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Erin
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| Posted: April 04 2006 at 5:11am | IP Logged
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What do you do when the seats don't fit?
Here we have weight requirements or height as in when their eyes are level with the seat in front. The weight varies as to when they face back in a capsule, when they are in a baby seat and when they are in a booster. Generally they reach seat requirments about an average seven year old.
My children have always been out of a booster long before then as we have only a station wagon with the extra seat in the boot making it an eight seater.
The older children are too big to be in the back, and we don't use the booster seats in the boot as they are too tall, they obstruct the view for the driver.
I guess its not quite what is legal but what else can we do?
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JSchaaf
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| Posted: April 04 2006 at 10:46am | IP Logged
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My mother-in-law (who thinks its ok to nurse a newborn while driving down the highway) is convinced that the car seat makers and auto manufacturers are in cahoots with one another. Tell parents that everyone needs a car/booster seat and then people are forced to buy bigger cars. I just smile and laugh and never let her drive my kids anywhere...
Jennifer
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abcmommy
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| Posted: April 04 2006 at 12:36pm | IP Logged
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My kids will be in boosters til they fit properly in an adult seatbelt, knees bent at the edge, back resting comfortably, belt over hops and shoulder. My 9 yo just hit 50 lbs and has yrs to go before he'll be out of his booster- he sometimes is embarrassed at scouts bc his friends are out of boosters (tho they ought not to be in many cases). My 26 lb dd is still RF in her seat and my 5 yo is 42 lbs and in a booster.
Personally I believe safety in the car is a major concern and I think I'd make sure I had a car that fit all my kids appropriately with their safety seats. Sadly the larger trucks/ vans are gas guzzlers but that is just another fact of life for a family with more than the average 2.3 kids. LOL
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Rachel May
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| Posted: April 04 2006 at 1:20pm | IP Logged
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JSchaaf wrote:
| My mother-in-law (who thinks its ok to nurse a newborn while driving down the highway) is convinced that the car seat makers and auto manufacturers are in cahoots with one another. |
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Guess she's never seen that driver's ed video of the woman in a seatbelt holding a crash test dummy baby in a head on collision at 10 mph. 
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Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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JSchaaf
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| Posted: April 04 2006 at 1:54pm | IP Logged
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No, I'm sure she hasn't seen the video. She now has 10 grandchildren, from 8yrs down to 4 weeks and we still have to tell her carseats aren't negotiable.
Jennifer
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 04 2006 at 9:52pm | IP Logged
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Well, shoulder belts still don't fit me properly. They typically cut across my neck. There is a lot of variation in body build. My dc will not reach 4'9" til probably high school. I'm barely 5 ft myself and I doubt my fil is much over 4'9" as an adult. He's only 90 pounds now. We do have seats with just lap belts in the middle, but have to use these for the carseat and boosters, generally.
I guess I have a hard time with the over emphasis on car safety restraint. It is hard for me to take the myriad of states requirements seriously. Related question: If we abide by our law and then travel or drive through another state, are we obligated to that state's law and how do we know what it is? Is this more of government getting into the business of private citizens?
Yes, we do always use a seatbelt and dc are in restraints until 4 and these are non-negotiable. But its hard for me to think car safety or anyone really has thought this all out - aka the air bag fiasco. I could not possibly safely drive a car with an airbag when I am pregnant - yet that is what I am stuck with because of some genius who thought it was the governments responsibility to protect me from myself. A friend, in utter frustration, drove herself to the local police station because no one could legally remove or disable her air bag - but like me, her pregnant belly barely fits behind the steering wheel. The officers told her, this is totally unsafe - BUT they couldn't help her get anything done about it.
We bought our van specifically because it only had 1 air bag. I dread thinking of air bags in the side doors. My dc always sleep on drives and curl every which way - which would be totally unsafe in a car with side air bags.
Janet
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Lissa
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| Posted: April 05 2006 at 6:43am | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
| I could not possibly safely drive a car with an airbag when I am pregnant - yet that is what I am stuck with because of some genius who thought it was the governments responsibility to protect me from myself. A friend, in utter frustration, drove herself to the local police station because no one could legally remove or disable her air bag - but like me, her pregnant belly barely fits behind the steering wheel. The officers told her, this is totally unsafe - BUT they couldn't help her get anything done about it. |
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Janet, my 30 yr old sister is just a little over 5 feet and barely 90 lbs. Her auto insurance company told her to have her driver's side airbag deactivated--they said it would be more dangerous for her to have one than not. So I guess this option exists for petite drivers, but is only practical if no one ELSE is driving the same vehicle on a regular basis.
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: April 05 2006 at 8:14am | IP Logged
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We just bought a new car. The airbags in it supposedly sense the driver's size and thereby make it much more safe. still, I wish I could disable mine while pregnant. I was eight months pregnant with Stephen when we hit a deer while driving a '92 Crown Victoria (very safe car). The car only had a driver side airbag and dh was driving. My OB said that an airbag hitting my belly would have been lethal for one or both of us.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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folklaur
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| Posted: April 05 2006 at 6:14pm | IP Logged
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My 3 yr old (4 in June) is still in regular car seat. My 7 yr old wasn't in a booster seat, and then we had an accident a month ago. A teenager ran a red light right into the side of our van. It is literally crushed in under my dd car seat, and I thank God daily that we were in a van.
So now ds is ALSO in a booster seat. Especially since we were not able to get another van, and even though it is an SUV, it still just isn't the same as my van.
I like my new car - but I do miss my old van.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Booster seats in the car?
