Monday, January 29, 2007

My other job…

If this position was a real position…I would be it. It would be a car seat safety officer. I would have a car seat safety badge and pull over parents that were incorrectly using a car seat or not using one at all. I get pretty worked up over car seats. I am completely amazed (in a negative way) but the number of parents that use car seats incorrectly. This quality of mine existed long before I had Lily and likely began when I worked at the hospital. I would frequently escort parents to their cars with their newborns. I had to ensure the baby was safely and correctly placed in the car seat and that the car seat was appropriately secured to the car. The hospital I worked at was in a nice community with a majority of highly educated people. You cannot imagine how many people didn’t know how to use a car seat or knew about the laws but totally disregarded them. One family just had their first child. Before escorting them to their car I asked about their car seat. They didn’t have one. They honestly thought and said the mom would hold the baby during the car ride home. This was the most shocking to me…because of all the car seat laws and well, it’s not 1970. Because I couldn’t legally and wouldn’t let these people hold their baby on their laps in a car ride, this ordeal turned into a few hours. The father eventually brought back a huge car seat with a mess of straps that he had no idea how to use. After I managed to thread the straps correctly we got this huge seat into their small car and off they went. I could only cross my fingers they continued to use a car seat. Another family just had their 3rd child. They were around my age and we got along very well. When I escorted them to their truck the father tried to put the car seat in the front seat. Again, this is a no-no (they had a back seat in their truck). It took a while to get across to the parents I couldn’t let them leave with the seat in the front and finally they put it in the back seat. I knew it wouldn’t be long until they changed it back.

Other times I get riled up about car seats is watching a baby story. These people are so clueless about properly restraining their children. The straps are very loose or the seat easily rocks sideways. One morning while I was driving to work I spotted a car seat in the car ahead of me…this car seat was actually swaying sideways. As I pulled up next to the car I could see a child, around 5-6 months old, actually leaning halfway out of the car seat. I used my fake car seat badge and honked at the mom. When she looked my way I pointed to her child and she immediately pulled over to the side of the road. I felt better that she took action but she clearly drove for a while without noticing a very obvious and critical issue.

Being the car seat safety officer I am I took Lily’s car seat to the fire department to make sure I was using it correctly. To toot my own horn…they actually said it was installed properly and they don’t see that often. Yay. Also I posted a video of Lily laughing a few months back and she was in her car seat. I got a message from some random person complimenting me on the correct way to use a car seat.

With all the recent talk of car seat safety and the retraction of a published report saying most car seats were unsafe, buying a car seat takes time and effort. Research is very important. When we purchased Lily’s toddler car seat I had pages and pages of research. I went to Babies R Us and Target and examined each car seat, taking off the cover, checking the EPS foam, etc. I can’t tell you how many people were asking me questions. And yes, I was more than happy to answer!

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