about car seats
I always use them. Always. Even when we are just going around the corner to Beth's school. And I make them all buckle up, every time.
When we were brand-new parents, Eric spent about an hour installing the infant-seat base in the back of our Honda Accord, and when he and his brother were on a road trip and his brother wanted to recline the passenger seat all the way back so he could sleep in a more comfortable position, Eric refused to move the car seat base because he was so adamant about keeping that seat in the exact, perfect, SAFEST position for our little girl.
And so yes, I am a faithful user of car seats. But at the same time, I have to admit I'm starting to get kind of tired of them. And of all the constant rules, and revisions to rules, in the name of keeping our kids safer and safer and safer. It's starting to get a little ridiculous.
Have you heard that in Europe, studies have shown that riding in rear-facing seats would be beneficial up to age 4? And that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration actually recommends that kids stay in booster seats until they are 8 years old? And also that no kid should ever ride in the front seat of a car, even with a seat belt on, until they are 4-foot-9?
Four-foot-nine? I know adult women who are only 4-foot-11 or so! Are they supposed to sit in the back in a safety seat? My kids might not be that tall until they are 11 or 12. Am I supposed to keep them in the back until then?
When I was a kid, a sedan with a front seat (bench or bucket) and a back seat (three seat belts across) was the normal car for most average-size families with two or three kids. Now, you can't hardly find a parent anywhere driving anything but an SUV or a minivan. Why? Car seats. If you've got three kids age 8 and under, you've got three seats of some sort that have to all fit across that back seat. And fitting three car seats in there and getting them appropriately buckled is a tight, tight squeeze. Most parents don't even try. If you ever want to drive a carpool or give a friend a ride home from soccer practice, you're completely out of luck, even with that empty seat up front next to mom. So instead, we have four-person families driving around in half-empty minivans and SUVs because car seats make it so inconvenient to do anything else.
The NHTSA's website says that "an estimated 8,959 lives were saved from 1975-2008 by child restraints." However when you actually go through and read the .pdf document that figure comes from, you see the note in parentheses: "From 1975 through 2008, an estimated 8,959 lives were saved by child restraints (child safety seats or adult seat belts)." (emphasis mine) Soooo.... it's actually regular seat belts and/or child safety seats combined? Do they have any statistics that break it out with just car seats? Are the ever-increasing car seat rules really what's keeping people safer, or is it that seat belt use in general is higher than it used to be, combined with safer cars and better air bags?
As I've said before, I follow all the parenting rules and recommendations. We vaccinate, even when it causes unpleasant side effects. We use car seats religiously, even though it means we drive a bigger car than we might have if we lived a generation ago. We would never do anything to compromise our kids' safety. I'm certainly not going to throw my kids' car seats away, nor am I suggesting a conspiracy theory: government in league with evil car seat manufacturers! No, that's not me. Does this rant even have a point? I'm not sure.
Mostly, it's just that I can't help thinking back to my own childhood, when we certainly did wear seat-belts all the time, but we didn't think it was necessary to harness a 5-year-old into a cocoon for a trip to the grocery store, and something simple like getting a ride with a friend didn't require a complicated calculation about how many seats were available and whether Mom 1 could loan Mom 2 an extra booster seat for her grade-schooler. I wish I could still do that without feeling that I was somehow putting our kids' lives at risk the entire time.
When we were brand-new parents, Eric spent about an hour installing the infant-seat base in the back of our Honda Accord, and when he and his brother were on a road trip and his brother wanted to recline the passenger seat all the way back so he could sleep in a more comfortable position, Eric refused to move the car seat base because he was so adamant about keeping that seat in the exact, perfect, SAFEST position for our little girl.
And so yes, I am a faithful user of car seats. But at the same time, I have to admit I'm starting to get kind of tired of them. And of all the constant rules, and revisions to rules, in the name of keeping our kids safer and safer and safer. It's starting to get a little ridiculous.
Child safety seat image from Wikimedia commons.
Have you heard that in Europe, studies have shown that riding in rear-facing seats would be beneficial up to age 4? And that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration actually recommends that kids stay in booster seats until they are 8 years old? And also that no kid should ever ride in the front seat of a car, even with a seat belt on, until they are 4-foot-9?
Four-foot-nine? I know adult women who are only 4-foot-11 or so! Are they supposed to sit in the back in a safety seat? My kids might not be that tall until they are 11 or 12. Am I supposed to keep them in the back until then?
When I was a kid, a sedan with a front seat (bench or bucket) and a back seat (three seat belts across) was the normal car for most average-size families with two or three kids. Now, you can't hardly find a parent anywhere driving anything but an SUV or a minivan. Why? Car seats. If you've got three kids age 8 and under, you've got three seats of some sort that have to all fit across that back seat. And fitting three car seats in there and getting them appropriately buckled is a tight, tight squeeze. Most parents don't even try. If you ever want to drive a carpool or give a friend a ride home from soccer practice, you're completely out of luck, even with that empty seat up front next to mom. So instead, we have four-person families driving around in half-empty minivans and SUVs because car seats make it so inconvenient to do anything else.
The NHTSA's website says that "an estimated 8,959 lives were saved from 1975-2008 by child restraints." However when you actually go through and read the .pdf document that figure comes from, you see the note in parentheses: "From 1975 through 2008, an estimated 8,959 lives were saved by child restraints (child safety seats or adult seat belts)." (emphasis mine) Soooo.... it's actually regular seat belts and/or child safety seats combined? Do they have any statistics that break it out with just car seats? Are the ever-increasing car seat rules really what's keeping people safer, or is it that seat belt use in general is higher than it used to be, combined with safer cars and better air bags?
