Monday, November 21, 2011

The Car Seat Dispute

Gavin is 15 months old now, and if he hasn't hit the 22 pound mark yet, he's very close.  This means one thing to me:  it's time to get him in a different car seat. 

This is the easy part.

See, Logan currently rides in a convertible car seat.  We have one in each car.  All we have to do it readjust the seat to fit Gavin.  Each car seat can actually be placed rear-facing too which is even better.

So EASY!

The not so easy part:  What do I do with Logan now?

Logan is probably only 35 pounds...soaking wet.  This means he is still too small for a backless booster.  But it does mean that he is big enough for a high back booster.  But still, I know he would be safer in a five-point harness.

This should be an easy decision right?

WRONG!

My checkbook is crying out in pain at the idea of buying TWO* more five-point harness car seats.  See, backless boosters are cheap, cheap, cheap!  I can buy two for less than the price of one five-point harness seat.  And while high back boosters are more expensive than backless boosters they're still cheaper than five-point harness seats.

My cheap side and my mom side are waring with each other BIG time.  There's a part of me that wants to call a compromise and go with the high back booster, but....that mom side of me wants to keep my child SAFE!

Okay, okay...this really is a no brainer, but still!  Ugh...

Get ready to cry Mr. Checkbook, because you're buying two more (more) expensive car seats....


*YES!  We need TWO!  Justin and I are both responsible for dropping off and picking up the kids, and I don't want to mess with switching seats from car to car! 

1 comment:

  1. I just posted a blog post about car seats--if you haven't seen it already, check it! We have the Graco Nautilus for Eli and it will (and I will) harness him til 65 POUNDS, after which it converts to the high back booster and backless booster. Car seats seem expensive but they are used sooooo much and for several years. I calculated what Hannah's is per day and even hers being a more expensive one to fit our car is only 10 cents a day for highest safety for her. And when put like that is not much at all and so worth it. And for Gavin, I hope you do use the option to keep in rear faced in that convertible seat. Soooo much safer for him! Right now I'm debating about Carter's car seat... I know you're supposed to take puffy winter coats OFF before doing their buckles otherwise it's way too much "give" during an accident. But these midwestern winters are MUCH too cold to be standing at the door getting his coat on and off in zero degree weather every time we make a stop and too cold to wear only a fleece even just going in and out of a store/house. But currently his buckles don't extend any more and when he's wearing a thick coat I can barely get it buckled. What to do... Gonna experiment to see if I can just unzip it and open the front of the coat out of the way of the buckles, but we'll see...

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