Car Seats

My husband was recently pulled over when he was driving our 4-year old son home from preschool. He was driving our vehicle of choice, the mid nineties hunter green Chevy Tahoe. The seats in the back were folded down to accommodate the latest machine we acquired. A broken brake light was the reason the police officer gave for stopping them, but the conversation ended up being about my 4-year old son sitting in the front seat. The police officer said he needed to be in the back seat, to which my husband said that it wasn't a law because it was based on height and weight requirements. Afterall, the airbag was off. The officer replied that it was safer in the back seat. My husband wisely didn't argue because no tickets were given. So on the side of the road he moved the machine around, flipped the seat up, and our son climbed into the back.

My husband is 6'8 and a slender 310 pounds. I'm 5'10 with a weight to match my big bones. Together we produce bigger than average children. My 4-year old has been called a man child and could eat most 6-year olds. Our 5-year old and 4-year old are bigger than the height and weight requirements for a car seat, and are cleared for front seat riding. However, their age makes it not acceptable.

My husbands solution to the issue is to start driving our 1966 Jeep J3000 truck with no back seat. It doesn't have air bags, and it's built like a brick shit house. I would feel more comfortable with our kids in our collection of Jeeps than a compact car.

We are responsible parents and have researched the national and individual state requirements for car seats. I did notice a pattern for the states. The less populated states have less strict requirements. The more densely populated areas have more traffic which means more probability of accidents. I also noticed some other political patterns in the states, but I won't get into it here. Iowa, being where we live, has reasonable requirements, unlike some states that have kids in car seats and the back seat until they can drive.

The commercials that advertise rear facing car seats for toddlers and beyond are a little too much. Car seat manufacturers are making a killing because what parent would sacrifice the safety of their child when they could just spend hundreds of dollars buying a car seat every other year. I don't like marketing ploys that prey on parents fears and paranoia. All three of our kids are in the appropriate car seat, but I'm still aware that accidents are inevitable.

Now go research the car seat requirements and make informed decisions, and don't judge other parents like the polite police lady.