As I've said before, I follow all the parenting rules and recommendations. We vaccinate, even when it causes unpleasant side effects. We use car seats religiously, even though it means we drive a bigger car than we might have if we lived a generation ago. We would never do anything to compromise our kids' safety. I'm certainly not going to throw my kids' car seats away, nor am I suggesting a conspiracy theory: government in league with evil car seat manufacturers! No, that's not me. Does this rant even have a point? I'm not sure.
Mostly, it's just that I can't help thinking back to my own childhood, when we certainly did wear seat-belts all the time, but we didn't think it was necessary to harness a 5-year-old into a cocoon for a trip to the grocery store, and something simple like getting a ride with a friend didn't require a complicated calculation about how many seats were available and whether Mom 1 could loan Mom 2 an extra booster seat for her grade-schooler. I wish I could still do that without feeling that I was somehow putting our kids' lives at risk the entire time.
9 comments:
I agree with you so much!!! We had to finally "fudge" the rules and put Garrett in a booster 2 months before her turned 4, because he was way too tall, but the evil doctor said "in Washington it says 4 years old" no 4 years or 40in. Our son is tall and we were squeezing him into his child seat just to not break the stupid law. So don't tell anyone until Saturday because finally he will be 4 and riding legally in his booster seat! Gosh with your petit girls will the law make them have a special seat when they start driving???? ;-)
Sorry "honey" you are old enough to drive but not tall enought to sit in the front! :)
I read in Freakonomics that once you get past the infant stage, that adult seatbelts are actually testing as well as carseats in protecting children 2 and over from serious injuries. Carseats provide slightly more protection from minor injuries. So no, I don't make my almost 7 yr old use a booster anymore, despite the fact that she is a little small.
Jason and I were just talking about this over the weekend. Keegan went to a booster when he still should have been in a 5pt harness, but I couldn't take him to kindergarten in a 5pt it just wasn't right. Conner is old enough to go without booster though I still make him use it, and Cooper still has a bit to go, but I am looking forward to the day that I am not strapping people in carseats all the time (though I bet I miss it) My younger two will be lucky to be out of booster seat by the time they are 10-12.
We also discussed the fact that we didn't have carseats growing up. My parents used a basket for me, and by the time my sister was born they had a carseat then.
Yes we drive a large SUV part of it is the kids and part is the activities that we do as a family, we need the extra space.
I agree and we have 2 suv/minivan vehicles because we can not fit 2 boosters and a carrier car seat in one car backseat. We had a car, and it was SO HARD to do it (it was hubby;s car, so it only happened a few times) that I would NOT want to do it regularly. I moved my 3y/o to a booster at 3.5 instead of 4 because I had the baby and we needed to go up. He is also pretty big for his age. By the way, has anyone EVER had anyone check that they were right? When I was in a car accident a few years ago the firemen and police couldn't even get the darn thing out of my car to put it in the ambulance! (I was hurt, not them). I have a picture of my brother and 2 cousin in about 1986 all jammed into the backseat of an Omni. Guess what? we're all still alive.
I stressed over this so much when we were deciding what car to get with the third baby on the way. My husband was positive that we could fit two (giant) all-in-one carseats and an infant seat in the backseat of a car, but I didn't think my back could handle it. =) But I agree with the feeling like you aren't doing enough for your kids if they aren't completely insulated. Thus, we got a minivan. My mom still talks about how she left the hospital when my brother was born carrying him in her lap, and now the hospital won't let you leave until you show them the carseat!
Totally agree here. With my sweetheart being a Amazonian toddler, we quickly ran out of car seat and moved her to a booster as soon as (legally) possible. Then at her 4-year-old well check, the pedi informed me about the whole 5 point harness thing and Europe's two thumbs up to that. I was torn. Seriously. I still feel a twinge of fear and guilt when I put her in her pretty pink booster. Then I remember my parents moving a 5-year-old me and my two brothers (ages 2-yrs-old and infant) down to Texas in a 1970's Suburban that not only didn't have car seats but lacked *rear seats* - they just threw a mattress on the vehicle floor for us kids to play/sleep on while all of the family's worldly goods were stacked around us and in the homemade U-Haul we pulled. And somehow we all survived - without car seats OR a/c. :)
And we survived without in car DVD players too!
Oh, I hear you loud and clear here. Geoffrey is still in a booster, can you believe that? He's not tall enough (by a few inches). I follow the rules because I'm a rule follower, but I am not above shrieking at my husband, "Look how stupid this is!" Just last week our SUV was in the shop and we had to put all three kids and their car seats in Jason's little Saturn. It was a tight squeeze, but we managed pretty well. However, we both talked about the ride we took in a kindly deacon's Suburban and how luxurious it felt to have enough room to maneuver. Is it any wonder that American's, forced to use car seats, can't kick their use of large vehicles? You remember the Mongolian family in "Babies"? Yeah, that isn't going to happen here any time soon.
Yeah, my kids are almost 5 and 6 and I'm just fed up with the car seats. The worst part is there's just no room for parental judgment. I remember riding in the front seat as a kid and it made me feel so grown-up. There are plenty of times just going around a corner to the 7-11 where I'd like to let my son sit on the front seat precisely because there's just no additional risk and it would let him have that experience I had as a kid.
Even if these rules were arrived at by purely altruistic, wise individuals only interested in the safety of children (which I doubt), the fact remains that they lobotomize parental judgment to the *detriment* of children. That's the hidden cost and hidden costs never get counted in public debates.
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