Do we need another car seat?

We are a 2-car family, but we only have a car seat base in the newer, safer car (a 2010 impreza). Until recently, we always just left the Impreza with whichever parent had the baby. With the horrible road conditions, though, I have been taking the Impreza more often (our '98 honda accord doesn't have 4-wheel drive). This was okay, though, because most of the time when my husband is home with the baby in the winter, they don't NEED to go anywhere while i am out. And if he really needed to go somewhere while I was at work (like recently he had to go drop off dry-cleaning for a meeting he needed to be at the next day) he could just do the baseless install of the infant seat in the accord.

Now, as we're transitioning to a convertible, I am wondering if it's unsafe to have only one car seat. We're hoping to replace the honda soon, so pretty soon we'd likely have two 4-wheel drive vehicles and this would be a moot point except in cases of not knowing who would be home first (my in-laws watch my daughter when we both are at work at the same time and they will have a car seat in their car).

Are you comfortable with whomever is at home not having a car seat in case they need one unexpectedly? If not, should we get a cheap one? We just spent $260 on a nextfit, assuming it and the one for the in-laws would be the only two we'd need.

I suppose it's kinda the same situation as if we were washing the cover and it hadn't dried yet, but we needed to be somewhere. What do people do? This is my first kid and I'm still getting used to thinking all this through. Do you just give up some of your freedom? Or do you get a back-up seat? Recommendations?

We bought three convertibles for G when he graduated from the infant seat. It just made sense. I don't trust my hubby or MIL to install seats and I don't want to have issues with emergency pick ups or drop offs and there not being a seat available.

The expense on a spare seat for me was worth it. I grabbed a Classic Marathon for MIL at a good deal and that's HER seat for G. Even if you are good at installs, constantly moving a heavy seat like the Chicco would be a PAIN and if you are in a hurry there's that slight room for error.

Just my :twocents: !

Yes, pick up a less-expensive spare. A Classic Marathon, My Ride, Size4Me, Sureride, Guide65, something like that.

When we transitioned my DD to a convertible, I honestly thought we could get by with one seat...I don't know what I was thinking! It was way too complicated making sure the seat was in the right car, and then trying to get the seat properly installed everytime was a nightmare (it was an Onside Air which is a PITA to install rfing). It lasted about 2 weeks before I went out and bought another seat! PP listed some good budget friendly ones

Yes to at least a second (although if the inlaws are a regular set of caregivers, also a 3rd seat) when it's a convertible. I actually have 5 seats that can be used by my kiddos and one booster for emergency pick ups of other kids or my nieces. My oldest will start using that booster to train in March-ish, when he is 4.5. I have two in the primary vehicle and two in my mom's van as well and one convertible that will be tossed soon . It will expire in 2015, but my youngest will (if he hasn't already, it's been a while since he's been in it) outgrow it RFing long before I'm ready for him to FF. But I don't want to sell it with just barely over a year left of life :/. If my inlaws want the kids for a weekend or something, I will install seats for them, but that happens like every 6-9 months, so not a worry about constant re-installing.

I always keep a spare at home. I have 2 kids that got carsick a lot, so they came in handy.

We went for a few months with only one carseat in one of our vehicles. We had 3 convertibles and just stuck with them between when DS grew out of the infant seat and when we bought a FF seat a couple months after DD started FF.

It was definitely do-able I don't remember how often I left DH home with both kids and the vehicle with only one seat, I don't think I got out by myself that often. If it was a regular occurrence and for longer amounts of time I'd probably want enough seats in both vehicles.

I always had at least a car seat for every car. I usually had a nice seat for the main ride and then the least expensive seat I could get for the other cars. So if I had a child that used rear facing seat now, I would get probably a Britax or Radian for the main ride and Sceneras for the other three cars we have.

The Sureride is another good option for a low cost seat that will last a really long time, 40lbs and 40" RFing limit (taller than the Scenera) and much longer FFing. But I'm slightly biased against the Scenera, I have one and my oldest outgrew it RFing at 16months and my youngest has or will soon (17months). However, my kids are 90-95% for height and weight, soooo, that skews my results with seats

You do know that when you ask on this board "should I buy a car seat?" the answer is almost always going to be yes!

But seriously - an inexpensive spare seat is a good idea. I wouldn't say it is urgent to get one, but keep an eye on for sales and snap one up if you find a good deal.

jjordan said:

You do know that when you ask on this board "should I buy a car seat?" the answer is almost always going to be yes!

But seriously - an inexpensive spare seat is a good idea. I wouldn't say it is urgent to get one, but keep an eye on for sales and snap one up if you find a good deal.

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This made me smile after a hard day. I think that's why my husband is skeptical. We just bought a Nextfit for our familly car and a britax for the in-laws, so I think my husband smelled a conspiracy when I brought up the idea of a back-up seat.

I'm sure it wouldn't be long before one of you was home alone with the baby and needed to go somewhere. I would just keep one car seat installed in each main vehicle. And down the road you might even want a spare to keep in the house just in case :duck: says the woman with 3 unused car seats and no kids (I'm not babysitting often at the moment)

Our kids ride in both of our vehicles daily, since DH and I trade off on daycare dropoff and pickup duties. So we have a seat in each car - I have seen one or two families at daycare try to share one convertible between two cars and it never seems to work out well.

My parents have a Keyfit base and a Marathon 70. They stay installed in my mom's car all the time and if they need to be uninstalled and re-installed, they have me or DH check the install before the child rides in their car. They're our emergency pickup people for daycare and my mom takes L to her ballet lesson every week, so it's just easiest for them to have their own set of seats. I would be fine with them having cheaper ones, but they insist on having the same seats we have in our cars and since they pay we don't argue!

I would buy a 3rd seat, which is also handy if one of the other 2 gets crashed. I always like having a back up seat or two for my kids.

Definitely. And not just because buying carseats us fun. You or your husband could be home with baby and baby could split their lip or head open and need to go to the ER. Or get sick or whatever. You can get an inexpensive back-up for as low as $50 so it's totally worth it IMO. And apparently other posters too