How many sets of seats? Parents of 2 or more children

opheliajoy · May 21, 2011

Do you buy multiple seats to outfit multiple cars? is it feasible to just outfit one car?

It was soo much easier with one kiddo! One carseat in the grandparents cars was unobtrusive, but 2 just isn't going to happen. It wasn't something I'd considered. I had bought extra bases for that reason. Now, My moms complaining about having no room, and suddenly she can't see over his seat. She wants to front face it, just when I am scrambling to find a seat to have him rf longer. Its odd because shes usually really supportive. She's saying front face and one car seat ( I can install the baby's each time) if I want them in there at all.

I am considering just dropping off our car each time he spends time with them so that I will know the seats are properly installed and I'll save money.

Does anyone have multiple cars but only one set of seats installed? As in, the car always stays wherever the kids are?

mamahen · May 21, 2011

:yeahthat:

I'll be in this boat come July

mama2girls · May 21, 2011

We have two kids and 3 seats. Either we move the seats when we use a different car or install the spare if someone is taking just one kiddo somewhere. DH and I leave whichever car has the seats with whichever parent has the kids. My in-laws have a seat for their car, but since they have only one seat we usually wind up moving both our seats if we're riding with them. Works for us. I am often amazed by how many "sets" of seats people have, but I think I would have more too if my kids were riding in other cars frequently. They just don't.

lanwenyi · May 21, 2011

Any car the kids ride in reg, they have seats in (or for). There are 2 in our main car, two in the secondary car, and 2 in the daycare van. Our third car (DH's convertible) gets a seat moved to it when DD rides in that car. Our old daycare removed the seats every weekend, so we re-installed every week. Installing daily wouldn't work, nor would having them install (they don't do it to my standards). For obvious reasons, we can't just have daycare drive our car.

When the Gparents watch the kids, we loan them our car. If they're only taking one kid, then we move 1 seat (either a daycare/travel seat or one from the secondary car) to theirs, but if they are taking both kids, they just take our car.

For a LONG time, we had only 3 seats for the 2 kids. Their main seats were in the main car and the Blvd was in the second car. It was easy enough to adjust to fit either kid. When DS was too small for it, if we needed 2 seats in that car, then his bucket was installed baseless. However, usually, we only needed one seat in that car b/c it was only used when DH and I were going diff places w/ 1 kid each.

That became impractical when I went back to work. Sometimes, I take both kids to daycare and he picks both kids up (therefore we need 2 sets of seats). Daycare takes DD (and therefore all the kids in the van) to Pre-school 2x/wk and sometimes runs errands, so they HAVE to have seats there.

Can you get by with fewer seats? Yes, but it will depend on your circumstances/needs. We did for a while, but given our current circumstances, we can't now.

ElfJewel · May 21, 2011

Each of my kids has 3 seats. One in my car, one in DH's car, and a spare. The spare is a lightweight, cheap, easy-to-install seat that I can install each time they go with someone else. We keep them in the garage but I can put them in my trunk if I know I will be dropping them off with someone. I could not take seats out of my car each time. They are too hard to put in.

Jillybeans5 · May 21, 2011

I usually just have the one set of seats and move them on the rare occasion that they ride with someone else. If they needed to ride with someone on a regular basis I would get extra seats and install them only when needed (unless it was every day). Most of the time I would rather switch vehicles than move seats.

Jan06twinmom · May 21, 2011

opheliajoy said:
Does anyone have multiple cars but only one set of seats installed? As in, the car always stays wherever the kids are?

This is what DH and I did at first. We have twins and we only had one set of car seats from the time they were born until 18 months. If my parents drove them during that time, they used our car with the car seats. I think there was one time we had my car in the shop and put car seats in my parents car.

Whoever had the kids kept the kids with the car seats. Our second vehicle was a truck and no room for two car seats.

We ended up buying a second set - and then a third set - when I went back to work. We had two different college students working for us for a couple of years and they both had car seats. When our kids were around 3y10m old, we finally got a second vehicle that could handle car seats.

At that point, it was very important for DH and I to have our own set of car seats because our kids started preschool. Our nanny needed the car seats in her car as well. Many days, one person dropped off the kids and someone else picked them up. There were also days when one parent took one child to preschool, another parent took the other child to an appointment and then to preschool, and the nanny picked up the kids - so we all needed car seats in our cars.

Our kids are in kindergarten and we still need 3 sets of car seats. We could go down to 2 sets if I wasn't working.

Melanie

mylittlet · May 22, 2011

We live 3-4+ hours from grandparents (have for 5y). When we lived close, we moved seats to my parents vehicles or they used their built-ins. Dhs parents weren't allowed to drive our kids after about their 2x doing so. We had asked if they were going somewhere and they said no but did and did so unsafely.

We have sometimes had seats for dh car and sometimes not. We have always had to buy 2 of each type of seat because our kids are close in age, so we don't have a 2nd set until a kids outgrows a seat. Then we might only have 3 seats for the 2 kids. We have 4 kids but only 2 in seats.

My parents don't have a vehicle big enough for the 2 of them and our 4 kids so we switch vehicles. I drive their jeep and they drive my van. We will do this in 2 weeks when I go to cpst update.

Stefanie - CPStech in Iowa

Patriot201 · May 22, 2011

I have four nieces and nephews who are in seats.

H is now in booster seats. She has one in each parent's car (2) and I have one (her other side of the family might have some for her too, but I don't know). So, she has at least three seats.

