I'm about to reinstall my one-year-old's car seat. Wish me luck

[Orrex]

The last time around, the damn process nearly put me in the loony bin.

I'm all for maximum kid-safety, but you'd think that part of that would entail the easy installation of these super-safe carseats.


I can feel my blood pressure rising already, just thinking about it...

[TZ]

1. Sympathy

Neither me or my mother will do this for my 4 year old niece voluntarily. Its crazy.
But not only installing it is hard, just getting the child buckled in can be difficult, IMO.
What does it say about my family that my niece understands the complex buckle system on her car seat better than either me or my mother? In other words, she does it, when I get all confused!!!:crazy:

[SKKY]

2. I'm so jealous...

...that a college in your area has a degree program in that. I'm doing mine on-line. Only 2 more years!!!

[Infomaniac]

3. Don't hurt yourself.

:(

I think they manufacture those things to be difficult on purpose. x(

:hi:

Edit:
Posted by Thomcat logged in as InfoManiac. I'm visiting her, and I forgot to log out and log back in as myself. :)

[LeftyMom]

4. When you're done, think about getting it double-checked by an expert

http://www.safekidsweb.org/events/events.asp

Something like 6/7 of car seats are used incorrectly.

[Orrex]

5. An excellent, excellent suggestion!

I've installed this one several times, so it's pretty familiar, but it's still not the kind of thing to do half-assed and hope for the best.

A local fire station offers inspections and will, I believe, install them for you. A very nice service IMO.

[Midlodemocrat]

6. One helpful hint.

after you position the seat and start to strap it to the car, kneel on the seat. Your weight will push the seat further into the car's seat and tighten the belt as far as possible.

Firefighter taught me that trick many years ago. Wouldn't you know it? My new van has those latch things and I finally don't have anyone in a car seat. :rofl:

[KitchenWitch]

7. Our daughter is now in a booster...

So we do not have to do the "after market manufacturing" necessary to install a car seat anymore.

:woohoo:

[LeftyMom]

8. Or you can recline the seat a notch or two, install the car seat, then move the seat back up

That gets the seatbelt really tight pretty easily, but not all back seats recline.