Bensmom and I had the WORST car ever today

Dsunny1

CPST Instructor
We worked together at a check (I love working with her). The car we got was an old car, can't remember what type now.. not good at that.. Anyway, it had three kids inside, a 4yo (40-41lbs) a 3 yo (40lbs) and an infant 6ish months. The two older ones were the most wild boys I have met in a long time (my main job is in mental health residential placements for children, so that is saying a lot). The two boys were in Alpha Omegas, and the infant was in rearfacing Evenflo seat. Mom explained that the boys were a handful and that the Supernanny show was coming to view the kids to consider them for the show soon.... YIKES!
The 3 yo's seat was not attached to the car at all, the seatbelt was broken. (It was like the switchable retractor got stuck and you could not pull the belt out of the retractor at all). The belt on the 4 yo's seat was routed through the forward belt path. The infant could be almost removed from her seat without unbuckling the harness it was soooo loose. Her base was also Extremely loose, I could move it a good foot. So, we had to make difficult choices. We converted the 4 yo's AO to booster mode. We fixed the baby in her seat and the base. We had no choice but put the 3 yo in his seat with the harness (he was just 40lbs, not over and would in no way sit still in the seat without a harness.) WE had to install his seat in the front, with the seat as far back as we could get it, but remember there is an infant seat in the middle, so it wouldn't go back far, and yes there was an airbag that didn't turn off. :eek: Mom stated her car was in the shop and was a Jeep cherokee laredo... so she was just borrowing that car. It was horrible.
The whole time we are trying to get these seats in right and teaching mom, the boys were ALL over the dealership. The 3 yo kept climbing onto the Roof of the car, standing up. They both ran into the machine shop and we had to keep retreiving them...
It was the worse. We told mom she could not drive like that and needed to get her car back. :thumbsdown: It sucked. It was the first time for me that it was hard to say the kid was much safer when leaving then when he arrived.. The dealership people kept asking us if he was safe riding in the front seat and I had to explain a few times why we couldn't use the back seat...
I really hope they got home safely..... I really hope I do see them on Supernanny, that mama needs some help getting those boys under control!!!!
Jen
 
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Judi

CPST/Firefighter
Heehee. It reminds me of an old Suburban. Babysitter with six kids in the back. One broken seat belt, tied together. All seats with horribly twisted straps. An older child in a Gerry Double Guard. I am pretty sure the six year old did t he buckling for the other 5, which where all 18 months to 3 years old. I wanted to trash all the seats and start over!!
 

scatterbunny

New member
And these are the situations when I know I will need to remind myself over and over, "the goal is to get the kids to leave safer than they came in." Even if it's just a TEENSY bit safer, it's still safer. And hopefully the parents are now educated enough to make better choices.
 

ThreeBeans

New member
That annoys me. IF they care enough to come to a seat-check and get a professional opinion, why can't they care enough to read the durned manual :confused:
 

Victorious4

Senior Community Member
Oh wow -- just wow....

I was taught not to even get involved with situations like that, but I'm glad you did!
 

bensmom

Admin - CPS Technician
Yup - it was a tough car.

I'll just add that the 3 year old came in "harnessed" (and I use that word liberally) in the AO in the back, but the seat wasn't installed at all because of the broken retractor.

I don't really want to think about how their seats are installed in the mom's normal car, but I hope that the 3 year old is restrained in the back.
 

Stresch

New member
Why would you come to a seat check without your car? I understand that it might be when it's scheduled, but it seems odd.
 

bensmom

Admin - CPS Technician
I agree, somewhat odd. They advertised it as a booster give away too, so I think they were just looking for a booster (although they had seats that coverted into boosters). Our laws in Michigan are really inadequate and there is no booster requirement for 4-8 year olds, so a booster give away is a novel concept.
 

Dsunny1

CPST Instructor
The mom was very irritated that we weren't replacing her AO's with new boosters since they could be converted to a booster. She wanted something "smaller" but there were no headrests and the high back boosters were those cosco basic ones that are not any narrower then her AO's anyway. She said she was supposed to get her Jeep back that night, so I hope she did. It was one of those cars where you go over and over and try to remember all you should be telling her. The kids were so wild, she didn't hear any of it.....
 

flipper68

Senior Community Member
If it was a SK event or she filled out a form, you could get the address and send a follow up letter.

I had to do that once when a parent left w/o the seat manual. Coincidentally, that check up ended with an older child in the front in a booster. Over 40 lbs. lap only in the back seat. (The infant was in the back.)

I hope you mentioned HWH seats for the wild child. . .you could send more specifics in the letter.

I can believe just about anything about parents coming to an event:

Especially if they think they will get a free seat for showing up. I had one mom come and say she threw the old seat away before she came, so 3 yr. was in NO seat. Unfortunately, we had run out of seats. . . Another case of following up with parent after the event.

Another tech told the story of a family that came in for an IO for a yet to be born child. She remembered the family - they had another childen under 2 and had given them an IO then. What happened to that seat? We threw it away was the response. :confused:
 

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