Splash
05-01-2006, 07:13 AM
My boss is a great guy. His wife is a complete idiot.
She NEVER uses her kids' carseats. They are 2.5 and 3.5. I'm DONE fighting with her about it and just accept that, most of the time, her children will be bopping around in the car unrestrained.
They have a Cosco Summit, and AO Elite, and two turbo boosters. The most she ever does on the two harness seats is buckle the chest clip. Almost never the entire harness. For the boosters, she sometimes buckles them in, but never correctly. She doesn't put the belt through the loop, and doesn't put it under the armrests. Then she tucks the shoulder portion behind their backs. So, basically, they are unrestrained.
They have an explorer and a mustang convertible.
Well, yesterday I moved the AOL Elite to the Mustang. I had them all weekend while the parents were in Chicago, so I could fiddle with their car seats.
I taught their older child how to buckle his booster. He can do it almost completely by himself. I have to hope that the mom will help him some, but I am not holding my breath. So the only hope of him being restrained in the car is him being able to buckle himself in. Hopefully he does it.
I installed the Summit for their daughter in the explorer and taught her how to AT LEAST buckle her chest clip. I know it will be pretty pointless in a crash, but... at least it will hold her back if her mom hits the brakes. I left the harness REALLY loose because sometimes she (mom) will try to do it and then give up if it's too hard. So if the harness is loose, she *might* be more inclined to buckle her daughter.
Now, onto the bad thing I did.
It was nearly impossible to get a seat into the Mustang. What was nice was being able to put the top down and STAND on the seat, but it didn't get me too far. The seat doesn't fit in the buckets. But, I did what I could.
I used a beach towel and folded it fairly thick (something I would NEVER do in real life) and used it to 'fill in' the bucket portion. Yes I know this is bad, but it was my only option.
Then I used both the belt AND LATCH to secure it. Again, bad. But it was the ONLY way I could get it even almost secure. I know you're not supposed to use both, but I had to weigh my options and decided that it was safer than not.
I worry about these kids every time their mother drives with them. She's an idiot and a horrible driver to boot. So she's in a convertible with the top down doing 70 and has two kids not in carseats in the back. She's been ticketed but just doesn't care. She says car seats take too much time and ruin upholstery and she didn't die in the car as a child, neither will her kids, and I worry too much.
They could afford the best seats on the market for these kids. I could put two regents in the explorer and two radians in the bucket seats of the Mustang and then probably teach the kids to buckle themselves in (at least their son) and the kids would be safe. But although mom gets a daily massage and has lunch with her friends every day and just had a boob job, "paying for car seats doesn't come at a good time right now. We just don't have the money for it" (spoken as she carries in 6 bags from bloomingdale's). My boss would buy them in a heartbeat, but he knows it will piss her off and she won't use them anyway.
Anyway.... is it better in the Mustang with the towel and the latch/seatbelt... or should I remove the towel and the seatbelt and just let it be extremely loose?
She NEVER uses her kids' carseats. They are 2.5 and 3.5. I'm DONE fighting with her about it and just accept that, most of the time, her children will be bopping around in the car unrestrained.
They have a Cosco Summit, and AO Elite, and two turbo boosters. The most she ever does on the two harness seats is buckle the chest clip. Almost never the entire harness. For the boosters, she sometimes buckles them in, but never correctly. She doesn't put the belt through the loop, and doesn't put it under the armrests. Then she tucks the shoulder portion behind their backs. So, basically, they are unrestrained.
They have an explorer and a mustang convertible.
Well, yesterday I moved the AOL Elite to the Mustang. I had them all weekend while the parents were in Chicago, so I could fiddle with their car seats.
I taught their older child how to buckle his booster. He can do it almost completely by himself. I have to hope that the mom will help him some, but I am not holding my breath. So the only hope of him being restrained in the car is him being able to buckle himself in. Hopefully he does it.
I installed the Summit for their daughter in the explorer and taught her how to AT LEAST buckle her chest clip. I know it will be pretty pointless in a crash, but... at least it will hold her back if her mom hits the brakes. I left the harness REALLY loose because sometimes she (mom) will try to do it and then give up if it's too hard. So if the harness is loose, she *might* be more inclined to buckle her daughter.
Now, onto the bad thing I did.
It was nearly impossible to get a seat into the Mustang. What was nice was being able to put the top down and STAND on the seat, but it didn't get me too far. The seat doesn't fit in the buckets. But, I did what I could.
I used a beach towel and folded it fairly thick (something I would NEVER do in real life) and used it to 'fill in' the bucket portion. Yes I know this is bad, but it was my only option.
Then I used both the belt AND LATCH to secure it. Again, bad. But it was the ONLY way I could get it even almost secure. I know you're not supposed to use both, but I had to weigh my options and decided that it was safer than not.
I worry about these kids every time their mother drives with them. She's an idiot and a horrible driver to boot. So she's in a convertible with the top down doing 70 and has two kids not in carseats in the back. She's been ticketed but just doesn't care. She says car seats take too much time and ruin upholstery and she didn't die in the car as a child, neither will her kids, and I worry too much.
They could afford the best seats on the market for these kids. I could put two regents in the explorer and two radians in the bucket seats of the Mustang and then probably teach the kids to buckle themselves in (at least their son) and the kids would be safe. But although mom gets a daily massage and has lunch with her friends every day and just had a boob job, "paying for car seats doesn't come at a good time right now. We just don't have the money for it" (spoken as she carries in 6 bags from bloomingdale's). My boss would buy them in a heartbeat, but he knows it will piss her off and she won't use them anyway.
Anyway.... is it better in the Mustang with the towel and the latch/seatbelt... or should I remove the towel and the seatbelt and just let it be extremely loose?