Vent MIL puts child in wrong seat. And thinks it's okay.

My friend called me today crying about what her MIL did. Today her MIL came to her home to watch her daughter which she does everyday. Friends dc is 4 yrs. old. MIL tells my friend did you see what car seat I'm using? The friend say no. Look she still fits in it. It's a Graco Comfort Sport which she grew out of two years ago. I remember because I told her she was to big. Friend gets upset and says where did you get this from? MIL took it out of her basement and has been using it for a week. DF is preg. so more emotional than usually. She told her using this is like putting her in the front seat with just a belt. Currentlly dc is in a high back booster with harnesses. She already gave her a seat to use. Df asked where is the seat we installed for you. Oh she says it's in dad's truck. Are you kidding me? I can't believe her MIL. She is a control freak. She always thinks she's right. Why does she think dc wasn't using it. And she went through their stuff in the basement to find that seat. Df said you can't use this. Df said her head was way over and I'm sure the straps were more that 10inches to low. Dc is very very tall. Seat was moving all over the place. How do you get people to understand how important car seat safety is to you. The child has been in that seat all week long. No call from the MIL to say sorry either. Df is so upset.

When I talk to people about my level of obsession that have a hard time understanding it, I say things like: My kids are THE most important thing to me and keeping them safe and healthy is my #1 goal. I WILL not compromise that for anything. Carseats MUST be used with my standards, if you want to do research and teach me something about carseats I don't know (yeah right!) I'll be happy to listen, but I've been doing DAILY research for over 4 years!

Good luck!

Oh and if it's an "older" grandparent that thinks it's OK to not use seats properly cause they didn't when their kids were little, you ask them if they would be willing to fill their house with asbestos insulation and paint it with lead based paint, of course not, we now know better, same thing goes for carseats!

I think I would take the comfortsport out & throw it away.

So glad nothing happened!
That MIL sounds like my mother.....grrrrr. My mother is always right and when she's not, she never owns up to it. There are other issues, but I rarely speak to her. At least she has a Radian (I bought) in her van for my 12mo niece and it isn't FF yet. If my dd rides with her at all, I put her seat in myself.

luvmy2 said:

I think I would take the comfortsport out & throw it away.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

My mother (and MIL, and father, and FIL... basically everyone I know with the exception of 1 or 2 ppl, lol) are just like this. I have had talks with some of them, but have come to the conclusion that I am banging my head against a brick wall. I deal with this by only letting my mother be in possesion of appropriate seats. I confiscated the 1990 Century OHS she had been using since my oldest nephew was a baby and destroyed it and replaced it with a Scenera. I also bought her a TurboBooster. So she couldn't use a truely terrible seat even if she wanted to.

Really though, if my child is going to be riding in someone else's car, I always install the (my) seat myself.

I would have gone straight to what could happen... straps too low would cause spinal compression in a crash... aka... spine would break...

no head support would mean whiplash or worse... neck breaking.

and a loose install would mean the seat and the child would be moving that amount in a crash... just bad and dangerous.

Oh, and this is all assuming that the straps (if she's too heavy) wouldn't have just ripped through the shell and have her go flying through the windshield.

IMO, this is WORSE than her in a seatbelt.