What’s with people getting angry that kids are in carseats longer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have yet to see an 11 year old in a high back booster. Good luck with that.

My 11 year old is 53 inches tall and we haven't removed our high back boosters from the car yet.

[Anonymous]

I do just have to question whether relying specifically on the manufacturer’s recommendations makes sense. They have write these recommendations to cover their butts legally.

I mean, does the entire US gymnastics team have to use boosters? I think most of them are around 4’ something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have yet to see an 11 year old in a high back booster. Good luck with that.

My 11 year old is 53 inches tall and we haven't removed our high back boosters from the car yet.

You have an exceptionally small 11 yr old. The vast majority are not that small or riding around with high back boosters. My 9 and 7 year olds are taller than that. So seeing a very small peanut like that would be unusual at that age since they probably don't even look 11.

[Anonymous]

Our kids used them at 11. No one cared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do just have to question whether relying specifically on the manufacturer’s recommendations makes sense. They have write these recommendations to cover their butts legally.

I mean, does the entire US gymnastics team have to use boosters? I think most of them are around 4’ something.

Short women should consider what they need need to do to make sure the seat belt lines up appropriately along their lap and across their shoulder. But realize that short does not always mean that their upper body is short. My 5 foot mom actually is my height when we are sitting down even though I'm 6 inches taller. Only her legs are shorter. Not a problem for seatbelts, though she drives a little close to the steering wheel (airbag.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen a lot of anger and animosity from (mostly) older folks regarding current guidelines for child passenger safety.

My 3.5-year-old is rear-facing carseat and my 7-year-old is in a backed booster with a harness. For some reason my father and father-in-law are extremely bothered by this. When I told my dad that both boys will be in some type of booster in the back seat until they’re 4’11” or 12 (whichever comes first) his head spun and he let out a guttural groan like he had been punched in the stomach.

We follow the recommendations of the NHTSA, CDC’s Child Passenger Safety and our pediatricians office. I don’t see a reason not to? My kids have never complained. They are always comfortable. They’re petite for their age and aren’t prone to car sickness so thank God I don’t have to worry about queasiness with the rear facing. They both will fall asleep in the car if the drive is longer than 30 minutes and so I don’t have to worry about them slumping over. Their peers are in similar carseats and booster seats and the older has never mentioned being embarrassed. Why not? Car accidents and guns are the two leading cause of deaths for children under 16 and I really have very little control about either but if I can give my children a decreased chance of serious injury or death in the event of a car accident why not?

So many older people seem to have survivors bias about it all.

“Back in my day we just sat in the back of the car and we turned out fine!” Well, I’m sure many didn’t and I don’t think car fatalities were nearly as common in the 1950s.

Same thing with helmets. Drives my dad crazy! “You never wore a helmet growing up and you were fine!”

Yeah. Thank God I didn’t crash and hit my head. I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you because I could’ve had a TBI. My kids gonna wear a helmet. Why on earth would they not? So they can look cooler to a bunch of 65-year-old men?

And I’ve seen ads for carseats and booster seats on social media and the comments are similar (yes, I know Facebook comments are always going to be the worst humanity has to offer). But there are so many people actually ANGRY that a 8-year-old is in a booster. Like angry and throwing out wild theories, “they’re trying to make our kids soft!” “This is why men can’t be men anymore!!” Just true insanity.

Why on earth does decreasing the chances of your kid being seriously injured or killed seem to trigger an entire generation?

Because they’re still little. Your oldest is 7? When he’s in 4th grade, get back to us and let us know how he feels about climbing into a booster seat in front of his friends from school.

Or when he wants to ride home with a friend from sports or go with his friends somewhere- and mom either says no it starts uninstalling and installing booster seats in the other parent’s car

Boosters for older kids are super easy to move to a new car— I have a ride to one of my DD’s friends the other day and we literally handed her booster through the window and had it installed in 5 seconds.

