A little story

I don't know whether to do this or this or THIS :ROTFLMAO: or some combination of all three, but I thought y'all would definitely appreciate this

I have a friend, who while being a very dedicated and caring mother is a teensy bit clueless on carseats. She never had a clue what seats her kids were in, didn't understand that kids outgrew the seat by height as well as weight, doesn't extended rear face, etc. But she is learning! In fact, she just bought the two four year olds REGENTS (a huge deal for the world's worst moneygrubber ) She has the 2 year old forward facing in a Scenera, and she's expecting a newborn who will be riding in a Snugride.

Earlier she figured out that the Scenera was improperly installed (she didn't have the boot in the right position for forward facing), so I casually asked, you guys are using the top tethers, right?

This leads into a LONG discuss re: what the top tether is, how it is NOT the bottom anchors. She insists there is no tether coming out of the top of the three seats in her car right now (the scenera and two Cosco high back harnessed boosters). I insist there is.

Meanwhile her husband is insisting that because he can't get his finger behind the seats, they don't NEED no stinkin' top tether

So we go back and forth on the issue. I appear to be winning and my friend goes out to find these top tethers.

Well, she was right. They didn't have top tethers on the seats.

Because they were expired, you ask? Oh, no, these seats are just a few years old.


Why? Because they figured they didn't need them so they....



UNSCREWED THEM AND THREW THEM AWAY.

Yes, you read that right. They unscrewed them and threw them away.


I think I was actually speechless for a second. Plenty of people I know don't know to use the top tether...but this was the first time I had ever heard of someone dismantling it and throwing it away :ROTFLMAO:

Anyhow, they should be getting the boys' Regents on Saturday, and my friend is calling Dorel in the morning for a replacement tether.

But I thought y'all might get a chuckle out of that

lol, i'll probably be yelled at but i actually removed the top tether from our triumph when it was RF, because i don't like unused parts dangling randomly from things, and evenflo doesn't provide a pouch in which to hold it. but instead of throwing it away i saved it in a ziplock bag, rubber-banded with the owner's manual and stored in the glovebox for future use. i really like efficiency and streamlining and hate seeing unused things. also there was no "dismantling" involved... the top thether is just looped through the shell and knotted to itself. but god almighty, why on earth would they throw it away...

Heehee!!!

On a related note...I just noticed the top tether is no longer on dd seat!!!???!! I have NO CLUE how it came off or when????? I noticed it a few days ago, when i took her seat out to go out to dinner with a friend in a friends car, I was like..."hey, where's my top tether go??"

I have no clue....???....how does one lose a tether? do i get some sort of award for this? Is there a moron award?

(Oh and for the record, none of our vehicles have tether anchors, so we never use the tethers, just seat belts, so it's not a big deal...but still....where the heck did it go??? I don't even move the seat that often???)

Well, it's better than having your top tether rip out of the seat while you are trying to install it. Yup! My mom was installing my nephew's 1 month old Evevflo Chase, and as she was tightening the top tether, it came right off of the seat! The belt was in perfect order, but the plastic gave way. I wasn't there, but I would have loved to look at the seat to see exactly what happened. I kind of think that Evenflo installed the tether in the wrong place, but I will never know, because it happened while I was in Acapulco, and it was returned by the time I got home.

bobandjess99 said:

(Oh and for the record, none of our vehicles have tether anchors, so we never use the tethers, just seat belts, so it's not a big deal...but still....where the heck did it go??? I don't even move the seat that often???)

Click to expand...

Maybe you've already been through this, but in case not... what makes/model/year are your cars? Tether anchors definitely have been shown to increase safety (there's a new study that eventually will be released from CHOP), so you might be able to retrofit your car with tether anchors.

Yep, I have a friend who did the same thing....

AO that she asked me to install and I was just speechless when I realized there was no top tether....

With all our seats besides the Britax of course I always remove the tether when its rear facing, in fact it says to right in the manual..that thing swinging around is a serious hazard.
We used to travel with friends who had the same seat as our DS and they would leave it on and I got a tie tag out and fastened it down since I was not having that whack my DS in an accident.
When the seat is installed FF it is put back on and used.

On our E/B 3-1 the buckle for the tether fell apart and was unable to be tightened when I was on holiday last summer.
It was installed and uninstalled in 8 different cars in 6 weeks...but seriously its not that much wear and tear. Imagine if we had been in an accident and the thing came apart.
I had to order a new tether and we used the seat RF until it arrived fortunately DS was 30 lbs was still under the 35 lb RF limit for it.