WWYD? Horrible misuse observed at daycare

oxeye

New member
As I was leaving daycare with my girls tonight I looked over and saw a mom put her 4-4.5 year old in a high back booster with the shoulder-belt behind her back.

My older daughter told me the girl's name and I know she is in the same class (which is how I know her age).

What would you do? Talk to someone at the daycare center? Leave it alone? Put a note in the girl's cubby for her mother?

I normally just try to ignore this stuff but this was awful. A child her age could have life-threatening injuries from essentially a lap-only belt in even a minor collision correct?

UGH.
 
ADS

bethng

Active member
I would have walked up to the mother and said something like "I noticed that your daughter has the shoulder strap behind her and it worries me because that can cause grave injurys in a crash. Is there a reason she needs it behind her? And depending on the answer, try to suggest an alternative seat or if the daughter is just in the habit of doing it, talke directly to the child that its dangerous and please dont do that anymore because I would be very sad if you got hurt! But I can be bold. lol
 

oxeye

New member
I would have walked up to the mother and said something like "I noticed that your daughter has the shoulder strap behind her and it worries me because that can cause grave injurys in a crash. Is there a reason she needs it behind her? And depending on the answer, try to suggest an alternative seat or if the daughter is just in the habit of doing it, talke directly to the child that its dangerous and please dont do that anymore because I would be very sad if you got hurt! But I can be bold. lol

I was already in the car about to pull out of my spot - and honestly, I'm a chicken about confronting people directly. :(

The child didn't put the belt behind her back. The mother buckled her in and did it. :(
 
I was in a similar situation once and I approached the centre mananger (I was working there at the time).
She spoke to them and got them into car seats. They came to NZ from South Africa and had no seats for the two children.

Lucky for them, they were in an accident (not lucky) but this was just 2 weeks after the issue was bought up and thankfully they were in standards approved seats and suffered only cuts and bruises.

I was unsure today whether or not to pluck a car seat from the side of the road, and I decided, yes i would. So I took it to our local car seat scheme and they will take it to the dump. YEY!!
 

CRS

Senior Community Member
I know what you mean about not feeling terribly comfortable about confronting strangers.. does your daycare have a newsletter they hand out every week or so? You could talk to the people who run the daycare and ask if you could put something in about carseats/boosters?
 

MomToEliEm

Moderator
One solution is to do a mass distribution of information to everyone and hopefully it will get in the hands of that mother. One brochure I have given out to my child's daycare was the updated "Are you using it right" brochure and it really is good with pictures of good usage and misusage. I was able to request 200 brochures with no problem (requested 100 at a time as that is the limit) and I had the brochures within 6 days of requesting them.

Find out how many kids there are in the school. Request that many brochures from this site (the brochure is free and there is no shipping costs). Then ask the director of the daycare if she would be willing to distribute them. Then after they are distributed, you can see if that other mom is still doing the misuse. If she is, you can approach her and say, "Did you see the misuse pictures in that brochure the school sent out? One of the things I learned was that you should never put a shoulder belt behind the child. I am so glad I learned that as I was making a similar mistake with my own child."

To get it, go to: http://www.usaaedfoundation.org/
Select the "Order Publications" link at the top of the form.
Select publication "544 - Installing Child Safety Seats"
You can order up to 100 brochures at a time.
 

daycaremom2002

Active member
I agree. I would speak to the director and see if they will hand out the fliers. There may be more people who aren't using their seats correctly, or have the wrong seats and this will get information to all of them. Many will be appreciative of this gesture and thank the school. Hopefully this mom will take the necessary steps to properly restrain her child.
 

amy919

New member
I do know how you feel. It amazes me what I see at my girls' school. It rare to see anyone over 10 months rearfacing and Kaylie is is only kid in her class still in a narness with the exception of maybe one other little girl. Teagan is definitely the only RF one in her room.

I've approached some of the parents that I know, but I've gotten more negative responses than positive. I did get one or two great positive response, though. So I do keep trying. I keep it light and friendly and really only approach the ones I know.

Our school publishes a monthly newsletter and I actually wrote to them and they did do a full one page article on car seat safety laws. But, as we all know, the rules aren't really enough.
 
Dd3 just started school in the HeadStart program here (for 3-4 yr. olds). I intentionally did NOT look into peoples' cars for the first few weeks because I didn't want to deal with how to approach people I barely know, but will have to socialize with (albeit superficially) for the entire school year. Now I am getting to know many of the parents from chatting during drop-off/pick-ups, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find many of the kids still in 5 pt. harness seats! :thumbsup: HeadStart generally means low-income, so many of the seats are older, and manufactured by the major players, and possibly in need of replacement or better installation, but so far I've only seen 2 of the LOs ride off in a booster (one was backless though :( ), and NONE in the adult seatbelts. :love:

One gal told me she's been in several accidents (like, 4 or 5!) over the years, and that she is very careful about keeping the kids buckled in properly, and harnessed until they outgrow the 40# seat, then boostered until... :confused: Probably she meant until they turn 8 (per VA law), but I don't remember her finishing that sentiment. Her seat for her baby is a newer-looking travel system, but her preschooler's 5 pt. is older and beat up. I'm going to try and get a good look at it when I get the chance. I already told her about newer seats harnessing up to 65 and 80#, and she seemed interested. But tight budgeting might be an issue, so in all likelihood the Apex is going to be the seat of choice for a lot of people looking to harness longer. :shrug-shoulders:

I already put on my parent volunteer form that I'd be willing to give a talk on carseat safety, so I am going to go order that brochure now and have something "official" to pass out besides word-of-mouth info. :thumbsup: Thanks! (Sorry for the derail :eek: )
 

SusanMae

Senior Community Member
I think we should get Tiffany to take her daughter around to various preschools and let Leila do presentations to her peers on proper carseat/booster use!

Susan
 

NOAHSMOM

New member
I have a hard time going up to other parents at daycare too. Last spring on a field trip I transported as well as some other parents. I noticed (while driving) that the car ahead of me had a 4 year old in a backless booster sitting in the middle position w/just a lap belt. I told the teacher as soon as we got to our destination and she moved that child to another car. The parent has not acted friendly towards me since and has one of her children sitting in the middle position w/a backless booster (she has a now 5 yr old, 4 yr old, and newborn). And now I know that she knows better.

One day when I was backing up in my car I saw my ds's bf arriving, I noticed in his(bf's dad's) car that they had turned their infant rf in a cargo. I didn't get out of my car and say anything because I thought that I would approach him at a better time, but than I never dropped my ds off at the same time as he dropped off his dd for months...so I should have gotten out and said something.

I spoke with my son's teacher about my concern's (she shared some of them) and she is going to send home a backpack (they send home "educational backpacks" on a routating basis) on carsafety.
 

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