Vent Why not use the HBB portion of a perfectly good HBB?

Brigala

CPST Instructor
I know it's probably not a big deal either way, but I just don't get it. The child I babysit has a high back Turbobooster. She is 5.5 years old. She's been using it for about 2.5 years, and her parents only used the HBB portion for a few months before claiming she had "outgrown" it. I guess they never bothered to notice that the back adjusted.

Well, I asked to borrow the Turbobooster a while back, and I told them I wanted the back. I had to order new arm screws for it, because of course those weren't installed. Eventually, I gave it back to them and it was in her dad's car for a couple of months.

This week she told me that her dad had taken the back off the TB again.

Ok, I get that a LBB is probably ok. I don't know how the shoulder belt fits her in that car, but let's assume that the fit is alright. Fine. The thing is, the HBB fits fine in that car (I helped her buckle in the other day) and she fits great in it with room to spare. So why would you even bother taking the back off a perfectly good HBB? I don't see how it's any easier to buckle in without it. The only thing I can think of is that when she buckled in ("I can do it myself!") I reached back there and put the shoulder belt through the belt guide, and she said "My dad doesn't do it that way." :rolleyes: And I told her that was the way it was supposed to go. I wonder if she made some comment to her dad and somehow he got offended. At the time, I assumed she was just mistaken and that her dad probably did put the belt through the guide (if he bothered to look back there at all to check it, which I doubt) but now I'm not so sure.

I recently bought her a Frontier, which she uses harnessed in her mom's car. I feel so much better about that knowing how crappy her dad is about getting her booster buckled. At least when she buckles herself into the harness, she does it right (although I had to lock the seat belt on her Frontier last time I saw it because her dad had taken it out and put it back in the day before). She uses a Radian or a CA in my car, and she's very good at buckling herself in. Not as good with the booster.

Thanks for letting me vent. :p
 
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littleangelfire

Well-known member
If he moves it in and out of the car often, my guess is he got tired of the back coming off. I like turbo boosters, but hate that the back is so easy to come off - it makes it a little difficult to carry, as I remember. But of course that doesn't mean I took it off. that would be my guess why someone else might, however.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
If he moves it in and out of the car often, my guess is he got tired of the back coming off.

But he doesn't. They used to, but I provided them with a Frontier for one car and an Apex for the other and this booster is pretty much only used for the one car now.

If that were the reasoning, I would just buy them a Harmony LBB or something. Or give them the one I have in my closet for emergencies (which I haven't used yet).

I don't even want to go out to the car now and see whether the belt fits her properly without the HBB portion. I'm afraid if I see it cutting across her neck I'm not going to be able to keep my mouth shut, and the next thing he'll do is stop using a booster all together out of spite. :mad:
 

nevaehsmommy

New member
My sisters partner took off the back of HIS sons booster bc he thought he broke it. He remembered reading that it converted to a LBB and there was nothing wrong with the bottom part. :rolleyes: Apart from that "it says right on the booster he was old enough" Yeah ok. He is getting an education now though. My sister has 3 RFers. One who is the same age as when he put his son in a booster (3)
 

Carrie_R

Ambassador - CPS Technician
I'm sorry... I feel your pain. Three of the four families I've worked with over the last couple of years have been great and awesomely receptive, but that fourth family... Gah. In moms car the 4yo is most often restrained chest-clip only, and in dads car he sits on the straps. I don't get it, either. :( At least she is in a booster and buckled... That's a lot better than some kids her age :)
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
At least she is in a booster and buckled... That's a lot better than some kids her age :)

True.

She's not just some random day care kid, though. She's family and I would just be heartsick if something happened to her. It's just really hard to watch. She's finally getting to the point now where she's booster ready, but she wasn't 6 months ago... yet she's been in a booster since she was about 3. I don't recall exactly when her parents switched her over, but I do know that she was already using a LBB when I bought the Apex for her to use in my car more than two years ago; so she was 3 to 3.5 years old then. I think they moved her into the Turbobooster when she was a little under three.

And they moved her to a FF-only car seat when she was about 9 or 10 months old. And now they want another kid and part of me hopes they won't be able to have one so I don't have to watch this train wreck all over again. Although at least the mom seems to be trying to do a little better now (she made new friends who she listens to more than she listens to me) and she's the one who asked me if she could use the Apex to put her back in a harness in her car a little less than a year ago. So maybe the next kid will at least RF to 1 & 20 and harness to 4 & 40 as the law requires. :p
 

Carrie_R

Ambassador - CPS Technician
Hey, I feel ya. Although my gang is not literally family, (not sure if yours is,) I have had the same set of families in and out of my care since 2002. The oldest ones (ten this year) were under a year when I met them, and I've spent 50 hours a week with the littles since we counted their age in days.

I say this not as one-upmanship but to say that I am the LAST person who writes kiddos off as "just some day care kid." :) I would spend my last penny to get them safe seats, IF their parents would use them... But unfortunately, at the end of the day, you can't *make* someone care. Trust me, I've tried. Every now and then, I feel like I get through to them... But inevitably it's back to the same ol same ol. I teach the kids to advocate for themselves as best they can, but then again, they are led by example and if their parents are apathetic, I can't be too hard on the kids.

All I can do is take it one trip at a time, provide then the tools, and make them as safe as I can. Sometimes, I have to just not look - like at the unboostered 7yo in the front seat. And I pray, a lot - mostly that their parents will never learn that I was right in my harping all of these years. I sincerely hope to remain in the wrong - I pray it remains "not a big deal." I loooove to be right, but I genuinely hope this is the one time I am not.

All of that said, these are good parents... They love their kids, value them and want the best for them. But they (like so many) see vehicles as a mundane, everyday thing, and not as the deadly weapon that we all know they can be. And society sides with them, somehow freaking out about cancer and lead and playground coverings... But not the thing that kills more young people than anything else. It's madness, it truly is.

Anyways... Off soapbox, and sorry to derail your thread. As you can tell I have a lot of pent up frustration on the subject. Lol.
 

Brigala

CPST Instructor
I say this not as one-upmanship but to say that I am the LAST person who writes kiddos off as "just some day care kid." :)

Oh, I don't take it the wrong way at all! And I have had "day care kids" also and I love them like they're my own. The difference with this girl is that because they're (literally) family (and there are some strange family politics involved) anything I say or do is somehow invalid. It was all I could do to bite my tongue when the girl's mom was in my car and the child was riding in the Apex and she looked at it like she'd never seen it before and said "Oh, that's an interesting seat," and proceeded to tell me about her new friends/neighbors who are EMTs who harness their 6 y.o. kids and blah blah blah like she's never even heard of the idea but it seems so great and if only she'd known... she seems to have conveniently forgotten how pissed off she was at me when I bought the seat to use for her daughter in my car because, at 3 years old, I couldn't get her to stop playing with and ducking out of the seat belt on her booster. She was literally disgusted with me for spending (gasp) $90 on the seat when a booster is under $15 at Walmart and, in her view, would be just fine because her child was 40 lbs and therefore legal for the booster. And she didn't appreciate me treating her daughter like a baby and putting her in a baby seat.

But I kept my mouth shut, and smiled and said the Apex wasn't really suiting my needs anymore now that I had a baby and needed a narrower seat, and she was welcome to take it for her car. It's all I can do.

And society sides with them, somehow freaking out about cancer and lead and playground coverings... But not the thing that kills more young people than anything else. It's madness, it truly is.

Anyways... Off soapbox, and sorry to derail your thread. As you can tell I have a lot of pent up frustration on the subject. Lol.

You and me both. I'm just glad I have a place to vent once in a while. Thanks for understanding!
 

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