Re the 80 pounds rule: there’s got to be some exceptions or compromises or something. Like Tamex, I didn’t weigh 80 pounds for a long time - until I was in the 7th grade. The Web site lolagranola posted only talks about pre-schoolers weighing up to 80 pounds - are 12- or 13-year-olds supposed to sit in a child seat too? I would have certainly been much too tall to fit into one, even if my weight was within the limits.
I will also rant here about the fact that something like 80% of car seats aren’t used correctly. It’s not enough to buy one; you gotta make some effort to get the thing installed correctly. The high incidence of error obviously shows that even caring, conscientious parents don’t get it right, but it should also be a big fat wakeup call to everyone to read the directions closely. And take advantage of those car seat safety clinics!!
And goddamn it, keep that fucking kid facing BACKWARDS for as long as possible. The 20-lbs & 12 months old thing is a JOINT recommendation–that means they should BOTH be true for your kid before you front-face the seat. I know there are unusually large or long kids who have to be turned around before then, but remember those are exceptional kids. Don’t give me that shit about “He’s happier facing forward!” If you have a seat that can be rear-facing for longer, by all means take advantage of it. Given a choice, buy the one that lets you keep them rear-facing for 30 or more pounds.
And oh yeah, the 80-lbs thing probably means using a booster. Not an all-encasing carseat, but something that puts the little body up at more of an adult level so the seat belt and airbags can work correctly. An airbag can fucking DECAPITATE a small person. They’re designed to work for adults within certain average ranges.
Cranky is a safety weenie! Cranky is a safety weenie!
I may not be able to take decent care of my kid’s teeth, but I’m all over the carseat thing.
Children should be in some form of car seat until they are over 80 lbs.
Anyone else wondering if they will come out with a supermodel version of the car seat? Won’t it be hard for them to drive? How will Halle Berry keep herself safely on the sidewalk, if a car seat is keeping her above the gas pedal.
Tamex: Sorry that I missed the sarcasm in your post. Sadly, though, there are still parents out there that use that very same reasoning (“I can’t leave the kid at home alone!”) to “justify” their crime of endangering the child in another way.
This foregoing in bold so Tamex (and others) will see me apologize.
Gosh, is that the problem? That explains why my ass doesn’t fit into mine. 
Actually, I’ve done this myself. (Called the cops, not carried kids around as bowling pins.) Mrs. RickJay and I were coming out of a drugstore when to what to our wondering eyes should appear but a K-car driven by some imbecile whose kids were just climbing around inside the car without seatbelts or car seats. One tyke was playing by lying down in the rear window shelf, which makes you wonder how the mom was seeing out the rear view mirror.
We stood there in stunned silence as she tooled past us and out the lot and I just walked straight to the payphone.
As we drove up the street a few klicks past, there was a cop, having pulled her over, bawling her out. It was one the the greatest moments of my life.
Point of Fact: Some hospitals here in Jackson, MS won’t let a child leave without one. You get one along with the kid. No doubt you’re billed the $30 it takes, but it saves time and lives all around.
SZ, firm believer in Child Restraints.
In Washington State the public awareness program pertaining to booster seat use for older children is targeting children 80 lbs. or less or 4 to 8 years old.
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When we had Chaos and Destruction, the car seats were part of the package given by the hospital. Pretty neat idea, if you ask me.
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And, after the wreck of the Havocmobile, I am so glad you are.
A round of applause to Marlitharn.
You don’t see too many children travelling unrestrained in cars here - possibly because the driver incurs both a large fine and a loss of points from their licence for each child travelling in the car who is not in an approved child restraint.
While you don’t see too many children over 5 or 6 using booster seats here (unless they are small children), there is a child safety harness which is used in conjunction with a normal seat belt used for older children. These are relatively cheap to buy and dramatically increase the safety factor over and above that provided by an adult seat belt.
There is no excuse whatsoever for allowing a child to travel unrestrained in a car, anymore than there are any excuses whatsoever for leaving children unattended in cars.
