CPS course

TXDani

Senior Community Member
I am SOOO EXCITED my CPS course is next week! It starts Tuesday and goes thru Friday. My question is...would it be beneficial to have my own seats in my car? Or do they make you use the ones they have when we are practicing? I would love to be able to use my son's Decathlon but in order to take that with me I would have to put him in my daughter's Regent and she would use her booster while with my hubby those days. Either way it is no big deal but if I can't use my own seats anyway I will just leave her Regent in my car and move my son's Decathlon to my hubby's truck. Oh and should I bring the new infant carseat I bought for practicing purposes? Okay this are probably dumb questions anyway...haha! Thanks!

SO EXCITED TO BE ONE OF Y'ALL....FINALLY!!!!! :D
 
ADS

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
A tech friend of mine told me to clean my car and bring my seats. Most instructors are apparently not familiar with Britax seats (a Wizard will be in my car for most of my class) and most have never seen a Radian in person, so I'll exchange that with my mom and stepdad for a couple of days (they're coming to watch my daughter, so we'll be playing musical carseats that week).

Anyway, no first hand experience yet, just what my friend told me.

Wendy
 

griffinmom

Moderator - CPST Instructor
I'd say it really depends. We have an entire closet full of Britax seats, so they wouldn't be needed here. We have another huge closet of other seats to use for class. If your instructors have enough seats, I wouldn't take my own.

I'd first think about whether you want other people messing with your seats. A lot of times, we have used the instructors' cars for various scenarios. When I had my Husky in my car, there is no way I'd allow my son to sit in the seat until I took it out again, inspected it and re-installed it. Students in CPS classes sometimes do stupid things to car seats without any ill intent. They just don't understand at first. There is always one student who didn't understand that my seat was not to be removed, installed with latch (DS was 55 pounds), had the tether removed, or to rethread the straps. The seats get dropped, the covers get pulled off. My feeling is that if you want to bring your Wizard, use it in an instructor led demonstration and not to let your fellow students touch it. I'd be cautious at best.

We are fortunate to have tons of seats for demos. You might want to call the instructor and ask if they have enough seats for demos and then think long and hard about whether you want your personal seats used. DS is in a booster now and I always take them out before I teach now.

You are generous to offer the use of your seat; remember that other students (in ignorance) may not treat it as well as you would, sometimes they don't realize it is YOUR seat and think it is just another demo.
 

TXDani

Senior Community Member
Thank you both for responding!

Wendy~ When is your course?? Are you excited?? :)

Emily~ I never even thought about other students using my seats, I just wanted to be able to use them myself! But I totally agree with everything you said...I do not want others handling my seats for various reasons!!! One being that I am soo anal about everything I own I can just picture something happening that would drive me crazy. I am so glad you mentioned that because had you not I probably would have felt too mean to speak up and say "HANDS OFF MY BRITAX" to the other students if the instructor assumed I was okay with others using them for practicing.
 

rachel3612

Senior Community Member
I would take the seats to show the instructors if they are not used to it but not to use in the class. We had people move thier seats to the front seat if they didn't want them used. My classes have had lots of seats though. More than one per person in the class. The Radian is such and interesting seat they might want to see it. The rf wizard can show that a 3.5 year old can still be reaf facing.

I would take the Husky though, most people have never seen it. In a class I took a few months ago one insturctor kept saying all harness seats over 40lbs are special needs seats. I didn't know her well enough to tell her to shut up. LOL But I did complain to the other instructor who I do know. Its also for parents who care more. LOL

So if you have a unusualy seat then take it, don't offer it to be used by the other students though.

Rachel
 

griffinmom

Moderator - CPST Instructor
I completely forgot to wish both of you the best of luck. Knowing how much you both know about seats already, you're both going to do really well!

Good luck!
 

skaterbabs

Well-known member
FWIW, I did take my MA to class, mainly because I didn't want to uninstall it and haveto rush to reinstall it the two nights of the course I needed to take the kids somewhere afterwards.

one benefit was that my personal install was counted as one of my "official" test installs (rf w/tether) because the instructors used it as an example of RF tethering AND a perfect install. lol :cool:

While I did allow classmates to practice installs with it IN MY CAR (it was never allowed to leave my vehicle), I triple checked it at the end of the day to make certain it was properly installed for when I picked up my daughter. And before anyone touched ANY of the seats (demo or not) my instructors made certain to explain to the class how to (not) carry them, not to drop them, ect.
 

thepeach80

Senior Community Member
Good luck!

On the first day of class they collected all the keys and decided which cars they needed to use (you practice in all the cars). Those cars were told to take all their carseats out and leave them out all week. Our class had a TON of seats, Britax included (we even had a Traveller Plus), and even a Radian so I just left my seats at home.
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
thefosters.2 said:
Thank you both for responding!

Wendy~ When is your course?? Are you excited?? :)

June 26th. I'm stupidly excited. So excited that I'm sure no one besides the people here would understand. More excited than carseats should rationally get a person. LOL

I hadn't thought of people playing with my seats, and while I'm paranoid I don't mind if they're careful. If you're going to touch my seat imagine my daughter is still in it. Handle it that carefully because it may need to save her life some day. I'll definitely bring the Radian at least one day so people can see it.

Rachel, she's forward facing again, she threw a fit, and at 3.5 and having been forward for 14 months there's no reason for me to tell her no. But I left the D ring in place so I can install it rear quickly for anyone to see. I suppose I should bring the foot for the radian, too, so we can install that rear. I've never even tried, to be honest.

Wendy
 

griffinmom

Moderator - CPST Instructor
The problem with people playing with your seats is that not everyone in the class has the same mindset we do about seats. Some will have never touched a seat before. Some of your classmates may not even be taking the class willingly. They *have* to for work. They don't how to be careful because initially they don't even know how it works. They won't maliciously harm your seats (I hope!:) ), but they just don't get it yet.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how much you know and how much the rest of the class doesn't. Even if some of the other students are parents, chances are they aren't *fanatics* (and I use that word lovingly!) like we are.

I've taught hundreds of hours. The concerned parents who take the class independently (and not for work) are usually the ones who do best.

I can't wait to hear both of your experiences!
 

TXDani

Senior Community Member
I *just* got an e-mail from the instructor for my class and it says this...
"On June 6th, you will receive your training manuals. We will be working in the vehicles on that day. Your vehicles will be needed to be used in exercises through out the week, so please be prepared for others to be in them. "
I can't tell my hubby others will be working in my car because he would have a fit. He is so anal about the cleanliness of our cars and people who aren't as carefull with stuff as us that I am afraid to even tell him! But I thought it was cool that she gave us a heads up that others will be in them over the week.
Thanks again to you all for helping me prepare for this course! Trust me you will get daily updates from me!


Wendy~ I understand your amount of excitment over this course...I feel it too! But I am getting kind of nervous that I won't do as well as I am hoping, or that I will be in disagreement with my instructor because of something I have learned here. Not that I will openly disagree with the instructor! Good luck in your class!
 

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