Does anyone ever feel like this

I'm sure that all of you have felt this way a few times, but do you ever just feel like you're the only one who knows the facts about car seat safety? I frequent another site that has many different kids of forums, a few being baby and pregnancy related ones. And people in there give horrific advice, like for example today a woman told someone that their NINE MONTH OLD BABY could go in a BOOSTER seat. Like, are you kidding me? So I of course am always arguing the obvious and simple rules of rear facing, etc. And everybody thinks that I'm overreacting and freaking out! I feel like I'm the only one in the world that gives a crap about keeping my child safe, and then sometimes I wonder if I'M the one who is crazy and overprotective. Sorry about the rant. It just seems that everywhere I go there is such a slew of blatent ignorance and stupidity.

Yup, I've been chewed out on other boards for posting about extended RF and "making other mom's feel guilty". Gee, last I checked guilt is an internal thing. If you feel guilty, maybe there's a reason.

I'm just getting used to it and have just taken it to heart that I know I'm doing what is best for my kids. I won't ever feel guilty about my decision to keep them as safe as I possibly can in the car.

YES! Just this morning on the way home from church I saw a family with a baby, couldn't have been more than 6 months old, FF in his carseat.
Yesterday getting gas, mom and dad were buckled up while their 3 kiddos, oldest wasn't more than 6 or so, were just roaming around the back of the car as they drove away. Makes me think we need a carseat police, to teach people the stuff they need to know to keep their kids safe.

That's something I'll never understand - the parent buckled in and the child loose! I saw a buckled up mother leaving school the other day with a 5 yr old in the front seat leaning forward with his chin on the dash. Unbelieveable!

Oh gosh yes.My Best freind told me the other day how she had put her son in his cosco scenera and went and ran some errands down the road,she went on to tell me that when she was pulling back into her driveway and took the corner to pull in she heard a huge bang,she looked back and her son's carseat was laying on its side in the seat.She forgot to put the seatbelt through the carseat!!I won't even say install because she doesn't install her 2 1/2 yr olds seat she just runs a seatbelt through it not caring if it moves 4-5 inches side to side.She just laughed it off.I explained to her that her son could of died and that it wasn't funny and her response was,"okay courtney he won't die going 10 miles an hr"....I was and still am furious.Your car doesn't even need to be moving to have another car hit it at a great speed and throw your baby from the car.

Everyone I know thinks I am crazy,espically my inlaws and my best freind.I am known as the carseat freak,but I could care less,my children's life is the most meaningful thing to me.

I remember my DH use to think about them being embarrsed for harnessing longer,now I have him hooked and he always notices carseat flaws and he is also hoping before our children outgrow the regent that their are higher weight seats out or seatbelts to better protect them.I just can't wait to see the looks on my inlaws and my own family in a few years when my 6 year olds are still harnessed and staying that way.I don't understand why people are all into gun saftey,stranger saftey,food saftey,but they just seem to pass by car saftey.

Oh and a Little vent**

My BF says she can't afford to buy her son a HWT carseat(he is almost out of his) but she can go out to eat and to "sex stores" but she can't afford $99 to keep her child safer?No matter what I say to her or show her(even the kyle video) she thinks it won't happen to her.I love her to death I just wish I could knock some sense into her.

Argh, I'm not even as informed as most people here, but I am learning, and I am by far the most informed person I know aside from the local techs. My family and friends think I am a bit fanatical but thankfully are open to my research and call to ask for advice. But yes, I am turning into the friendly neighbourhood carseat fanatic. I am even starting to peer into other people's cars like the rest of you. Hee

Several people have shocked me with their gross disregard for rules or reading the manual etc, people who are educated and care and you would think would KNOW better and CHOOSE better. It drives me batty. I am going to take the tech course (there are not enough people here at all) and then everyone will be forced to believe I DO know what I am talking about even more than now.

