What should I do!!

So the other day i was going out with dd and my MIL and as i was installing dd's blvd MIL said someone told her that to make a seat more stable rf she could put the (ff) tether through the handle bar on the front seat (its a dodge caravan wth captains chairs) and then attach it under the seat. So with the wealth of knowledge i have learned here i told her that only certain seats can be tethered rear facing and that yes my seat was one of them but she wouldnt be able to do that with other seats (she has an AOE and a ETA).

She then got very defensive and started saying it was the law and a police officer told her that she had to do that with any rear facing seat (which i really dont think it was a police officer, i think she just said that because i challenged her and she always feels she needs to be right, but thats a whole other topic! lol) so she said she has to follow the law and since she is stubborn she wont listen to me. I wasnt trying to be rude about it i was just trying to let her know she must have misunderstood or she received the wrong information.

So i stopped arguing with her and just told her to look at her manual to see that the tether is only for ff...what should i do, i really dont want to get in another argument with her but it made me very upset! i actually almost started crying because i was just trying to help and she pretty much snapped on me!

um even with a tetherable seat she shouldn't be threading the tether through any "handle" on the vehicle seat back...

I would suggest asking if she's willing to make an appointment with a Child Restraint Safety Technician, and letting them tell her so you don't have to make it an argument.

Could talking to the other parents (whose kids use the other seats) work? I'm assuming the other parents are family as well so you could relay the story and have them bring it up tactfully (maybe when they see their seat tethered RF they could say "oh, that's not allowed with my seat")?

4boysmom said:

um even with a tetherable seat she shouldn't be threading the tether through any "handle" on the vehicle seat back...

Click to expand...

Not sure if we're talking the same thing but...my Oddy manual shows that the TT needs to go between the handle and the seat when tethering. Since the front seats as well as the middle captains chairs have handles on them I have to run the tether between the seat and handle to secure.

ONLY when forward-facing does the tether get routed between the seatback and the handle ("under" the handle).. When RF, it does not.

-Nicole.

she hasnt actually done it yet so thats one good thing maybe if i see her do it i will just let her know again. and the other seats are actually for a foster child that she is in the process of adopting so no other parents involved. I am just hoping that maybe she took my advice from the first time and looked at her manual!