I applaud anyone who reports either.
Wait for it . . . waaiittt for it. . .
WHOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!
“Irony 101” should be a required course on every college campus. See you guys in the funny papers.
– Jer
It amazes me that there are people who still do things like this. When my first was born four years ago, the hospital gave us a car seat in which to take her home. Thirteen months later when we had our second, the hospital asked if we already had a car seat suitable for a newborn. When they saw that my husband had already brought it up to the room, they offered us a $50 gift certificate to our choice of several local stores. No matter how dire a parent’s financial situation, I am certain that a car seat could be obtained somewhere.
As a slight aside, it’s about the time of year when we’ll start to hear about babies/toddlers left in hot vehicles to suffocate. My mom takes this problem on as her personal responsibilty, canvassing the mall and shopping center parking lots. She stands by the car and dials the police from her cell phone, waiting till either they or the parents arrive, and takes down the tag number in case they leave. I wonder what these parents do to their children at home if they are willing to subject them to such abuse in public.
Good call,Marlitharn. jane_says, your mom is right on the money with the baby suffocating in cars issue - my friend accidentally managed to lock her new baby in her car on a hot day last summer, and while she was waiting the 10 minutes it took for her husband to come with the spare keys, the baby got quite hot (and this with her standing and shading him as much as possible). She was totally freaked out by how little time it took for the baby to heat up.
featherlou, just curious. Was it not possible for your friend(or someone) to break a window? Was the infant in such a position that ANY breakage, on any window, would have hurt it?I wouldn’t think a window was as important in this situation as keeping the kid from overheating.
When each of the lestrangelets was born, the hospital told us they’d refuse to let the baby in the car w/out a carseat. No sweat–we had one ready. I think that’s pretty common these days.
Last autumn, a local hospital had a free car seat check day–you had to sign up, but it didn’t cost–they checked to make sure your seats were in good condition and installed and used properly. I’ll pat myself on the back, and mention that the lestrangelets were properly seated. In any event, the check was great, and they were giving out free replacement seats if they found anything wrong with yours. I really recommend going to one of these if they have one in your area, or call the local hospital (or children’s hospital) and see if they offer car seat inspections, or know who does.
The recommendation for kids 40-80lbs is for a booster seat, as Cranky mentioned. Lots of forward facing only carseats are convertible–when kiddo gets to be over 40 lbs, it can be used as a booster. The elder lestrangelet is just shy of 40lbs, and rides in one of these. I wish I could talk my sister into using one for my niece. They buy hormone free milk and organic butter to keep the kids safe from chemicals, but they won’t put the 6 year old in a booster seat. Go figure.
Did that once in my EMT days, lady left her kid in a car seat (about 9 mo old). It was like 103 degrees. Me and my partner came out of ER and hear this kid screaming. We approach the vehicle, see kid inside, bright red and screaming constantly. No problem, 3 cel maglite vs tempered glass = open window. Opened door, removed kid and walked up to triage with her. We explained situation, they took kid into a room (kid was screaming because she was pretty badly sunburned). Mom showed up about 20 min later wanting PD to come because her child had been kidnapped. Luckily for her PD was already there 
Ever see a broken car window, the little tempered glass shards arent very sharp and they are designed to beak that way. If baby is going to die of heatstroke a few little glass cuts will be the least of its problems. Your attempt at a hypothetical “don’t break the glass” scenario is ignorant and just plain stupid. If I would have walked up to pondering if you should break the glass I would have used your head to break the glass and hopefully knock a little sense into you. Break the fucking window!! The emergency world is full of situations where you have to do a little damage to fix a bigger problem. I would do it again without hesitation if I had to. I mused to my partner as we pulled out. “I hope the cop puts her in the back seat, and leaves her there for a few hours without the AC.”
Maybe you should tell her that the kid will be more comfortable. I hated being shoved down in the seat and not able to see when I was that age. I also remember the rear shoulder belts in my aunt’s Saab and how uncomfortable they were. Mom told us to put them behind our backs–well, we know better these days. My kid can see, the seat belt doesn’t rub her neck or get in her face, and she’s got a nifty cupholder to boot!
