FF infant seat .. anyone else ever see this?

junestar

New member
So my husband had to return something at the mall, our 2 year old had just fallen asleep so I decided to sit in the car while he ran in. It was a really busy afternoon at the mall and cars were backed up into the parking lot while people looked for spots to park.

One car in particular caught my eye as it came to a dead stop in front of our vechile while the driver waited for a car a few spots over from ours to pull out. It was 4 door, Honda with a child in a FF car seat in the back behind the driver. What was weird about this car seat though was that it looked like a snugride to me. It was really "high up" and at a weird angle.. but the child was definably FF and the seat had all the characteristics of a bucket. It even had a handle. I sat there totally puzzled trying to figure out what kind of seat it was. Still thinking..it couldn't be snugride, could it? Finally she pulled away and parked. I kept my eyes glued to her and she got out, opened up the backdoor and in one swift motion grabbed the handle and pulled the seat out of the car. It obviously wasn't secured into anything. I then watched her as she walked into the mall carrying what I know knew for sure was a graco snugride!

Now I wasn't sure what to do at this point. The whole scene really threw me for a loop. I thought about leaving a note on her car.. to more drastic measures. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to really react because not 5 minutes later she returned, with the infant seat (and baby in it) but this time she actually put the child in RF and seemed to secure the seat into the base. When she drove by leaving the seat was much lower in the vehicle.

So has anyone ever witnessed anything like this before? I can't stop thinking about it. What would posses a person to do that?

:confused:
 
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AdventureMom

Senior Community Member
Oh, yes, I've pulled up at traffic lights and seen people holding the infant carrier in their laps...
 

thepeach80

Senior Community Member
I've seen this before, only once that I can think of, w/ a Hispanic couple, while threw me b/c the instructions are in Spanish too. ;) They can't claim not reading English as an excuse.
 

jka1217

New member
I pulled up to a traffic light once and the pickup truck next to me had a FF infant seat in the passenger seat. I had to do a double take to make sure.

My guess was that the truck had an airbag and said not to place a seat there RF, so she put it FF.
 

Dillipop

Well-known member
I've seen a family place the infant seat on the base, that was installed so the seat was ffing. The base was definitely backwards.

I don't understand how people can't even look at the pictures on the side of a seat to see how it should look.
 

Niea

New member
I witnessed this same thing just last week! In my case, though, the car was parked, so no baby in the seat.

It was installed outboard, somehow with the lap/shoulder belt holding it in (not sure how, though, because the seatbelt was going under the seat). No base, either.
 

niccig

New member
A friend told me how she was annoyed at her Britax companion purchase as it's only RF and swore and declared that her older DD's infant seat could go both ways. I told her NO infant seat does that, and she had it installed incorrectly - apparently they swapped it to FF when her DD turned one. We weren't friends then - now she's asking me about HWH seats for her eldest DD, so she's learned.
 

Gypsy

Senior Community Member
I live in a small town, I see this on a weekly basis at least, infant seats actually installed forward facing.
 

JessicaS

New member
Yep, I personally know someone that turned her 17-pound child FFing in his infant carrier, base and all, because he just had his first birthday. :rolleyes: I knew little else, but I KNEW that wasn't right. I got her to buy him a Cosco Touriva and still have him FFing. :eek: Hey, it's better than the imminent danger he was in.
 

greysonsmom

New member
People really do this? I have never seen this and If I did I would probably just call the parent and idiot really loud..:eek:
 

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
I've seen this at each of the two seat-checks I've done. Fortunately in both cases, the children left in new, properly installed seats. At the last event, we also had a mom come in with her six-day old child on her lap, no seat at all.
 

Judi

CPST/Firefighter
At a car seat clinic just a few months ago, we had two Designer 22's FF with 18 m olds in them. DH says he sees them all the time.
 

cpsaddict

New member
I live in a small town with a large Hispanic population(not saying this to be mean, this is a fact of life here. Many, many of them are migrant farm workers, as we are a huge farm area, in Western Oregon) and almost all of the infant seats I see are FF. Usually, it's not the little tiny babies, but babies much to big to be in an infant carrier anyway, let alone ff.
Just yesterday at Target, I watched a mom carefully put her baby in a carseat. I thought, "oh, that's nice, someone spending time to buckle them in". Ha. Then I saw the ff Snugride she was in. Seriously, WTH? How does that even look right? :confused:
 

tjham

New member
So my husband had to return something at the mall, our 2 year old had just fallen asleep so I decided to sit in the car while he ran in. It was a really busy afternoon at the mall and cars were backed up into the parking lot while people looked for spots to park.

One car in particular caught my eye as it came to a dead stop in front of our vechile while the driver waited for a car a few spots over from ours to pull out. It was 4 door, Honda with a child in a FF car seat in the back behind the driver. What was weird about this car seat though was that it looked like a snugride to me. It was really "high up" and at a weird angle.. but the child was definably FF and the seat had all the characteristics of a bucket. It even had a handle. I sat there totally puzzled trying to figure out what kind of seat it was. Still thinking..it couldn't be snugride, could it? Finally she pulled away and parked. I kept my eyes glued to her and she got out, opened up the backdoor and in one swift motion grabbed the handle and pulled the seat out of the car. It obviously wasn't secured into anything. I then watched her as she walked into the mall carrying what I know knew for sure was a graco snugride!

Now I wasn't sure what to do at this point. The whole scene really threw me for a loop. I thought about leaving a note on her car.. to more drastic measures. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to really react because not 5 minutes later she returned, with the infant seat (and baby in it) but this time she actually put the child in RF and seemed to secure the seat into the base. When she drove by leaving the seat was much lower in the vehicle.

So has anyone ever witnessed anything like this before? I can't stop thinking about it. What would posses a person to do that?

:confused:

Maybe, just..maybe...she had parked somewhere else in the parking lot first, got the baby out and then decided to try to get closer or something and that is why she just sat it back there? :confused:

Not agreeing with it, but it might explain why later she put it in correctly. :rolleyes:
 

L-and-A

New member
my cousin did that but she installed the base ff i dont know how in the world she did that and then put the infant seat ff and the belt across the top of it
 

jmm3

New member
I've seen it too. In a parking lot, I saw an infant seat installed FF. The base was in too. I'm pretty sure I could see the seatbelt stretched through the proper belt path, but the whole thing was backwards. I was just hoping it was only a temporary way to secure the seat and was not going to be used that way.
 

Mylilboyblue

Active member
I've seen this a million times, and working at a baby store doesn't help. I also see 2 year old children whose heads are waaay above the shell and knees are bent at the edge of the seat SOMEHOW buckled in to an infant carrier. I followed one couple out (pretending to grab some shopping carts from the lot) and sure enough they SOMEHOW buckled the thing in FF. Sheesh. How wrong can you do something? I did say something to someone once, about using an expired and recalled seat (the woman had her newborn in a Fisher Price T-Shield Infant Seat - the light blue with the grey shield). She told me that expiration dates on carseats were the manufacters way of making you spend more money and that recalls do nothing but freak people out for no reason. She told me that she used this seat with her 14 year old and she sees nothing wrong with using it again for this baby, and she doesn't see why she should spend more money for something that the kid will grow out of. Did I mention she was wearing a FUR coat :mad: and driving a BMW :mad::mad:.

:confused: Work makes me stressed sometimes!
 

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