Holy Educational moment, bat-freaks

ThreeBeans

New member
Ok, small background on this story. We've been involved with Early Intervention since Bean the First was a bitty boy of 17 months. Bean the First is now aging out of Early Intervention and starting Early Childhood Ed through the public preschool, and Bean the Second is continuing on in Early Intervention.

We've been attending the same Parent-Child Playgroup since Bean the First was tiny...Monday mornings at nine am. Due to employee shift, that group has disbanded and we need to go to Thursday morning Parent-Child Group (Sigh. I hate changing routines :rolleyes:)

Ok, moving on. Sarah is Bean the First's service coordinator as well as the leader for the parent separation group at the Parent-Child Playgroup. A few months back, I helped her install her carseat for her dd properly, then I helped her pick out a FPSVD for her dd who had outgrown her evenflo (she's still harnessed at 5.5, yay!)

So anyhow, I come into the parent-separation group all nervous because I'm the newcomer, right? And one of the ladies says, "Oh, you're ThreeBeans! Sarah says you're going to tell us how to use our carseats!"

And I do this :eek:

But she was just teasing and then everyone had all sorts of questions and I was able to do the following advocacy:

1. Convince one mom to turn her 19 lb 2 year old rearfacing
2. Explain that a 25 pound baby was too heavy for an infant carrier (recommend the Cosco Scenera)
3. Convince a mom of a 28 pound 1 year old to turn him rearfacing
4. Convince a dad of a 46 pound 2 year old (in the five point harness of an AO) and a 35 pound 4 year old (in a backless booster without a belt adjust) to buy Regents for both of them.

They want me to inspect their seats once I get my certification, and the mom of the 25 pound baby wants me to come to her support group of foster parents and show them the proper way to restrain their kids. Yay for advocacy!
 
ADS

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
WOW! Congrats! What a productive time. LOL

A lady whose seats I checked has had me check her sister and sister-in-law's seats, and 11 of her friends have called me. Friend #8 said that I was all they talked about at Gymboree. EEK! Friend #11 just emailed, so I must be nearly through the class by now.

Wendy
 

ThreeBeans

New member
LMAO!

Here's a question for techs. Once I'm certified, can I just willy-nilly check people's carseats? Do I need to get signed off by someone at SafeKids? Do I need insurance? Is there someone I need to get permission from to do this?

My only experience with certifications is with EMS, and just because I had my paramedic certificate, it didn't mean I could run the neighborhoods and shoot people up with cardiac drugs when the mood struck me.
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
Threebeans:

Provided you don't accept money for your services, and if the parent is the last one to touch the seat there should be no need for insurance. I don't have any.

I just started using paperwork these past two weeks. It's not hard, and people are ok with it, so just do that. LOL There are some generic forms online you can fill out and hold onto when they're used.

You can just check people's seats, but to get recertification checkoffs you need an instructor or a senior checker to sign you off on checks. I don't know how or if senior checkers get signed off. Hopefully I'll know soon, I'm hoping for my senior checker letter in the mail.

I didn't feel comfortable putting together an event until recently, and honestly my first event is not of my choosing. I got a call from someone and she asked me to have some info and talk to parents. When she found out I could check seats that really got her excited. Then I tried to get our county's SafeKids van, but it was busy. I'm still hoping for some of my town's techs, but I doubt it. So I've now got my own event. I'm thinking of doing one at Piper's school, asking permission to do checks in the parking lot for parents who sign up at specific times during the school day.

As for going up to people and checking seats willy-nilly, well, only if they're REALLY bad. I went up to someone who had her 3 in 1 RFing and installed with the belt through the FFing slots. I told her and told her it was wrong, but she insisted it was right and blew me off. I tried. Some people are thrilled that you've come up and helped their child. Others will simply tell you to go away.

I post to a local mommies board and I've checked probably going on 50 seats from them. It's getting to be a sizable portion. Because of being a car-seat.org member I feel perfectly competent to do this myself without anyone looking over my shoulder.

As for shooting people up with cardiac meds, couldn't you just fill out a PCR (do you call them that? The prehospital care reports?) saying they needed it, you administered it, and they signed off. LOL Slip the annoying person at a party a lasix and keep offering them drinks all night. LOL I used up my entire oxygen tank on my dying dog to help him out once. Course, oxygen isn't as hard to get rid of as cardiac meds.

Wendy
 

ThreeBeans

New member
Threebeans:



As for going up to people and checking seats willy-nilly, well, only if they're REALLY bad. I went up to someone who had her 3 in 1 RFing and installed with the belt through the FFing slots. I told her and told her it was wrong, but she insisted it was right and blew me off. I tried. Some people are thrilled that you've come up and helped their child. Others will simply tell you to go away.



Wendy


I meant people who ask me for help, silly :ROTFLMAO:

I wasn't sure if I could just check seats, or if I could only do it at a SafeKids event :confused:

I imagine I won't have trouble getting recert checks....SafeKids has a clinic 45 minutes from here, they do checks every thursday. I can probably just sign up to volunteer my time.
 

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