"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." ~Lin Yutang

Friday, May 4, 2012

car seats, can't fit 'em all in... can't throw 'em to the curb...

so, i just randomly decided that surely someone has thought of a solution to fit three car seats in a vehicle... since, in our state at least, kids have to use a car seat up until the age of 7 and/or EIGHTY POUNDS.  (we go with the age 7 part because well, it's there.  i think it's actually like the forward facing rule where the child needs to be at least age 7 but also a minimum of 80 pounds...  that's never been spelled out for me though and they change the laws on these things every other year, so i feel law-abiding enough that i know at least part of the law.  with a law of such length (7 years is a LONG time to sit in a car seat -or booster), i'm sure that lots of families struggle with the issue of fitting 3 car seats in their vehicle.  i mean, i know great big SUVs used to be the craze, but gas prices are almost to $4/gallon... people are changing their ways!  it's not ridiculous to have three kids under the age of 7!!!  minivans are nice, but they aren't wide enough to fit three car seats in without either breaking your arm trying to buckle them in, or breaking the seats trying to smash them close enough together!
anyway, all that rambling to say that i did indeed find a car seat solution.  it's called the "Sunshine Kids RadianXTSL Convertible Car Seat" and it claims to fit up to three of these even in a 4-door sedan.  wow eh?  so, i went to search out the cost and the practicality of purchasing new car seats JUST to make more room. 
apparently they're supposed to retail at $289.  so... that's completely impractical.  however, they are on sale on a couple different websites, down to $89.  that's also rather impractical just for some room, but when comparing it to the previous three digit number it looks appetizing.  but, of course both of the sites that have it "on sale" are out of stock! 
(i roll my eyes at this)
whatever!

in other news.  boo said "r" yesterday.  that's exciting.  now we just have to practice switching all the words with "r" in them to what they should really sound like instead of what they willy do sound like currently. 


Try to remember, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

6 comments:

bonniebee said...

Whatever happened to my invention idea about having a car seat that takes up two regular seats but seats three tots?

I saw that new regulations are suggesting kids seat backward facing until 2 or something.

I have a suggestion for car/kid safety. To the world, mamat, and not you specifically, but how about more kids (and adults) on foot and less time in the car at lethal speeds!

PS from Troy not Bonnie

MamaT said...

follow through troy. follow through! (re: your child seat idea) that would easily make our 7-passenger van fit our 8-passenger family!
i read the article about the suggestions for the upping ages of car seat using too. it was just suggestions though... for maximum safety. i thought it proposterous! i also read several comments and apparently it makes me a very irresponsible parent to thing such suggestions are proposterous. a 2-year-old seated backwards though?! seriously?! where exactly do they put their feet and legs???? i have short-legged kids and even at 1-year-old they run out of room! a commentor suggested that it's so much better that they don't drop toys and such when they're faced backward, but if you're going for safety, you shouldn't have loose toys in the car because in case of a crash those loose objects act like bullets flying around inside the vehicle!
:)

MamaT said...

a couple years ago we remedied our bicycle situation to accomidate our large family, but we can't fit the kids AND the groceries, so we just ride for recreation and still drive most everywhere.

maybe when we buy a home we will consider hoofin' it more often and park our home more conveniently. my favorite home we've found so far was parked VERY conveniently for such an occasion... but it already sold and it didn't sell to me. :(

bonniebee said...

no more facebook mamat?

Alexis said...

We are dealing with the same issue. The problem is they are supposed to be rear facing until 2 here and its such a mess. California is trying to make kids stay rear facing until some crazy age like 4 or 5 which is just ridiculous!!

We are getting a mini van. We only have 3 so that helps. Those car seats are very expensive. I know the fit though:) Sometimes the government makes no sense in the fact they want us to drive more "energy efficent" cars, but we have to keep kids in car seats until they are graduated it seems. Sadly it does not work! Good luck and let me know if you come up with a cheaper solution:)

MamaT said...

yes, bonniebee... no more facebook.
i saw a cool solution for a smaller booster seat. it looked like a big woopie cushion. it was an inflatable, very transportable booster. it came out last year. i didn't check the prices on it though. it was only about a foot wide (compared to the 14-16in. of the others).