want to FF J just to take another kid on, ya know? It isn't a "have to FF" situation, this babysitting is just an option I'm thinking of.

Can anyone think of any way I can safely transport another child in my car? In a carseat? In a booster? In a seat belt?

Depending on the child's size, you could use an RTSV for the lap-only position in the center rear seat and you have a tether anchor there to allow you to use it with a lap-only belt. That's my initial thought, and better than putting a kiddo in the front seat at all, and especially avoiding doing so with the front passenger seat moved all the way forward and closer to the airbag. :twocents: On that note, here's some pertinent stats regarding the back seat vs. front seat from the IIHS site at http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/child_passenger.html:

Are children safer in the rear seats?

Yes, rear seats are always safer for infants and children. Placing children in back instead of the front reduces injury risk by 64 percent for newborns to 8 year-olds and reduces the risk by 31 percent for 9 to 12 year-olds.1 Children younger than 13 in the front seat, particularly infants in rear-facing child restraints, may be at risk of injury or death from an inflating front airbag. Twelve states require children to sit in the rear whether or not the vehicle has a front passenger airbag, and two states require them to be in the rear when there is an active airbag. Largely because of these state laws and publicity campaigns, many more children now ride in back seats. Observation surveys conducted in 2008 found that 99 percent of infants, 98 percent of children ages 1 to 3, and 88 percent of children ages 4 to 7 rode in back seats.2

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The center seat is too small with carseats (at least the ones I own) installed outboard.
I'm not comfortable having my 3 year old's body slammed into his brother's seat shell in a crash, either.

A My Ride and a RN take up an amazingly small amount of room going the same direction. The MR overlaps the RN. Same thing happens with a Wizard in place of the MR You're just going to have to play around with a couple different configurations.

FWIW, there's at least one study indicating riding next to a carseat is more protective in a crash than not riding next to an adjacent carseat. It wouldn't be your 3 year old necessarily riding in the center in the RTSV next to your RFing baby on the passenger side if the older child in your care fits the RTSV and if you can find a workable combination of seats. I'm not much help with any specific workable seat combinations in your car, just tossing around stats, ideas, and sympathy for someone trying to make it work.

I think it is a bad idea to have a child in the front seat. If you cannot transport a child safely you shouldn't take one on.

safeinthecar said:

A My Ride and a RN take up an amazingly small amount of room going the same direction. The MR overlaps the RN. Same thing happens with a Wizard in place of the MR You're just going to have to play around with a couple different configurations.

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:thumbsup:

I think your best chance is having the two RFing seats center and passenger and getting the older child in a vest or narrow booster (Cosco backless tends to work well for us) or seatbelt if he passes the 5 step test there.

If you had to put an 8 year old in the front I'd highly recomend a backless booster to help him be in a better position in relation to a deploying airbag. My first piece of advice, though, would be not to put him in the front at all.

Yes. I have an 8yo. If a DCP put her up front, I'd break the contract. (Especially because best practice is to put the oldest FFing harnessed child up front.)

chickabiddy said:

Yes. I have an 8yo. If a DCP put her up front, I'd break the contract. (Especially because best practice is to put the oldest FFing harnessed child up front.)

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Well, I assume it would be discussed with the parent beforehand, and she doesn't HAVE a FF child, she has 2 RFers, right?

Since he is 3, I dont think FFing is the worst thing in the world, and if I really needed the money, I might consider it. But i think SITC is right, there probably ARE configurations that would work. I would wonder though how financially viable it is if you have to spend $200 on a new seat, youknow?

You're right -- I skimmed the siggy, and the oldest is only FF in one seat.

Still, I think that not being able to safely transport a daycare child is a big drawback to doing daycare.

Just a thought, but if you think RN + CCO would make this a workable situation, the CCO might only cost 1-2 weeks of summer pay for the schoolager. That would still leave you the other 8 (?) weeks of pay, more than what you'd have now, and you could sell the CCO -- or infant seat -- at the end of the summer to recoup some of that cost.

IIRC the MR + RN both RF = 24" from the outside edge of the RN to the outside edge of the MR's *base* (so a few more inches of overhang from the cupholder, but you can scoot some boosters, or a boosterless child, under it.)

ETA: You could also not transport. I would go mad doing daycare without transporting, but some do it and it works fine for them.

I tried the MR next to the RN.
It won't puzzle.
MR requires 45*, must be passenger outboard. RN must do 30* to be behind my seat (in this case, center seat, still required 30* because my seat pushed one edge of the seat to that regardless.)

My seat cannot go any farther forward.
My car is just THAT tiny.
No child can fit in the center (regardless if I had shoulder belts there or an RSTV.)

I feel guilty not using the SR32 (with TWO bases) my parent's bought us. I feel even guiltier thinking of selling it to buy a Coccoro which most likely would fix the issues here.

Would the Coccoro puzzle with the RN, both RF with the RN at 30*? I've never seen one in real life, so I haven't a clue how big they even are.