R has a seat in each parent's car (2) plus one in my car and one in my mom's car. So, she has four seats.

G has a seat in each parent's car (2) and one in my car (his other side of the famly might have seats for him, but I don't know). So, he has at least three seats. He also fits in the seat that my mom has in her car.

S has a seat in each parent's car (2) plus one in my car and one in my mom's car. So, he has four seats.

I leave the seats installed in my car 75% of the time. I might not use my seats for two or three weeks, but then I use them three or four times in one week. I don't want to be unprepared.

BudgieStew · May 22, 2011

See my siggy. Not possible to have just one seat for each child for us.
I have three seats for each child installed at all times due to the fact that DS rides in two cars and DD rides in three cars during the day and the people who pick up/drop off do not even see each other.

gsdguenter · May 22, 2011

We have three seats for each DD.

One set in my car, one in DH's and one in my parents' car.

DH drops the kids off at my mom and dad's house in the am, they watch them all day long - bring to preschool, activities etc. and I pick the DDs up in the pm.

Louisa · May 22, 2011

we have a set for each car the kids regularly travel in, and a spare for each child in the garage for an emergency or unexpected ride.

As a technician i know that most of the mistakes are made in the installation, so i do my best to take that out of the equation by installing all my seats myself and leaving them there.

NVMBR02 · May 22, 2011

We have 3 seats that are always in the car I primarily drive.

In Dh's car we always have 2 seats, either 2 boosters or a booster and a convertible seat depending on which kids are likely to be in the car. Dh drives a small car and it is hard for the big kids to buckle boosters with all three seats in there. I am able to get 3 seats in there if needed, but is just easier on everyone to not have them installed all the time. Dh has only had all 3 kids in his car 1 time since dd2 was born 21 months ago. If someone is taking all three kids somewhere they just take the car with the seats.

So for seats DD1 has 3 booster seats, DS has one harnessed seat and 2 boosters and DD2 has 2 convertible seats. D's current harnessed seat is a Radian so DD2 could ride in that if needed so all three kids have at least 3 seats they could use if we needed to switch seats around for some reason.

VoodooChile · May 22, 2011

We have 2 MA for ds, and 2 Frontiers for dd. We live 12 hours from my parents, but we're about to move closer (about 4 1/2 hours away), and we do spend good parts of the summer there, so my mom has an ETA for her car that she uses for ds and my niece, and she has a hb Turbobooster for my dd.

asch884 · May 22, 2011

I have 3 carseats a frontier 85, a nauti for my 3.5 year old and a booster for my 7 year old.

we have two cars. the frontier 85 is my main seat so that goes in my car and the nauti in my husbands, the booster just travels back adn forth since it isnt straped into the car. On the few times my 3 year old has been with someone else i take the nauti out of my husbands car and put that in grandmas car.

ginny4 · May 22, 2011

i have 4. for quite some time we had one set in our main family vehicle. would switch out one or so whenever necessary. then we had 2 sets when my parents moved closer with a set in theirs but in actuallity it just wasn't necessary & well they didn't always want them installed. now that they are only 2 still in seats. i still have 2 sets but heck the seats are less expensive. the extras are 2 turbo boosters. they are used in our 2nd van OR for my moms Or for a friend. so those seats are in & out of different vehicles sometimes.

jaded · May 22, 2011

2 kids in carseats, 3 sets of seats(depending on what you consider the Nautilus, I've used it for both kids, but it will be used again starting today as a booster in my van)

In my van, it will be the Radian and the Nautilus, in husband's explorer the Britax RA50 and Graco TB, and then as spares/back up seats, Evenflo Tribute and Harmony Literider.

sjfost · May 22, 2011

Parker has 3 high back boosters (2 Turbos & 1 Big Kid) - 1 in my car, 1 in DH's truck, & 1 in my mom's Tahoe

Titan has 2 Marathons, a Radian 65, and a Scenera. The Radian rides in my car, one Marathon rides in DH's truck, the other Marathon sits on our stairs as his spare seat for my mom/dad/siblings to use when they have him. The Scenera is in a box upstairs since I got the Radian and it got demoted to his 2nd backup seat.

Kegracin · May 22, 2011

We have one set for our littles, who ever has them has the suv. (I see this only working a little longer, and have already starting saving

but at the time it was a good place to save money.)

I do install their seats in my IL's car...I don't think my IL's wanted seats in their car 24/7 and this way I always know the seats are installed properly, nor do they watch them enough to justify having there own set.

MissAllyLou · May 22, 2011

The Mom I nanny for and I were just having this conversation! For the first three years she had kids, there was one set of seats, and if anyone needed to take the kids somewhere, they just took Mom's car with the seats. Then I started nannying for them, and needed to be able to do school pick-up and drop-offs, so I had a set.

Currently, Mom has one set, Dad has one set, I have two sets in 2 different cars

, and now Grandpa has one booster and one Nautilus because he sometimes takes the boys to school, and sometimes picks the little one up from school, but never has all three in the car at once. So 14 seats in use weekly for 3 kids.... good thing the boys are both in boosters now!

How many sets of seats? Parents of 2 or more children

New member

Member

New member

New member

New member

Active member

New member

Senior Community Member

Car-Seat.org Ambassador

New member

Well-known member

CPST Instructor

New member

New member

New member

New member

New member

New member

Active member

New member

Car-Seat.Org Facebook Group

Sponsors

Forum statistics