singingpond
New member
On Monday, DS#2's preschool class went on a field trip, riding in big school buses. I posted an earlier thread about the issues of having 3 and 4 year-olds riding unrestrained on a school bus: http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=43519&highlight=general+statutes
Anyway, I took the teacher up on her offer to have my DS (who is 3 1/2 y.o.) ride on the bus in a Star Seat. Incidentally, he was the only child on the bus to be in a restraint. There were many adults on the bus to supervise the kids (at least one adult in every seat); however, I saw many children kneeling, standing up, facing backward, etc.... so what good does the adult supervision do in those cases?? I guess the kids weren't actually playing tag in the aisle
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The Star Seat was really easy to adjust for DS, even never having seen one before. For those who have never encountered one of these seats, I particularly liked the tightening mechanism. Instead of a single strap down between the child's legs, the two side straps each have an independent adjuster, of the same style that you find on the Marathon's LATCH straps (and on the tether strap of the older Marathons). So, the strap comes down over the shoulder, through the chest clip, through the buckle tong/tongue, then through the tightening adjuster, and the bottom end of the strap is attached at the side/bottom part of the seat (outside the child's leg). You have two loose strap ends (one on each side), and just snug them up appropriately. It was SO much easier than tightening the harness on our Britax and Radian seats, partly because you're not trying to drag harness straps that are stuck behind the carseat shell, and potentially dragging against the vehicle seat also. The whole strap is just out in the open, and the adjuster is very easy to tighten and loosen.
Why can't our regular carseats have an adjuster like this? I would certainly much prefer it. I guess you do end up with loose strap ends hanging out the sides of the seat, and maybe that is considered a problem? Maybe having two of those high-quality adjusters would be more costly than the single crummy adjuster mechanism we are stuck with on so many seats, so the manufacturers don't want to do it for that reason? Maybe there is a concern that users won't get the two sides even (but that already happens pretty often with current seats, especially those with the continuous harness strap between the two sides) ??
It was sort of eye-opening -- an obviously much-easier-to-adjust mechanism, which just isn't found on mainstream carseats, for some reason.
Katrin
Anyway, I took the teacher up on her offer to have my DS (who is 3 1/2 y.o.) ride on the bus in a Star Seat. Incidentally, he was the only child on the bus to be in a restraint. There were many adults on the bus to supervise the kids (at least one adult in every seat); however, I saw many children kneeling, standing up, facing backward, etc.... so what good does the adult supervision do in those cases?? I guess the kids weren't actually playing tag in the aisle
.The Star Seat was really easy to adjust for DS, even never having seen one before. For those who have never encountered one of these seats, I particularly liked the tightening mechanism. Instead of a single strap down between the child's legs, the two side straps each have an independent adjuster, of the same style that you find on the Marathon's LATCH straps (and on the tether strap of the older Marathons). So, the strap comes down over the shoulder, through the chest clip, through the buckle tong/tongue, then through the tightening adjuster, and the bottom end of the strap is attached at the side/bottom part of the seat (outside the child's leg). You have two loose strap ends (one on each side), and just snug them up appropriately. It was SO much easier than tightening the harness on our Britax and Radian seats, partly because you're not trying to drag harness straps that are stuck behind the carseat shell, and potentially dragging against the vehicle seat also. The whole strap is just out in the open, and the adjuster is very easy to tighten and loosen.
Why can't our regular carseats have an adjuster like this? I would certainly much prefer it. I guess you do end up with loose strap ends hanging out the sides of the seat, and maybe that is considered a problem? Maybe having two of those high-quality adjusters would be more costly than the single crummy adjuster mechanism we are stuck with on so many seats, so the manufacturers don't want to do it for that reason? Maybe there is a concern that users won't get the two sides even (but that already happens pretty often with current seats, especially those with the continuous harness strap between the two sides) ??
It was sort of eye-opening -- an obviously much-easier-to-adjust mechanism, which just isn't found on mainstream carseats, for some reason.
Katrin