Monty, I accept your apology. You are really quite filled with that Pit spirit, aren’t you? :).
Thanks for the appreciation, guys! This backwards county I live in is the you-mind-your-business, I’ll-mind-mine capital of the world, and I was amazed at how much nerve it took for me to dial that damn phone. I’m trying to get better.
drachillix, were you by any chance in a position to eavesdrop when the cops showed up to confront that half-wit who left that little baby in the car on such a hot day? I’d dearly love to know what they said to her - in my experience, cops are the most imaginative swearers.
What kills me is, it’s so easy to be careful. Belt up your kids. Don’t leave them alone. If they’re into cycling or sports, put helmets on them. My son actually caved in the side of his bike helmet by smashing head-first into the curb while wiping out on his bike. Thank God it was the helmet and not his head. We had a nimrod up at the store one day who locked her baby into the car, with the engine running and the air conditioner on. She left the keys in the ignition and took her little electronic door-unlocker thingy with her. Guess what? The battery died! One of our local mechanics was on hand with a slim jim. The baby woke up while he was working on the door, saw this huge scary man trying to get into the car, and totally freaked, which made the mom come unglued, which freaked the baby more. It occurs to me now that I missed a perfect opportunity to slap the shit of of Mommy Dearest, on the grounds she was hysterical.
I’ve only called the cops one other time, and that was when I saw at least 8 kids, Mom, and 2 dogs climb into the bed of a pick-up and hunker down while Dad covered the whole crew up with a green tarp. It was August, at least 98 degrees, and fellow Missourians, who would like to testify about the humidity in this godforsaken state?
I’m by no means a perfect parent, but I at least have SOME sense.
Pardon me for saying so, but how much nerve could that possibly take? It’s rather easy to revile a couple as “fatassed” and “dickheads” while they’re out of earshot, and then pick up the phone to call the cops after they’ve driven away. Given your apparent passion on the subject, I wouldn’t call that much of a display of courage.
From what you’ve said so far, I somehow doubt that you’ll have the courage or basic courtesy to try to talk to such transgressors personally and see if they can be persuaded gently to do the right thing. No, I think it’s easier, and so much more thrilling, to know that uniformed law enforcement agents are bearing down on these unworthy scum, and doing so at your bidding.
Sorry, but count me among the unimpressed.
good for you.
When I worked in sales this woman beat the piss out of her little boy in my store. She had him by one arm and his little feet were dangling in the air while she whacked him.
So after I told her to cut it out because she was disturbing the other customers, she told ne to mind my own business. I called mall security and they came and escorted her out of the mall. To this day I wonder what happened to her.
I think we all need to take a bit more responsiblity for what happens around us and not just turn a blind eye.
baker and drachillix, my friend was about to break the window when her husband showed up with the keys. Trust me, this is not the kind of woman that puts a car window before the health of her child.
Quote from Zarathustra "…I somehow doubt that you’ll have the courage or basic courtesy to try to talk to such transgressors personally and see if they can be persuaded gently to do the right thing. No, I think it’s easier, and so much more thrilling, to know that uniformed law eforcement agents are bearing down on these unworthy scum, and doing so at your bidding.
Sorry, but count me among the unimpressed."
I don’t agree with you on this point; I have called the police in situations where I heard a woman being beaten a couple of times, and I would not, under any circumstances, put myself in arm’s reach of a guy who is already out of control. As far as I’m concerned, in these situations calling the police is the best thing you can do. They are trained to deal with these situations, and they are much better able to deal with the risks involved in sticking your nose into somebody else’s business than I am. I realize calling the police for a baby abuser is somewhat different than someone who is beating somebody up, but I think my logic still stands. The police are there to protect everyone, including babies. (And for the record, I didn’t find it thrilling at all to call the police when I heard my neighbour being beaten; it damn near made me physically sick.)