Also, it’s common for older kids to sometimes ride without a booster if they are at that borderline size where a booster is safest but it’s not crazy for them to ride without them. Our rule is that definitely a booster if the car is getting on the freeway or will be exceeding 35 mph. But we sometimes take Lyfts or let our kid ride in a family member’s car without a booster if they are just driving somewhere nearby. You don’t have to worry about the kind of high speed accident in those situations, just lower speed accidents where the risk is lower and the child is not likely to be thrown forward at a high rate of speed.

After age 7 or so (depending on kid’s size) following the guidelines isn’t much of a hassle. And the kids don’t complain about it when all their friends are in boosters too.

Disagree. High back boosters aren’t a pass through the window type thing. And when you are handing your 11 yr old booster seat over to his friend’s mom and putting it their car, meanwhile, their 11 yr old and his 9 yr old sibling both ride without- it is noticed. Multiple this my pretty much every friend he has and he will feel not so great about you wanting to insist on a booster every time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen a lot of anger and animosity from (mostly) older folks regarding current guidelines for child passenger safety.

My 3.5-year-old is rear-facing carseat and my 7-year-old is in a backed booster with a harness. For some reason my father and father-in-law are extremely bothered by this. When I told my dad that both boys will be in some type of booster in the back seat until they’re 4’11” or 12 (whichever comes first) his head spun and he let out a guttural groan like he had been punched in the stomach.

We follow the recommendations of the NHTSA, CDC’s Child Passenger Safety and our pediatricians office. I don’t see a reason not to? My kids have never complained. They are always comfortable. They’re petite for their age and aren’t prone to car sickness so thank God I don’t have to worry about queasiness with the rear facing. They both will fall asleep in the car if the drive is longer than 30 minutes and so I don’t have to worry about them slumping over. Their peers are in similar carseats and booster seats and the older has never mentioned being embarrassed. Why not? Car accidents and guns are the two leading cause of deaths for children under 16 and I really have very little control about either but if I can give my children a decreased chance of serious injury or death in the event of a car accident why not?

So many older people seem to have survivors bias about it all.

“Back in my day we just sat in the back of the car and we turned out fine!” Well, I’m sure many didn’t and I don’t think car fatalities were nearly as common in the 1950s.

Same thing with helmets. Drives my dad crazy! “You never wore a helmet growing up and you were fine!”

Yeah. Thank God I didn’t crash and hit my head. I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you because I could’ve had a TBI. My kids gonna wear a helmet. Why on earth would they not? So they can look cooler to a bunch of 65-year-old men?

And I’ve seen ads for carseats and booster seats on social media and the comments are similar (yes, I know Facebook comments are always going to be the worst humanity has to offer). But there are so many people actually ANGRY that a 8-year-old is in a booster. Like angry and throwing out wild theories, “they’re trying to make our kids soft!” “This is why men can’t be men anymore!!” Just true insanity.

Why on earth does decreasing the chances of your kid being seriously injured or killed seem to trigger an entire generation?

Because they’re still little. Your oldest is 7? When he’s in 4th grade, get back to us and let us know how he feels about climbing into a booster seat in front of his friends from school.

Or when he wants to ride home with a friend from sports or go with his friends somewhere- and mom either says no it starts uninstalling and installing booster seats in the other parent’s car

Boosters for older kids are super easy to move to a new car— I have a ride to one of my DD’s friends the other day and we literally handed her booster through the window and had it installed in 5 seconds.

Also, it’s common for older kids to sometimes ride without a booster if they are at that borderline size where a booster is safest but it’s not crazy for them to ride without them. Our rule is that definitely a booster if the car is getting on the freeway or will be exceeding 35 mph. But we sometimes take Lyfts or let our kid ride in a family member’s car without a booster if they are just driving somewhere nearby. You don’t have to worry about the kind of high speed accident in those situations, just lower speed accidents where the risk is lower and the child is not likely to be thrown forward at a high rate of speed.

