Why are YOU obsessed with car seats?

Here is my story: I was one of those people that was looking forward to FF DD at age one. I started looking at new car seats in Feb. or so, and found this forum. Obviously I am SO SO happy that I did-I mean, she still only weighs 16 pounds so can you imagine me FF her now?

I can't explain why I became so fascinated/obsessed with it though. I am NOT a safety freak, I don't really go overboard about anything else regarding her safety. But this board got to me for some reason! I looked into being a tech, but the only class I found was during the week & it's not like I can take time off work for it!

My friends and family realllllly think I am crazy-they want to know if I am going to match her car seat to her prom dress when the time comes! Of course they are kidding, but they are tired of hearing me talk about the ins and outs of car seats. And they cannot BELIEVE that I already have the next seat picked out for her (as long as nothing better comes along) - that I won't even need for YEARS. My sister didn't even believe there was such a thing as car seat boards! I mean, really, it is kind of a silly thing to be obsessed about. To the outside world! I was even wondering if you guys were getting tired of all of my stupid questions about the EFTA! (Don't answer that)

They are SUPER excited that I FINALLY bought the darn thing, so maybe I will shut up about it. So, thanks for the outlet to talk about things...

So what's your REASON for being a car seat freak? I don't understand mine, but maybe you have some insight into yours?

My children are more likely to die in a car wreck than anything else. Cars do a terrible job of protecting children, and the car seats we use to correct that "oversight" are too often difficult to use properly. That's the story I tell people, at least.

Honestly, though, that doesn't really explain the obsession. I don't think it's really all that different than people who pamper their dogs and dress them up, or collect dolls, or restore old cars, or the other "crazy" things people get into. It's just something in my life that I feel I can have control over - I like "lining it up" and getting it all "just right" because it gives me a sense of satisfaction.

Because it's fun! That's really what got me into it, but now it's so much more than that.

I am obsessed with carseats because when DD was 2 months old I took her in her Snugride to a great local tech. She showed me how the base needed to be more secure and how to get it solidly installed. It had less than one inch of movement, but wasn't solid. I was told at the hospital to put the chest clip at her sternum, but the tech said armpit height. I knew RF past 1/20 was safest, but didn't understand WHY until I found these boards when DD was 14mos.

My parents were always very safety conscious and we were in seats even in the late 70s early 80s and I used a backless booster through 5th grade. But that was more so I could see out the window and not get carsick, than for safety reasons.

I am glad I have taken the time to keep DD as safe as possible.

I was always interested with car seats when my two nephews were babies. When I saw the seat my SIL put my nephew in, and when they turned him FF before a year even, I started wondering about it. I started researching, especially when I saw something about car seats and Kyle Miller on TV. And then, when it was time to get my dd a convertible seat, I think that's when the obsession started I guess I'm obsessed because I see so many people with children totally unrestrained/improperly restrained in vehicles. It just scares me, and makes me mad. I want to do my best to keep my dd safe.

I've seen three children die in accidents. I did CPR on one of them. I was the one who told his mother he was dead

I vowed on that day to do whatever I could to spread the word so I would never ever ever have to do CPR on a 2 year old again or tell a mother her child died and know it was probably preventable.

So, yes I may be nuts to family and friends, but until they haul away a baby in a body bag, they don't know what they are talking about
:twocents:

It started in March 2007-when I visited another carseat board and they told me I should be rearfacing my 26 month old, who was 25 pounds and a very short torso. Then, they told me to get my son(then 4) out of the low back booster that he was in since 3 years old and get him into a harness.
At that time our car was about to break, my husband's job was very unsteady(construction) and we were about to lose our house.

They told me about the kYle miller foundation... a month later the foundation(very new at the time) sent me and my sister a regetn for my son.
I then bought the scenera to rearface my 2 year old in.

After realizing how unsafe they had been, I kept reading up on that board and becoming more obsessed with it....(what else would I do at naptime ;-) ).... then I got my son the Fisher price seat and used the scenera as my daycare kids seat-I also turned them(then 2) back rear facing.

Now...well I am obessed and now I have a total myspace page set up to help people about carseat saftey.

I want to become a tech, but so far don't have time for the classes.

when my daughter was nearing turning 1yo (now 4yo) i heard (thru another forum) about ERF. i knew nothing about it. never heard of it before. thought it was crazy,.....my older boys were turned REALLY early 9mo but they were beyond 20lbs. why wouldn't i do that again? so with just a lil info i decided to keep my DD RF longer. she RF to 16mo. which i thought was GREAT. & it is. but then i needed a new seat. my DS#3 needed to move out of the infant bucket....so i researched on several forums & learned so much. i ended up getting my DD (2.5yo at the time) a new HWH seat & passing the convertible to DS#3 so he can RF til the limits of the seat.

i jusr LOVE learing abotu how to keep my kids safe in the car. i wouldn't say i'm a super cautious mom or overprotective at all. i'm pretty laid back actually. but for some reason i'm obsessed with carseats. & my family thinks i'm looney. at least they follow my wishes for car ridin. but i wish i can buy oh like evry seat known to man. LOL i actually wish i can start all over again with my older boys & carseats. i think i would have made different choices

certainly doesn't explain at all my obsesion. i have no explanation. i just do!

