Vent my car seat misuse story from yesterday

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is the best way to put it really . . . I went to a friend's to babysit her 3 youngest kids yesterday, she picked me up so I didn't have my carseat or booster nor my vehicle . . . while I was there there was an emergency in which I did not have a choice but to use her other car for a 15 min drive down the road (I am not going into detail because it really was needed) Anywho . . . my DD was not with me THANK GOD.

5year old who never uses a booster ( slouched like crazy during the ride, def would have submarined)

just turned 4 year old weighs less than 40lbs in a LBB ( it was a harmony and to be honst even though I hated that is was not in a 5-point it was actually a pretty good fit all around with the shoulder-belt positioning thingy)

2year old 27lbs in a graco comfort sport( she actually JUST barely fit in this seat FFing her shoulders were barely even with the top slots and her head even with the top of the shell) this one bothered me the most though because it was manufactored in 2002 :thumbsdown: I would have been ok if it has only expired a few months ago but years??

NOW FOR THE SAD PART (as if the above wasn't disturbing enough)

I had to chase down these car-seats first of all, they were not installed, I found them in the detached garage and had to wash the covers of them before I could put the kids in them which delayed my emergency run even longer

they have 6 kids total and have an old 7 passenger van, the van is not used unless all kids are needing to go somewhere, they use their small SUVs otherwise. In the van was **TA-DA** a non-expired Radian 80 the first one I have ever touched( still have mixed feeling about them, but I do like them more in person than theory now)

NOW, I am sure you are all wondering why I didn't use the Radian (or the other 2 non-expired harnessed seats in the van)??? I bet your are thinking a number of things but I doubt you will think of this . . .
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. they were all installed in the van with latch . . . . . connected to random things in the van!!!!!!! SOOO Tight and in such ODD places I could not get them UNDONE!!!! I don't know how they got them IN THERE!!!!!
Although they did use all the top tethers the radian didn't even have the latch belt routed through the belt path it was behind it just pulled so tight with the top-tether that the seats literally had less than one inch of movement in ANY direction


thought you would enjoy!! :evil grin:

Oh, my!

Good Luck if you decide to try to hash this out with her!
(which I hope you do but I understand if you don't!)

I have been thinking about it but they are on vacation now (part of the reason I helped her out yesterday) and I wouldn't know where to start???:thumbsdown:

hey, so-and-so, you know how I was babysitting the other day? Well I noticed some things and thought to might want to know

1-J needs a booster seat
2-R needs a 5-point harness or HBB
3-C needs a rear-facing seat
4-you need to throw away your expired seats or purchase more if you need them still
5-um non of the seats installed in your van will work in a crash,they'll just rip up the back of the van as the seats fly out the windows with your kids in them
6-your Radian Rocks BTW

oh and prob some more things that I haven't noticed yet but hey, this doesn't feel like an attack at all right??

Oh my gosh! What a sight that must have been. Photos? Probably not, but would like to see....

Maybe since she has a Radian, she's interested in car seats and safety. You could mention that you've learned a lot about car seats here on car-seat.org and she might want to check it out.

I don't get how the top tether was tight enough to keep the seat from moving without using LATCH. The bottom of the seat always moves for me if it is not LATCHed or seatbelt installed regardless of how tight the tether was.

But yeah, that's really bad. It sounds like she absolutely needs some carseat help.

Kac said:

I don't get how the top tether was tight enough to keep the seat from moving without using LATCH. The bottom of the seat always moves for me if it is not LATCHed or seatbelt installed regardless of how tight the tether was.

But yeah, that's really bad. It sounds like she absolutely needs some carseat help.

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oh they were using latch . . . there wasn't a single seat that wasn't using every single latch and tether hook to connect to SOMETHING . . . the latch just wasn't routed through the belt-path it was connected to that piece of webbing that makes sure you don't loose the latch belt and it was being secured by putting tension on that by threading the entire latch belt through the seat bite and out the back of the seat and "latched" onto the floor and underneath the seat . . . if that even makes sense.

I am going to look up some specific links to show her and maybe a link or two to some threads here that discuss why you can't use latch without actual latch things. The sad thing is that I honestly think she thinks she is doing a good job, it honestly took a lot of time and thought to get those seats in like that and she owns quite a few different seats (I think C usually rides in a MyRide in the SUV that mom drives) She knows I am a car seat nut and we have talked about how important it is before and when I have seen her put the two youngest in her suv before she always made sure to tighten the harness and they always appeared installed correctly without putting them under the microscope lol but then again her SUV has the latch system and the van doesn't . . . I have no doubt she has tight installs lol they were so tight in the van I couldn't get enough slack by putting all of my 200lbs of body weight on the seats to loosen the adjusters

You should see if you can find a car seat check and have her go with you. She will probably be more receptive to the corrections if they are not coming from a friend but from a tech.

monica-m said:

You should see if you can find a car seat check and have her go with you. She will probably be more receptive to the corrections if they are not coming from a friend but from a tech.

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:yeahthatsad:

Depending on your relationship, I would start with telling her you think the Radian "might" be installed wrong, and ask her to come with you to the car seat check. If that doesn't sound like a good idea for your friend, just tell her you want to go to the car seat check but you don't want to go alone (you know, it's like going to the bathroom alone, right??). Bring your own car and kid(s) and have it checked out at the same time. And try to be too busy getting all your own issues fixed (if you have any!) to notice what the techs are talking to your friend about.

Thanks for all of the suggestions :thumbsup: