Dd is 6.5yo. When I was pregnant w/ her I joined a pregnancy board that had a chat room attached to it (the site is still active now but the chat room was closed a few years ago, partially due to some of the people I knew there).
I didn't take the CPST class until just before dd's 2nd birthday, but I had done my research while pregnant and tried to share info whenever the car seat topic came up.
Well, this group of moms were not very appreciative of ANY info. Most of them were more interested in convenience than safety and made no bones about how "freaky" I was about safety. Even suggested that I wrapped dd in cotton while at home.
The breaking point though came when one of them put a webbed folding chair (the old school ones we all had in our backyards growing up) in her car and DUCT TAPPED her child to it...and took a picture.
She posted it on the site to share w/ everyone w/ the comment for me to make sure her child was safely secured in the car.
Yeah, I left the group after that.
Some people are just going to feel threatened that you are calling them a "bad" parent by choosing to rear face your child longer, or keep them in a harness past 40lbs when they aren't. By making deragatory comments, they establish their position as the "norm" and you are the freaky safety mom.
I now am part of a regional parents group that truley appreciates my "freakiness" and I'm proud to say that after four years of being their car seat resource...almost all the babies stay rear facing past 1yr/20lbs and a good majority of the older kids are harnessed past 40lbs. BUT, my biggest measure of success is that in the car seat section on our message board... I generally don't even have to answer the questions anymore...they all correctly answer them for each other! :thumbsup:
Hang in there, be confident in your choices and some people will listen and apply what they learn...and then others will try to make you look bad so they look good. Unfortunately, sometime life is still like junior high!
