Opinions needed please!

Albagail

New member
I am car seat crazy. My SIL is not. :( I have offered to buy her a new seat for her daughter, but now I am stuck. She has only the one child, Sophie, who turned three in December and is 38" and 33lbs, but she is also a social worker and frequently transports a wide age range of other kids in her car. The seats that the county she works for provides for her use are old and seem unsafe even to her, which is really saying something, lol. So she often misuses Sophie's seat, figuring it's 'better than nothing' to have a child in an illfitting seat, or has kids riding otherwise inappropriately restrained. So here's my dilemma:

I would ideally like to buy a seat that will allow Sophie to rear face. I think I only have a few options here, because Sophie is fairly big and their car (a Suzuki Reno) is fairly small. I'm thinking a Radian or a CA are the only two that will work. My SIL is very unconcerned about RFing, (she's had Sophie FF since she turned one) although she says she will turn her if the seat I buy allows it. What she would rather have is the new Graco Smart Seat. Sophie is too tall to RF in it, so it's not my first choice, BUT, it is more likely to provide a safe place for any child she needs to transport to ride, since she can easily have it RFing, FFing, or as a booster with no reinstallation. So I feel like I'm stuck between choosing the safest seat for my niece, or what will be safer for all the other kids she has to move around. So...do you think that it's more important for Sophie to be RF? Or more important for a social worker to have a seat that's appropriate and easy to use with a wide range of children? WWYD?
 
ADS

carseatcoach

Carseat Crankypants
I'm sorry if this seems like a copout, but I think it's important for your sister to choose the seat she wants. She's told you what she wants. If this is indeed a gift, honor her wishes.
 

Albagail

New member
I totally agree with you about honoring her wishes, but she has also said that in the end she'll go with whatever I think is best, because she knows I have done so much research, and she really has no clue. She just likes the Smart Seat because they could buy an extra base for her husband's car, and not have to install it every time.
 

Qarin

New member
I think the Smart Seat seems like nearly the ideal seat for her situation.

At 3, a properly fit and installed forward facing seat is very safe, and it seems that the Smart Seat would allow her to properly fit the variety of other children as well.

Now, I'll grant you this: from my vantage point out here, all of those children are exactly equally important to me, while from your point of view your niece is more important. On the other hand from what you say I have a feeling your SIL would not rear-face your niece all that long, and as soon as the seat you got her needed to go forward-facing for a work child, it would stay that way until it needed to be changed, and would, perhaps, not be installed all that well while it was, so I think you're offering a false choice- the choice isn't RF Sophie vs fitting the work kids well, it's fitting all the kids well vs everyone riding in a hastily installed, not necessarily completely appropriate, seat...
 

Albagail

New member
Ugh. I have all those same fears about her moving the seat and not doing a great job, etc. And I'm glad you reminded me about them. I keep forgetting that just because I show her once how to install it well doesn't mean that she will do a good job on subsequent installations, and that just because I tell her how much safer RFing is, doesn't mean she's going to put out the effort to keep Sophie that way. :( I just can't get over the idea that if something happened to Sophie, in a car seat that I bought for her even though I knew there were safer options, I could never forgive myself. But, again, if she will be safer in a FF seat that I installed and know is right every time... And the other kids are important to me, too, of course. The Smart Seat is looking better and better, I guess. Thanks for your quick (and helpful!) replies.
 

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