Your 1st carseat:Letting Go

Not too long ago I got rid of my first carseat. Wonder if anyone else found this a bit difficult due to an unreasonable attachment to it?

My first was a Britax Chaperone that my grandmother bought me before passing away. Actually she was senile but her children helped her give this gift, though I chose the seat. It went through my first 3 infants in nearly perfect condition and was all set to get the 4th baby through 9 months old, at which point it would have expired (and he probably would have outgrown it then anyway).

I figured it'd be good to keep to use in the stroller long after its carseat days were over. But I decided it was time to move on. Without time to sell it (it needed a home right away so it could be used before expiring), I gave it away to a good home (and I felt like checking references)who could use it for under a year while deciding on convertibles. I actually wanted to make sure it'd be loved and used. We had stopped using the seat after a policewoman at a seat check told me it had expired, due to her bad math and incorrect information about its lifespan. She said to yank the straps out and set it on the curb. Gulp! I'd have used it for my daughter's baby dolls first. That was like being told it had a disease, and we waited sadly for its death. So the 3rd kid started in a convertible before he really had to, while the perfectly good non-expired seat sat there.

For baby #4, I decided I wanted a bucket seat that would get us through this winter and simply click into a stroller. So I upgraded to the Chaperone (and was a bit annoyed my Britax stroller then didn't fit it; so I sold that stroller). Now, by wintertime I'll have a heavy 9-month-old that I can't simply carry around in his seat (easily, anyway). So I outfitted the jogger stroller with an adaptor and am ready to plow through snow during kindergarten drop-off. This is better than carrying a baby through snow and ice dealing with somehow keeping him warm while not using a bulky coat in 0 degree weather! I love my bucket seat!

I wonder if I'll be able to give up our other seats easily. So far I don't have as much attachment to them. Actually, some days I hate the Radian and its straps. But all things considered, we've learned to get along and appreciate the good things they offer. And we're growing together as a family.

I am having heart palpitations at the thought of getting rid of my safeseat one in Roxy. I love that seat. It is like the little engine that could.

My first car seat was an evenflo on my way infant seat, trust me I had no problems letting go of that.

My MA's were really hard to let go of though, I still think of maybe buying a classic MA, I so miss my 2 Cowmoo MA's.

MY first carseat was a crappysport. I was **thrilled** to see that POS go LOL !!!!

ODS' first seat-a Speedway MA will expire next summer. When it dies, it will donate it's clothes to the other MA, which will expire the following year. I don't know what I'll do with the cover at that point, because I won't be buying any more convertibles. I just love it next to the Nitro XTSL, and it's been in my backseat for close to five years!
I'll probably feel attached to the XTSL also because it allows both kids to rf till almost 5. I plan on keeping it until the bitter end as well.
The rest of my seats, I could take or leave.

I get sentimental about all my kids' baby stuff and have a hard time parting with it - cribs, highchairs, carseats....My kids each had a BabyTrend Latch Loc seat, and I had the snap-n-go double stroller. I loved them. I sold the whole set to a woman who was pregnant with twins. When she came to pick them up she seemed so depressed. She hardly showed any interest in the seats or the stroller. I felt really bad for her. Finding out your having twins is certainly a shock and scary. I also felt a little bad that my seats weren't going to a "happy place" (isn't that ridiculous!!!) I sometimes wonder how that mom is. Her mom was with her and seemed very upbeat and cheerful. Hopefully it all worked out for them.

I had our 1st 2 Britax seats sitting in our garage up until today. They were both expired. I really liked both of those seats. I cut out all the straps, wrote in black perm marker expired all over them and DH hauled them to the dump. I did feel bad

Our first seat was a SR22 that my Grandma got me, so doesn't even have a pattern I like. I have no love for that seat and am not at all sorry to see it go.
I am going to be sad when our FPSVD expires next year though.

I think I would be really sad to have to destroy a seat because of expiry. I upgrade too often, lol I've never had a seat more than a year or 2....I get bored.
I just imagine all my past seats are happy and loved and don't dwell on it. I know my princess radian 80 was crashed

Sent from my EVO using Car-Seat.Org

I had no love for the Turnabout infant seat that was handed down to me in 1998. But the first one I bought myself was a Century Ovation in 1999. I finally ditched it in 2010. SelinaJean kindly traded it in for me at BRU & picked up my True Fit for me .

I still miss my classic marathons.

I also miss my true fits.

The first car seat I ever bought was an eb 3/1 seat for my niece back in 2002. I bought it, unboxed it, played with it, admired it's beauty (cobalt blue with black), and took it over to install it. I loved it. A few years later I replaced it with a Platinum Cargo and Next Step. Those were great seats in their day. I still have a fondness for the Next Step.

I think that's it. There are others, but I don't miss them.

I still have my first seat, and its brother that I found for free years later. It is now 18 years old.

I had two first car seats I got at the same time. One was a evenflo bucket. Got rid of that one really soon after all the recalls came out. The 2nd was an old evenflo triumph. Traded it in without batting an eye at BRU for a discount on my ds2's CA (when they were brand new and only the 2nd 40lb rfing seat on the market!)

ctbcleveland said:

I am having heart palpitations at the thought of getting rid of my safeseat one in Roxy. I love that seat. It is like the little engine that could.

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Me too! We have a SS1 in the G Collection cover and it is due to expire this December. It is basically our first seat for DS1 and the only seat I have left from his early years. I use it for DS2 in DH's car and I still love it. Can't believe it is going to expire soon.

Heh. I think my first 3 car seats were crashed. I wasn't sentimental about getting rid of them...

I don't miss our first seats but our Evenflo Triumphs are expiring in Dec. and I will really miss them!I truly loved those seats!

Our first seat was a snugride20. We crashed and the insurance company took it. They won't let me even keep the covers. We used the seat for dd1 and ds1. We crashed when ds1 was 6w old. Dd1 was in a fpse for the crash.

We replaced with leopard RA. I will say I was said to see them go. We used them until they expired.

Stefanie - CPStech in Iowa

I have my Snugride in Blueberry in Ds2's closet. It expired in december of 2009. lol.

My first seat is still in use. My SIL took it for my first nephew, and never gave it back. I didn't need it for our baby, because it expired a month after she was born and SHE KNEW THAT and she is still using it anyway. For my 2nd nephew, who is WAY too big for it (yes I've told her that), and the seat has been expired for over a year. Nice. I am getting that seat back. I don't care if we're not having any more babies, it's MINE and I want it destroyed so no one else will use it!!!! But yes, I will be a little sad over it. Although mainly it ticks me off that she doesn't care and still uses the seats. And then buys the cheapest, crappiest seats possible to replace them and believe me, they have plenty of money to spend a few hundred on nice carseats.

I can barely remember my first seat - the Bobby Mac - 31 years ago. But I did feel sad when my beloved FP shield convertible seat got outgrown. Also, when my original RA in the snow leopard - not sure if that's what it was called - expired I had a hard time letting that one go. Loved that seat almost as much as the FP.