Car Seats

I told you I'd eventually get back to car seats. :)

I'm a tech. I got certified this summer after years of reading on car seat forums and endlessly researching seat choices. I took the plunge. I got mom to come stay with the kiddos and I took the course.

You may be wondering what in the world one has to do to learn how to install car seats. After all, every parent that's had a kid since about 1980 has installed a car seat. What's so hard about that?

You'd be surprised at what people don't know about installing a seat. Most of them are wrong. I've done probably 40 cars or so since becoming certified. Out of those, one seat was correct. One. It's harder than you'd think. :) Here's the PSA: Please, get your seat checked by a certified child passenger safety tech. You can find one in your area on the safekids website . They should be able to teach you how to safely install your seat in your car. Ideally, you leave feeling like you can install your own seat with no problems. :)

Anyway, most of the people who are certified in my area in Northern VA are cops. They are the ones that sponser most of the public seat checks. Their officers are compensated for their time, so we very often are working with someone who doesn't care much about the car seats and just wants the overtime. I worked with such an individual today. We had a children's health fair. I volunteered to go man the car seat booth. One officer was there. She was giving out grossly incorrect information to a mom, so I stuck my nose into the conversation and started asking the mom some questions. I then gently tried to lead her in another direction from what the cop was saying. This? Pissed her off. Badly. lol I need to remember that many cops (not all, mind you) like to be in charge and I stepped on her toes. However, I couldn't have this mom leave thinking it was okay to put her 3 year old in a backless booster when it seemed from my questions she probably just had the harnesses on her convertible threaded incorrectly.

Oye. It was an unpleasant day.