*The Kyle David Miller video I stumbled on while registering for the CPST class last September.

I am completely not sure. I was one of those who turned my first child at 1 year and 18 lbs in an Evenflo comfort touch 5.

Somewhere along the way, I figured out that my 2nd child needed to be ERF'd b/c of his health issues and tone problems. I'm sure Racesmom/Angie helped with that. we've been online buddies for a long time.

Anyway, I had DS in dd's handed down comfort touch seat, and he was fast approaching the RF height limit on that thing. I went out and bought the EB AO, and that pushed us to 2+ yrs RF, and now I'm a total freak about ERF and EH. I can't stop myself. If I could get a 40 lb RF seat, I'd buy it.

I saw someone on another board (Hi Jen) with one of those blinkies that said "My preschooler rides rear-facing, ask me why!" and I googled it

As they say, it all went downhill from there, LOL.

I think for me it's because I'm very indecisive when it comes to personal decisions. - recommend something to someone else, sure, but decide for myself, very time consuming.

Somewhere while pregnant with dd I had come across erf'ing info and was already planning to erf her. I was already really anal about proper harness tightness etc - I'm an attention to details person so loose harnesses and low chest clips had always bugged me. I think I found this board when trying to decide between the AO and the MA for her - which at that time I went AO for purely money reasons.

I didn't actually register here until I was pregnant with ds. I was on bedrest and had plenty of time on the computer. At the time I was stuck between SR and SS1, go figure. Anyways, it just grew from that.

I can't completely explain it, other than I'm an attention to details person and there are so many details involved in being a carseat tech that it really suits my personality. I don't know that I would've become as obsessed though if it hadn't been for months of bedrest and too much time on my hands.

My obsession is very similar to others..... was only very mild in the beginning i would freak about some things and be lax about others. I was desperate with 1st ds to ff him as soon as poss - but he was so petite and hadn't even got to 19lbs at 16months - ended up turning him anyway.
Did the same with dd at about the same age and weight.
At the same time i was always very conscious about installing the seats correctly, and many a time had friends take their incorrectly installed seats out and reinstall them for them.
When all my friends starting putting their kids in boosters at 3 beccause they had reached 33lbs - i vowed my ds would be in a harness till the last possible moment. Almost 5 and only 35lbs so a way to go yet.
When i had ds 2 i had all kinds of extra padding in the seat thinking it would make him more comfy at only 5lb.
If we went away, i would take our own car seats so as not to have to use rental ones, but because in the uk most people don't take them on a plane and ours werent certified for plane use - we checked them!!!!!
It was only for looking at car seats in rental cars for our forthcoming trip to the US that led me to this site and i have been hooked since. I have ds2 in a rf britax first class and he will stay that way till the limit of 29lbs. I threw out a car seat that the MIL had as it was 13 years old - she actually freaked when i told her she could n't use it again saying it was a perfectly good seat.
i am constantly checking car seats of any car that i pass, and will pass comment if i see something not right. I am driving my DH nuts with car seat talk, and i am major obsessed that the uk does not have more rf car seats past infact carriers. Also obsessed that our harnessed seats only go to 40lbs - there is nothing for a higher weight. I go to bed thinking about car seats... how sad is that.

When I was a teen I was in a really bad car accident. I know how much pain, and suffering comes along with that.

When I was pregnant I took the carseat class. It gave me the basics, harness tight, tight install, chest clip, dangers of used seats. I thought I was set, I knew what I was doing.

Then when my second dd was about five months old, I saw the KDM video. It made me do more research. I googled the Regent and came upon this site. I am so glad I did.

For the record, I didnt have internet access before this time or at least not reliable access. So, I didnt exactly know how to navigate the net. I never knew there was HWH before this. I mean, Target and Walmart dont carry it, it must not exist.

So, thanks to that video my dd was back in a HWH after riding in a booster for about six months. I was good about keeping her in her cargo as long as possible. I knew it looked safer.

From this site I have learned SOOOO much!

Thanks Darren!

hmm

I just remember coming to look for car seat recs for one of my kids...next thing I knew I was all over Britax seats...the ones not long before I had rolled my eyes at because of the price..
and I was hooked

it was fun..like stretchy said
but I've learned so much along the way and it *is* definitely about more than that now

Defrost said:

My children are more likely to die in a car wreck than anything else. Cars do a terrible job of protecting children, and the car seats we use to correct that "oversight" are too often difficult to use properly. That's the story I tell people, at least.

