Help on what to do please!

I traveled last year with my son (just us 2) on a plane and he had his own seat. I had the Britax 70 then and it was HORRIBLE traveling with him and his stuff by myself. He was a year old then.

Next month I have to travel with him by myself again. He has to stay with his grandparents for 3 weeks so I'm going to drop him off and coming back alone. My ILs are planning to come up with my son to drop him back at home.

This year I have the Britax still, which I haven't been using because he's too tall to rearface in it still. So I got a Diono Radian RXT for him and he still rear-faces.

Granted I think it'll be easier to travel with the Diono as it can fold up and I can wear it like a backpack (which the weight doesn't bother me, I'm used to ruck marching with a 35lb bag on my back).

The things I'm worried about are

1) It's a pain to install. My IL's switch the carseat back and forth between cars all the time. Between their trucks depending on who's dropping him off to the Aunt's house, and the Aunt's car because she babysits him while they're working. They're not very familiar with carseats, and I have a feeling they'll be ok with this one once I explain it but it may be easier to get a simpler carseat for them.

2) I'd like to just have it installed in our car for them when they get here. But the problem would be them not having a carseat when they get here.

3) I saw I could get the CARES harness thing for the plane, but I worry if he gets fussy if he'll stay in the seat. And this will probably be the only time I'd use it. We're going to CA in August, but since my husband and I are renting a car and my husband will be going with me we're just going to bring his carseat.

4) I was thinking of maybe buying a carseat and having it shipped to their house, but I don't want to spend a small fortune. If I can keep it under $100 that'd be nice. And I'd want something light they can carry on an airplane.

If I do get another seat to ship to them what are some suggestions? I'd really like to keep him rear-facing, but I'm not sure how possible that is with a cheaper carseat. I need some suggestions on what to do. Should I just go with the extra carseat or just bring the Diono down there and make sure they understand how to use it? Or should I install the Diono in their car (meaning I bring it on the plane) to bring back with them and get a cheap carseat for them to move around (even if it's forward-facing, I'd rather him be strapped in a carseat and the seat installed right then not)?

His measurements
Height: 35.1"
Sitting: 13" (or about there, he was fighting me so it was a little hard)
Weight: 30lbs

I'm sorry if this is confusing and seems way out there. I'm tried to explain it as well as I could.

So there are three cars "there" that the carseat will be repeatedly installed/uninstalled in?
I don't get your #2 concern.

Sorry, I bumped "send" too soon - using the phone app.

I recently flew with our radian and ended up FF'ing it on the plane. It didn't seem like it would fit at all RF with the amount of room front-to-back. So that had me changing shoulder strap slots in a hurry while doing the plane install.
At least for the flight home I was prepared.

aept said:

So there are three cars "there" that the carseat will be repeatedly installed/uninstalled in?
I don't get your #2 concern.

Sorry, I bumped "send" too soon - using the phone app.

I recently flew with our radian and ended up FF'ing it on the plane. It didn't seem like it would fit at all RF with the amount of room front-to-back. So that had me changing shoulder strap slots in a hurry while doing the plane install.
At least for the flight home I was prepared.

Click to expand...

#2 is if I don't bring a carseat with me at all and just have one shipped to their house. Only because when they come to drop him off (they're going to be coming before anyone of us are home and I'm going to give them spare keys to our house and car) they'll be using our car to get around. I guess it wouldn't matter. Never mind about that one.

I plan on FFing him on the plane anyway. I did when he was a year old too. It just seemed like less of a hassle. He still RFs in the car. But if it comes down to it I'd rather just have the seat installed right and him in there right.

Gotcha!
Hmmmm. Do all of the in-laws/aunts cars have LATCH?
Hopefully they do? Because a radian latch install RF is really relatively easy. I wouldn't worry about RF tethering - just keep the tether stowed.

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aept said:

Gotcha!
Hmmmm. Do all of the in-laws/aunts cars have LATCH?
Hopefully they do? Because a radian latch install RF is really relatively easy. I wouldn't worry about RF tethering - just keep the tether stowed.

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Click to expand...

I'm not sure of the aunt's car (or if it'll even fit). Their trucks have LATCH however and it should fit in there since there's more room than our Rav4.

I guess I could get a cheap scenera for the aunt's car and just FF it for her. I don't think she goes places often when she's babysitting anyway. They just put it in there just in case and I think they sometimes work different schedules so 1 of them drops him off and the other picks him up.

It actually crossedy mind to get them all sceneras, (ship two or buy them there, travel woth one) and leave them installed in each of their cars.

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aept said:

It actually crossedy mind to get them all sceneras, (ship two or buy them there, travel woth one) and leave them installed in each of their cars.

Sent from my iPhone using Car-Seat.Org

Click to expand...

Thank you for helping my thought process. lol.

I'll probably just buy it when I'm there. My MIL works in walmart anyway so she'll get a discount. I think I'm just going to get 1 because we're moving back there the end of this year so I don't want to go crazy. But I'll leave the Diono and just strap it in their car and show them how to use it when traveling in the airport. I'll just tell them it's a pain sometimes so just move the scenera around if they remember.