mlohry
New member
Today my neighbor who does daycare for a couple kids and I went to the store together. We took my van and she had 1 kid today. So I installed the car seat into our van as I wanted to be sure it was safe as I would be driving. When we got back. I told her about how the straps had to be above the child's shoulders and had noticed that they weren't so I fixed those and gave her the seat back. I kind of watched her put it back into her car and was pretty sure she had not let the seat belt ratchet back. When she was done I walked over to the seat and she hadn't, I asked her if she knew she had to do that and she said no, I never have done that and really didn't know what I was taking about. I showed her how to do it. Then had her do it. She also has a baby in a carrier seat and she had the base and asked if she had to do the same thing, so I showed her how to do that too. She had never actually tightened the seat belt. She assumed it acted like a seat belt on an adult and would tighten in a crash! Yikes! She drives kids she watches around a lot as she picks up her own kids from school, so all this time, she had not been doing this correctly.
She also brought up that her 8 year old loved to sit in their other car without smart air bags. I explained how dangerous that was. We have already had the discussion about boostering her 8 yr old, but we live in FL and he hasn't been in a boosted since 5! Anyway, at least I helped her with the little kids.
I just think it's sad, she felt horrible that she had done it wrong all these times. Obviously she had never read a manual. I also think it's sad that the parents of the kids just assumed their kids were safe. Who knows maybe they are making the same mistakes.
She also brought up that her 8 year old loved to sit in their other car without smart air bags. I explained how dangerous that was. We have already had the discussion about boostering her 8 yr old, but we live in FL and he hasn't been in a boosted since 5! Anyway, at least I helped her with the little kids.
I just think it's sad, she felt horrible that she had done it wrong all these times. Obviously she had never read a manual. I also think it's sad that the parents of the kids just assumed their kids were safe. Who knows maybe they are making the same mistakes.