Again with seat arrangements - a few new considerations

Kid Stats

• Boo
  • 6 ½ years old
  • 50 lbs
  • 16" torso
  • has Asperger's Syndrome - moves a LOT and doesn't grasp the concepts of 'safety' or 'danger' well.
• Bug
  • 4 ½ years old
  • 42 lbs
  • 15" torso
• Bear
  • 28 months old
  • 32 lbs (approx)
  • torso height unknown (he's sleeping)

What we are trying to determine now is how to configure the seats once Bean arrives.

See the photo for our 'plan' for the seats, and see if you can pick it apart, or come up with something better or more sensible please !!

Does Boo pass the 5 step test in the van? Or did you forget to write his seat? Part of the 5 step test is sitting properly the entire ride. Will he do this? Does he do it in the booster? That makes me nervous.

Also, if he's not sitting properly, I wouldn't want him in the front seat of the other car. I'd rather have Bug in her harness sitting in the front than an older boostered, moving around child.

:twocents:

I think that set up will work well. But I agree with NannyMom that you should put Bug in the front seat in the harnessed seat. It is usually recommended that the oldest child still in a harnessed seat should be put in the front seat if necessary. But personally I can't just decide where to put kids.. I always have to try it out. So when Bean arrives it might just take some trying out.

First congrats on #4. I'd missed the announcement.

How old will Bug be when baby arrives? Is she more mature than Boo? Would she do better in a booster than Boo? I'd generally prefer to see the older kid in booster in the front, but given the challenges that Boo may have in a booster, it may be better for Bug to be there IF she was able to sit still better than Boo.

Are you set on the Parkway as a booster for the front seat? I'm not aware of any hard data to back this up, but speak more from the knowledge that a high back booster is going to have the back of the child further forward on the vehicle seat and thus a little closer to the airbag. For that reason - when there's an option anyways, I'd be more likely to choose a backless booster for the front seat since I would expect head excursion to be less in a backless vs. a high back. Though if Boo is going to sit better with the increased restriction a high back provides, that is going to be more important.

Assuming Boo is going to be the one in the booster in the Sunfire, I think the way you're planning to set things up looks good.

NannyMom said:

Also, if he's not sitting properly, I wouldn't want him in the front seat of the other car. I'd rather have Bug in her harness sitting in the front than an older boostered, moving around child.

Click to expand...

Kashi is in Canada and a harnessed seat in the front seat is not an option in this scenario due to lack of tether anchor for the front seating position.

NannyMom said:

Does Boo pass the 5 step test in the van? Or did you forget to write his seat? Part of the 5 step test is sitting properly the entire ride. Will he do this? Does he do it in the booster? That makes me nervous.

Also, if he's not sitting properly, I wouldn't want him in the front seat of the other car. I'd rather have Bug in her harness sitting in the front than an older boostered, moving around child.

:twocents:

Click to expand...

No, he doesn't. And even if he did, he wouldn't be legally allowed to ride without a booster.

I didn't put a seat in, because at the moment, I do not have a seat for that spot at all.

Trudy covered the reasoning behind the booster being up front - no top tether location, therefore no seat allowed there.

I would not trust Bug in a booster *more* than Boo, nor would I open up that 'can of worms' here.

i might have missed it, but how often will all 4 kids actually be riding in the Grand Am? Is it your hubby's car?

When my DH bought his most recent (smaller) car, we knew that it would be much harder to get all three kids into it (and now with #4 on the way, it would be basically impossible, since my oldest is 6 and scrawny and the new car has airbags of ALL sorts all over the place, so I don't want him in the front seat.) SOOOOO, we made a deal: whoever has 3 (or more!) kids drives the van: for whatever. if we meet somewhere, we trade cars, etc. basically, he never drives more than 2 kids in his small car. we just make sure that if he needs to go pick all 3 up, we arrange it so he has the van that day, and i drive the little car in the morning, or whatever. on RARE occasions, it has been a pain, but now that #4 is coming, we just have to face reality that both our cars can't carry the whole family. we really only need 1 vehicle that will do that.

SOOOOO......that was long-winded, but IOW, does the Grand Am HAVE to be used for all 4 kids regularly, or can you work around it to keep 3 or less of them in it for most trips?