Sad Momma -- booster ready kiddo... recommendations

Hey!! It's been a while since I've posted on here...

My DD will be 6yo in Dec and she's 60lbs, 47inches tall and wears a Medium in Girls clothes (size 7-8) for an idea of her stats.

She's currently in a Recaro Performance Sport in my car and a Graco Nautilus 65 in Dad's truck (Still using harness for both) for our main seats.

That being said, both of these seats she has only 4.5 - 5lbs left of harness life which is why I am sad.

I LOVE the Recaro and am well aware that it converts to a booster, but we hate the no cup holders. Those crappy mesh pockets suck for holding a drink.

So.. I am thinking I will get a regular booster (Her Dad will convert his seat because he refuses to spend any money on another one and is adamant about her being in a big kid seat because all his friend's kids have been since 2yo).

I think she's ready based on the fact that she rode in one that I use for a girl I babysit the other day and we went over shoulder belt positioning, not slouching or reaching for anything, not moving the belt in any way, she doesn't EVER fall asleep in the car anymore unless its a LONG ride (which I will use the Frontier 90 we also have for those, it's in my boyfriend's truck --not her dad-- which she rarely ever rides in)...... and because of her Dad's comments, along with my sisters' kid's comment about her seat being "a baby seat" and the car circle line at school...I think its time to move her to a HBB.

Long winded explanation of our current situation, but..
What are the best HBBs on the market?
What are the Worst ones?
Cup holders are a must!

People's reviews online are NOT helping and I can tell half of them are using it improperly or have a 2 year old in there or my favorite (not) some haven't even used it but give it 5 stars because they think it looks nice... :thumbsdown:


Thank you in advance! You've always been so helpful over the years since she was a wee one!

What's your budget?


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Our Recaro seats (they are only a booster) are awesome. They even have removeable cup holder inserts to clean if needed. They have wonderful cup holders!
This seat is wide, though. So depending on where it goes...

Nice, deep sides and I could go on and on, lol.

I'm going recaro next for my 6 yr old. If I needed narrow though I'd go parkway.

Dillipop said:

What's your budget?

Click to expand...

I'd say under $150.. I should have included that

bnsnyde said:

Our Recaro seats (they are only a booster) are awesome. They even have removeable cup holder inserts to clean if needed. They have wonderful cup holders!
This seat is wide, though. So depending on where it goes...

Nice, deep sides and I could go on and on, lol.

Click to expand...

She's my only kid, so don't really need to worry about wideness because there are never any other seats next to her seat.. even when I have my niece or a friend, the middle seat is usually still open.

I was thinking of Recaro because we've had a Recaro since 3 months, but just checking to see if there were any issues with it that anyone has had or there were just outright way better options that I don't know about.

I've stayed in the Recaro / Britax realm her whole life with the occasional Graco for spares that I usually end up giving to her Dad to use the few days she's with him lol

What is you budget for a new seat? I had a Chicco Kidfit for my soon to be 6 year son (seat cannot be used anymore due to car wreck) and he really loved it. It is well patted. One thing that I don't like about it is you still have to secure the seat with latch when not in use even though it has latch connectors. The seat is also pretty short lived compared to other, but imo my son will probably be ready for a backless booster by the time he out grows the seat.

We started with the Recaro boosters, and we really liked them, but they were too wide for our cars. We ended up with Parkways in one car and the Chicco kid fit in the other car. We like all of them, and my kids have no complaints.