Cheap, easy-to-install seats for grandma's car

[AngB]

I am in school full time and moving car seats between my mom's car and DH's car is getting to be way too much of a hassle not to mention we have way too much going on [my grandfather just died and my mom is helping my grandmother out with a lot of stuff and she's having medical issues hersel] to not have multiple seats. We just bought new seats for my car (their primary car but I can never do pick up during my semester) and moved their older seats to DH's car. Now I need to figure out two more seats for my mom's car (or move the older seats to my mom's car and get newer seats for DH's car) ASAP.

The kids are DS2 who is almost 4, around 35 lbs, shorter than average height/weight, I am comfortable with him forward facing these days. Then DS3 who is just 1 and 18 lbs and way below average height/weight, definitely needs to rearface for awhile but we have plenty of convertibles so don't necessarily HAVE to buy another convertible. Car seat line up is: 2 blvds and a pavilion in my car, 2 marathons and a radian in DH's car.

DS1 is in kindergarten and in school for most of the driving around hassle. He can be in a backless booster in a crunch for my mom's car or for the 10 minute drive from his school to home but besides that needs to be in a HBB because he's definitely not mature enough.

My mom drives a 2014 Ford Escape and DH drives a 2012 Dodge Journey. I would prefer seats that work okay to do 3 across.

We just threw out an old expired Scenera that was horrible to install. Are the newer ones easier to install or should we look at other cheap seats? DH did not like how the scenara installed at all so he's going to be strongly against buying another but if I can easily install it securely in my mom's car then he'd get over it.

Thoughts?!

[gymnbomb]

I am in school full time and moving car seats between my mom's car and DH's car is getting to be way too much of a hassle not to mention we have way too much going on [my grandfather just died and my mom is helping my grandmother out with a lot of stuff and she's having medical issues hersel] to not have multiple seats. We just bought new seats for my car (their primary car but I can never do pick up during my semester) and moved their older seats to DH's car. Now I need to figure out two more seats for my mom's car (or move the older seats to my mom's car and get newer seats for DH's car) ASAP.

The kids are DS2 who is almost 4, around 35 lbs, shorter than average height/weight, I am comfortable with him forward facing these days. Then DS3 who is just 1 and 18 lbs and way below average height/weight, definitely needs to rearface for awhile but we have plenty of convertibles so don't necessarily HAVE to buy another convertible. Car seat line up is: 2 blvds and a pavilion in my car, 2 marathons and a radian in DH's car.

DS1 is in kindergarten and in school for most of the driving around hassle. He can be in a backless booster in a crunch for my mom's car or for the 10 minute drive from his school to home but besides that needs to be in a HBB because he's definitely not mature enough.

My mom drives a 2014 Ford Escape and DH drives a 2012 Dodge Journey. I would prefer seats that work okay to do 3 across.

We just threw out an old expired Scenera that was horrible to install. Are the newer ones easier to install or should we look at other cheap seats? DH did not like how the scenara installed at all so he's going to be strongly against buying another but if I can easily install it securely in my mom's car then he'd get over it.

Thoughts?!

The install on the Scenera next is very easy. It is our travel seat and I have put it in tons of rental cars and family members cars. There is no flip foot on the bottom like the old ones, and you are allowed to install it at pretty much any angle for an older baby/toddler. I just stand behind it, lean my stomach into the top of it, yank the latch strap a couple of times and it is good to go. My 50th percentile 2.5 year old has room to grow in it.


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[abh5e8]

I agree... I like our scenera next way more then our old sceneras. RF to either 35 or 40 lbs. That is what I would get for the baby. Lbb for oldest, cosco topside or harmony defender are both narrow and inexpensive.

Your middle child is a little tougher. Hire often do the kids ride with dh? I think the least expensive option would be a hbb for your older to go in your dh's car and give one of your convertibles to your mom. Turbo booster is $40 on amazon. If you want another convertible, sureride is a good option. $72, rf to 40#, FF to 65 with tall harness slots.

But, if he is not able to sit correctly in a lbb, I would think he is not able to in a hbb either?

[AngB]

I agree... I like our scenera next way more then our old sceneras. RF to either 35 or 40 lbs. That is what I would get for the baby. Lbb for oldest, cosco topside or harmony defender are both narrow and inexpensive.

Your middle child is a little tougher. Hire often do the kids ride with dh? I think the least expensive option would be a hbb for your older to go in your dh's car and give one of your convertibles to your mom. Turbo booster is $40 on amazon. If you want another convertible, sureride is a good option. $72, rf to 40#, FF to 65 with tall harness slots.

But, if he is not able to sit correctly in a lbb, I would think he is not able to in a hbb either?

DS1 will only be in DH's car for the 10 minutes or so drive from his school to our house which should be ok. My mom will only drive ds1 for emergency/ sick at school type situations (dh and I are both 45 min away). I wouldn't trust him to sit ok for an extended time on a regular basis in a booster but for short spurts he'll be fine. DS2 will be in DH's car maybe twice a week or so depending if my mom drives them to our house after getting DS2 from preschool or has DH pick them up from her house.

I think we are doing exactly this, a Harmony hbb for DS1 in DH's car, move DS2 to the ff radian, DS3 in a rf'ing marathon, then use the leftover marathon for DS3 rf'ing in my mom's car and maybe get DS2 a Maestro for her car. I will keep the scenara in mind but when we already have so many convertible seats and only one kid rf'ing I don't know if it makes sense to buy another convertible seat.

Thanks for the help!

[gymnbomb]

Sounds like a good plan! In your case I wouldn't buy a new convertible either, as long as you can fit one of the ones you have into all the needed vehicles.


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[mousemom]

We love the Maestro for kids around your DS2's age. We've used it as a full-time seat in one of our cars for both DS1 and DS2 and they both actually preferred it to more expensive, cushier seats. It's easy to install and good for travel too.