Convincing friend to keep child RFing?

mol13 · Mar 9, 2009

A friend of mine still has her son in his infant seat. He is about 11 months old and is pretty little. She said that he might be 20 pounds or almost that.

She asked if any of us had an extra toddler carseat, and I offered to give her my ComfortSport, which I purchased last year and didn't like. My reason for not liking it is that my son is tall and won't fit in it for long. Her son is little.

She said that she is looking forward to being able to turn her son around because he gets mad in the car otherwise. I think it's a bad idea. My son is quite a bit bigger and still rear-facing.

She's not a really close friend, so I don't know what to say to her. Any ideas?

Amaris · Mar 9, 2009

I usually say something like "I went to get a new seat for (insert your child's name here) when s/he outgrew their infant seat and I was told that it was much safer to be rf'ing. I did some research and decided to keep (insert child's name here) rf'ing. I am glad I found the person I did to tell me that." This way you aren't being pushy or coming across as acting like someone should know something if they don't. I'm not saying you would come across that way, but that many people tend to take it that way.

sparkyd · Mar 10, 2009

Make sure to mention that he might be happier when he switches RF to a convertible from the infant seat since he can sit more upright (doesn't have to be 45 degrees for a child that age) and just might be more comfortable overall in a different seat.

Good luck! In my closest circle of friends who all have kids around the age and size of mine (less than 2 years old), I'm the only one doing ERF (wait, there might be one more - not sure if she turned her DD or not). They've all been gently given the safety information and they have all chosen to ignore it for whatever reason. Makes me sad, but some people just don't want to hear it. :thumbsdown: Thankfully in my wider circle of friends I've made a few converts. :thumbsup: That makes me feel a little better!

Jan06twinmom · Mar 10, 2009

Building on the suggestion someone else gave you, you can always say something about doing some research and give her some websites with good information about extended rf. If you live in California, I can give you a link that talks about CA laws and best practice - which includes extended rf and extended harnessing.

Or give her the url for car-seat.org and tell her you found this great resource that you want to share. Then if she comes here, she'll hear about ERF from us!

Melanie

mamabear · Mar 10, 2009

mol13 said:
She said that she is looking forward to being able to turn her son around because he gets mad in the car otherwise.

ask her this, If he hasn't turned FF yet, what's he getting "mad" at??

If he hasn't "experienced" FF, how does he know he has a preference??

Tell you thought the same thing but you discovered that it's normal at his age to dislike being in the car, but he can actually see more out the window as it travels away from him ,than whizzing by him FF, and even if he gets "mad" that's no reason to put his safety at risk
Turning him may not change anything except for a serious downgrade in safety.:twocents:

print this story and tell her that's why you've decided to ERF

Convincing friend to keep child RFing?

mol13

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Amaris

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sparkyd

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Jan06twinmom

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mamabear

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