I actually talked to someone!

You know, I'm a non assertive person. I don't like confrontations. I normally only talk about car seats online or in my head.

There's this mom with two kids, slightly older than my 5 and 3 year olds. We met each other at the school and set up a playdate for this afternoon. Mom happened to park next to my van. She put her ds into his century STE OHS seat, then came around to the driver's side, which is where my van was with the open door. She asked about ds2's seat. Then asked if dd4 sat in the front seat, since I had a freecycle infant seat sitting there. I told her no, that that was an old, expired seat that I was going to take to be recycled. Then she told me she'd take my kids home from her house, but I told her I'd pick them up myself because my kids had to be in car seats. She then asked about dd3's weight and told me her dd has been 40 pounds and in a booster since age 4. I told her about ds1 who was too wiggly to sit in one till he was 7. Then I mentioned that she might check her ds' seat to see if it was expired since we used to have the same seat and it expired in 2007. (I know her seat is expired, but I think she should be the one to discover that.) Then I mentioned that there would be a car seat check tomorrow. She wants me to bring the information over when my kids go to her house. Yay! I don't know if she'll actually go, but I actually talked to her and maybe she will get a new seat for her ds!

Way to go Christine! That's great. I'm a bit reserved myself. I don't usually talk about seats except when someone asks. People I work with know I'm a CPST. Or to my dd about her kids, of course!

I think you did great at talking with her. I hope she reads the info you bring over to her and she makes it to the seat check tomorrow.

Way to go! You did a great job!

I ended up taking dd to the er instead of the playdate, but the mom actually came to my house to get info on the car seat check. She said she got the seat for free from a friend when her 6 year old was little and so she knew it was old. I hope she goes because I saw that her dd buckles with the shoulderbelt behind her back. Her dd has two seats- a backless turbo and a right fit.

You took your dd to the er? I hope she is ok!!!

Good for you for talking to her in a way that allowed her to make some changes and not feel confronted. Hopefully she will go to the seat check!!!!

Awesome! Very slick how you let her "discover" it was expired.

christineka said:

I normally only talk about car seats online or in my head.

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LOL! Especially if I can't sleep, I do that a lot .

tanyaandallie said:

You took your dd to the er? I hope she is ok!!!

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Yeah, she fell in the gym at school and split her chin open. She's the first of our kids now to actually need stitches. With her clumsiness, it will be very good if she can manage not to split them open. The child was walking around the er room with her eyes closed...

I think my friend will actually go to the checkup. She said the time was perfect.

I like the way you handled that. It was discreet and professional.