After age 7 or so (depending on kid’s size) following the guidelines isn’t much of a hassle. And the kids don’t complain about it when all their friends are in boosters too.

Disagree. High back boosters aren’t a pass through the window type thing. And when you are handing your 11 yr old booster seat over to his friend’s mom and putting it their car, meanwhile, their 11 yr old and his 9 yr old sibling both ride without- it is noticed. Multiple this my pretty much every friend he has and he will feel not so great about you wanting to insist on a booster every time

I think it's funny that these parents of 7 year olds think that when their boys are 11 and on sports teams like baseball that they are all sitting in their booster seats in uniform going to games together. It does not happen.

[Anonymous]

When is a booster no longer needed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a mom in my late 40s, and my kids were in car seats/boosters longer than their peers. But i do wonder from a pure public policy perspective if all this long term boostering makes sense. The reality is that car seats and boosters aren’t cheap and they seem to be used as a litmus test to show that poor people/people of color are “bad” parents that in some cases are BREAKING THE LAW. I also wonder how much there is a quiet car seat lobby driving all this.

I totally believe all the numbers about safety, but there are lots of things that would be safer that don’t get enacted into laws that are then used to tax poor people essentially who cannot afford them. But I also own my own business and have to run background checks on people that are hourly wage people. The amount of non-moving violations that are used against poor people because they cannot afford to get a headlight fixed, fix a seatbelt, etc, then they cannot pay the fine and then they get arrested when the cannot pay fines is just unbelievable.

Infant seats and convertible seats can be expensive (though there are inexpensive options out there that meet all safety standards) but boosters, even high back harnessed boosters, can be much more affordable. I think ours cost like $60? You can get a backless booster for like $15. I’m sure as with anything, there are super high end versions of these that will cost a lot more, but the cheap ones, again, meet all safety standards and will significantly reduce risk of death or injury for a child in a car accident versus just a seat belt that is incorrectly positioned because of their size.

There are also many programs to provide free car seats and boosters to people who can’t afford them— our local fire house runs such a program and we donate to it every year.

While some people might use car seat standards to punish and harass poor people, I really do not think that is the goal behind the standards and recommendations. Those are driven by the fact that advocacy groups don’t want to see kids die in car accidents. Any kids.

Lol no, the goal is to enrich the car seat manufacturers. You’d better cut the straps on that lightly-used $200 car seat and set it out next to your trash can, anything else would be unsafe!

Exactly. I’m happy for parents to put their kids in car seats until they are 18 should they choose to do so. But truly from a pure cost benefit analysis of lives saved turned into a dollar figure, these incremental increases in safety don’t really make sense for the money being spent. And parents do all kinds of risky things with their own kids and then get all judgy about car seats. And the idea that you cannot donate car seats, etc is totally nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have yet to see an 11 year old in a high back booster. Good luck with that.

My 11 year old is 53 inches tall and we haven't removed our high back boosters from the car yet.

You have an exceptionally small 11 yr old. The vast majority are not that small or riding around with high back boosters. My 9 and 7 year olds are taller than that. So seeing a very small peanut like that would be unusual at that age since they probably don't even look 11.

A very small peanut? wtf. That is 10th percentile. Would you call a kid in the 90th percentile a giant ogre?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When is a booster no longer needed?

"Children need to ride in a booster seat until the seat belt fits right, when they are at least 4 feet, 9 inches tall, about 80 pounds and 8 years old."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When is a booster no longer needed?

"Children need to ride in a booster seat until the seat belt fits right, when they are at least 4 feet, 9 inches tall, about 80 pounds and 8 years old."

My child is older and heavier than that, but not tall enough. Do I still keep him in a booster?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have yet to see an 11 year old in a high back booster. Good luck with that.

I have a 10.5 year old in one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have yet to see an 11 year old in a high back booster. Good luck with that.

I have a 10.5 year old in one.

So not an 11 year old. Fascinating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When is a booster no longer needed?

When the seatbelt crosses their chest instead of their neck.