The thing that really confuses me is when I ask people with a young baby what seat they have and they don't even know the make. They obviously just pulled whatever off the shelf. Which I guess they are all certified to meet the same minimum standards, but it's just so against my nature not to research first.

momof2kiddos said:

Oh gosh yes.My Best freind told me the other day how she had put her son in his cosco scenera and went and ran some errands down the road,she went on to tell me that when she was pulling back into her driveway and took the corner to pull in she heard a huge bang,she looked back and her son's carseat was laying on its side in the seat.She forgot to put the seatbelt through the carseat!!I won't even say install because she doesn't install her 2 1/2 yr olds seat she just runs a seatbelt through it not caring if it moves 4-5 inches side to side.She just laughed it off.I explained to her that her son could of died and that it wasn't funny and her response was,"okay courtney he won't die going 10 miles an hr"....I was and still am furious.Your car doesn't even need to be moving to have another car hit it at a great speed and throw your baby from the car.

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HOLY COW!! I can't believe her attitude.
She's been watching way too much tv with trained stunt people jumping out of high speed cars. Yes, he CAN die or be seriously injured falling out of a vehicle at 10mph! Especially if there's another car right behind her that can't dodge out of the way.

I could say some more choice words about her cavalier behavior to a child she's supposed to protect from real danger, but I won't.

I wouldn't be surprised if her kitchen is completely childproofed though

Morganthe said:

I wouldn't be surprised if her kitchen is completely childproofed though

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It is

My kids are all very safe in the car... but my kitchen is only childproofed enough to keep the kids out of the snack foods! (this does remind me that I DO have a curious infant again now, and need to put locks on the one under the sink...)

I saw a family of 4 getting out of a pickup truck - one with only the front seat, no extended cab - and both kids looked to be under 5, no boosters/carseats at all. grrrr!

mommycat said:

Argh, I'm not even as informed as most people here, but I am learning, and I am by far the most informed person I know aside from the local techs. My family and friends think I am a bit fanatical but thankfully are open to my research and call to ask for advice. But yes, I am turning into the friendly neighbourhood carseat fanatic. I am even starting to peer into other people's cars like the rest of you. Hee

Several people have shocked me with their gross disregard for rules or reading the manual etc, people who are educated and care and you would think would KNOW better and CHOOSE better. It drives me batty. I am going to take the tech course (there are not enough people here at all) and then everyone will be forced to believe I DO know what I am talking about even more than now.

The thing that really confuses me is when I ask people with a young baby what seat they have and they don't even know the make. They obviously just pulled whatever off the shelf. Which I guess they are all certified to meet the same minimum standards, but it's just so against my nature not to research first.

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Same minimum standards, but def. not all meet the same high standards. If people would do the research, and budget, all kids could be in the safest seats around.

It is serously so ridiculous at times. Last night, I was arguing with a woman who thinks that the only requirement for babies to go forward facing is when they reach 20lbs, nothing to do with age, because the law doesn't require them to be rear facing for a year. I almost smashed my head into the computer screen, I swear. I would not believe what I was hearing! So I'm like, "so you would deliberately be using the car seat incorrectly according to the manual then." And she's like, "I believe what the experts who make the laws think."

OMG, yes, because laws always make sense and reflect best practice! Gah.

Totally. Yesterday we were having a family get-together for Mother's Day. DH was telling my SIL about how my present was getting CPS-certified, and that it meant that I could "make sure seats were in right". I was in the other room, but heard them talking. SIL said that "that's great, I was driving the other day and the snap (?) came undone in [nephew]'s seat, and the seat was sliding around the back seat - but he was buckled in (meaning harnessed in the seat, which makes it better )" I walked in at that point, to offer to look at the "snap" to figure out what the heck she was talking about (the seat buckle? I have no idea), but when I offered she said, "Oh, I'm not telling you (meaning the story of her son sliding around the backseat)!" Um, OK, so you DON'T want somone to make sure that your child is now properly restrained in the car? OK...

Mommy2Mya said:

It is serously so ridiculous at times. Last night, I was arguing with a woman who thinks that the only requirement for babies to go forward facing is when they reach 20lbs, nothing to do with age, because the law doesn't require them to be rear facing for a year. I almost smashed my head into the computer screen, I swear. I would not believe what I was hearing! So I'm like, "so you would deliberately be using the car seat incorrectly according to the manual then." And she's like, "I believe what the experts who make the laws think."

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Because the law doesn't say "AND"? Because I'm pretty sure that it does. And since when were experts law-makers? I thought law-makers were politicians...