It's all in the details!

My 6 yr old granddaughter (38 lbs) is in a Radian, center back seat, in her dad's truck. He has a new girlfriend with a 7 yr old daughter (around 50 lbs) and a 9 yr old son. They don't use any kind of safety restraint but have those little seat belt adjusters that come with the car in their mom's vehicle. I asked my son to please use a booster (spare he already had) at least for the girl, when they rode in his truck. He did, for a 2 hr trip they took a few weeks ago.

We all just went to our cabin this weekend and I, of course, checked out his truck to see the seat arrangement (after we got there). I was surprised to see the Radian outboard and the spare Platinum Cargo also outboard. Eeeek! That would put the 9 yr old in the center which is a LAP BELT! Oh, my... I agonized over how to say something. AND... if my GD was in the Radian, that meant the 50 lb girl was harnessed in the 40 lb limit Cargo for a 2 1/2 hr drive!!!! I finally asked the GF (who is very nice BTW) who was in what seat. She said her daughter was in the Cargo. I told her about the limit and said, on the way home, to put my GD in the Cargo and hers in the Radian. She said OK. Then I hesitantly addressed the issue of the boy and how dangerous lap belts are. She said shyly, Oh he wasn't back there. They put the two dogs (60 lbs and 30 lbs) back there (in the middle) and the boy was in the FRONT middle lap belt.

I have told my son before how dangerous it is to have the dogs unrestrained in the vehicle, told him about lap belts, etc. And then all of this. I ended up moving the Radian back to the center and taking his dogs with me. They said they would put the boy in the back (but I wasn't able to see how the lap/shoulder belt fit him. I was already told before that a booster was not going to happen for him so he probably put the belt behind his back.

I am just so saddened by all of this. My son is almost 30 and usually pretty smart about things. We get along really well. He has let me tell him what to do about my DGD's seat up to now. And he seems to be trying to do what he thinks I want (ex: using harnessed Cargo for girl) Even the new GF seems to be willing to go along with my quirks to a certain extent.

But things with these new kids are happening faster than I can control now or do anything about. I guess I'll keep plugging away, a little bit at a time.

It's hard when they are trying but are just not getting the whole picture. It's hard to think of what safety and install details might stick in someone's head when they are trying to arrange seating. I'm glad they are being good about it and that is wonderful that you were able to take the dogs...though I suppose that probably meant you had to ride with them loose in order to keep the kids safer.

My mom didn't "get" the unrestrained pet thing (he's well behaved you know ) till I showed her the video of the unrestrained driver flopping all around inside the vehicle -- it's in my website & sometime soon I'll be adding a blurb with links about Lap Only belts, etc.

Luckily, we have a pickup with a shell. We put all 4 dogs (theirs and ours) in the back. I have harnesses for my dogs that I use when I have DGD in my Expedition, but my husband thinks they are ridiculous , so we use his truck and shell as much as possible.

And that's it. They are trying to please (or placate ) me! I cringe whenever I see that I have to say something else. I truly am not looking for things to gripe about but I'm afraid that's how it probably looks to them...

Back when we had our pup, we had a seatbelt for her. The carseat tech who installed DS' infant seat went NUTS when she saw it, she thought it was the best thing ever

I'm sorry for you! At least they took your advice!

It sounds like you did a really good job "plugging away". Sometimes that's all we can do. Good job!