Honestly, though, that doesn't really explain the obsession. I don't think it's really all that different than people who pamper their dogs and dress them up, or collect dolls, or restore old cars, or the other "crazy" things people get into. It's just something in my life that I feel I can have control over - I like "lining it up" and getting it all "just right" because it gives me a sense of satisfaction.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat: Debbie summed up my feelings on the matter exactly, as far as how I feel now, why I stay "into" CPS. But as to what exactly got me into CPS to start with, well, that would be my big-for-her-age child. She outgrew most harnessed seats by height at 2-2.5 years old. She was 40 pounds at 3, so even most seats with taller top slots were out because of the harnessed weight limit. I had to seek out information when she was 2-2.5 because I just had a gut feeling that she was much too young for a belt positioning booster, even though she was outgrowing all the harnessed options I could find. I had taken a road trip with a friend the same month H turned 2. My friend's daughter was two months younger than H, and much smaller, yet she was riding in a Graco TurboBooster. She was constantly getting out of her seatbelt. I think that stuck in my mind, and when H got very close to outgrowing her seat by height a couple of months later, I remembered why I didn't want her in a booster seat yet. I found this board, and the rest is history. I found appropriate higher weight limit harnessed options, and became obsessed in the process. Now I "talk carseat" every chance I get.

Most likely it stems from my OCD and a strong desire to keep my children safe.

I was also one that turned my dd and ds1 as soon as they were 1! I read the manuals, and thought that it was what you were supposed to do. In fact, we had a AIO rear facing in DH's truck for DS1 and we would use it for both kids because it was so easy to adjust the straps without taking the seat out! But, I was iffy about putting dd in it because she was so big...28lbs LOL! I also put DD in a booster just before she turned 4

Then, my friend's DS was in a wreck while riding home from FL with his grandmother. He was 6 and in only a seatbelt (legal here)and we think he was playing with his seat too, because it was reclined at the time of the accident. He went under the shoulder belt and flew forward and then backward. He ended up with a hematoma (sp?) on his brain and it was very uncertain if he would ever be the same. Luckily, as the hematoma shrunk, he recovered.

This led me to look into seat that harnessed beyond 40 lbs, which led me here! I was shocked! I am one to read manuals and follow them exactly, but never considered that the law makers and car seat manufacturers didn't have my children safety as #1 priority :doh:

I also like the challenge of getting different seats in different paces and that "I DID IT!" feeling at the end....even if DH just shakes his head and laughs!

When my ds was diagnosed with SMA at 8 weeks old (you can read my link in my siggy if you want to) it was absolutely awful trying to find a way to transport him once he outgrew the Snug Seat car bed. SMA kids have to lie flat or they will choke on their secretions as they are unable to swallow.

To this day, there is still NO good option for securing our SMA kids lying flat. Many use the EZ ON vest harness after they have outgrown the car bed. But in my mind, a 21 pound baby could be so much safer in some sort of car bed for higher weights than he is lying across the back seat with a harness only on. Before we had the car bed, there were times I held my son in my arms in the back seat because if I put him in his RA, he would have died (I fully knew the consequence of doing this and it isn't something I ever recommend . . . the baby had a fatal illness . . . but I knew if I put him in the seat, he would die). I pulled him from that RA many times either blue or choking because of his illness.

So from then on I became really interested in car seat safety, specifically that of the special needs variety. It took me nearly 6 years after my ds was born, and 2 healthy kids later, for me to get certified which I just did this past May. I plan to take the Special Needs course next and I can't wait!

*I also wanted to add that there was nothing I could do to save my son. There is still no cure for the illness he had. And every single time I see a toddler bopping around the back seat in no restraint at all, or in the adult seat belt, or improperly restrained in a car seat, I absolutely cringe. There wasn't a thing I could do to save my own son, but hopefully I can help save a bunch of other kids from preventable injury or death by making sure they are traveling safely in the car.

It was a combination of things for me. I had been transporting kids in a Century OHS (not expired, but used) for two years before I got educated on car seat safety.
When I started watching A, I absolutely fell in love with her. Like she was my own child. I had never cared that much about a kid before. I started to become unsatisfied with the OHS, I felt that I could be keeping her safer... but for a while there wasn't much I could do about it, or I reassured myself that it was fine. A month before A turned 4 years old, I rear ended a car at a stoplight four blocks from my house. Neither of the girls were with me, but A's car seat was in the back. I remembered hearing something about replacing car seats in an accident, and since I'd also heard about the kids outgrowing them by their shoulders being above the top slots (A's were, but I thought it was an 'ish' thing) I figured it was time to ask for advice. I posted on a parenting board where a WONDERFUL tech who knows who she is gave me information on keeping her harnessed (and out the window went that shield booster I had lying around). She suggested some inexpensive options that would work for A's (tiny) size and I wound up buying the Evenflo Bolero shortly after A's 4th birthday.
The first time I put her in that seat, I could just see how much better she fit. I read the manual and everything, I wanted it to be perfect. If I was ever in an accident with her, I wanted her completely safe. Even as uneducated as I was, I could see how much safer the five point harness was, and she just loved it too. I used it pretty close to correctly too (only bad thing was coats under the harness and sometimes loose install or no locking clip).
After I bought the bolero there was no returning to the crappy car seat world. The Century OHS expired in February and went to the big car seat castle in the sky in April. Over a year after I bought that Bolero, A is still riding in the harness at 5 years old and 33 lbs. The more I read from the tech who was on my board, the more I realized I could be doing more to keep the girls safe, and that there was so much I didn't know. I did the research, I watched the videos, I cried, and I became a CPS advocate. In January, less than a year after she educated me about car seat safety, I registered to take the tech class, and in April I was certified. Now there's no going back