Puffy Jackets Need Not Apply...

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It is getting cold out around here and if you have kids you are most likely bundling them up when you leave the house. This is great, until you get into the car.

Did you know that buckling your child up in their car seat with a winter jacket on is dangerous? When you tighten the harness you may think that your child is safe but what you may not realize is that in the event of a crash, the material on the jacket will compress a lot and your child will not be secured.

Please read this to see what happens when you put your child in their car seat in a winter jacket- you will be shocked. There are also good tips on how to safely keep your child warm in the car.

I have never put any of my kids in their car seats in winter jackets- they know to take them off before I buckle them (my five year old son and three year old daughter are in forward facing harnessed seats and my one year old is in a rear facing seat). Yes, it is on extra step but when it comes to safety I do not cut corners just to save time. Now, cutting corners in other aspects of my parenting- I am definitely guilty of that.

Britax Frontier 85 For $199 Shipped- Safety At A Steal

Keeping your kids in a harnessed car seat for as long as possible is the safest thing to do which is why my five year old son is still in a harnessed seat and will continue to be until he is at least six. Not the norm but safety comes first for me even if I get strange looks from other moms.

Amazon has a great deal right now on the Britax Frontier 85 Combination Booster Car Seat, which is one of the harnessed boosters we love and own (the other is the Recaro ProSport ). It is only $199 with free shipping. This seat will last you years and can turn from a harnessed booster into a normal high back booster- to me $199 is a small price to pay for knowing that my children (we have a pink one for my daughter) are as safe as possible in the event of a crash. They are also a breeze to install which is why we use them as our back up seats when the kids go with their grandparents or in my husband's car. Our other go to seat that we use for Alli and Jillian is the Radian XTSL which is no longer made but has been reincarnated as the Diono Radian RXT- it has a high rear facing weight limit (you should rear face until your child is at least two years old) and a high weight limit for forward facing so you can harness longer. Plus the new version turns into an un-harnessed booster which means it goes from a five pound baby to a big kid booster- talk about getting bang for your buck.

I know you may be thinking "does your son mind being in a harnessed seat?" Well, I don't care what he wants as he is my child and I am his mom. Safety comes first so whatever he wants is a moot point to me. With that said, he hasn't noticed yet that other five year olds are in regular booster seats. I tell him all of the time that race car drivers wear harnesses so wearing one is cool so hopefully he won't care that he's different than a majority of his friends. And if he does then oh well. I guess I can always lie to him like my mom did to me way back in the eighties- when I complained about having to use a booster seat she told me that it was just so I could see out the window. It's nice to know that lying to your kids is a tradition that has been passed down through the generations.

Disclaimer: This post contains my affiliate link.

Stop Being Cheap and Buy Your Kid a Seat on the Plane....

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I am really into car seats- it's weird I guess but I want my kids to be as safe as possible when traveling. I know, I know- why should you need to worry if you are a safe driver? I'm not worried about my driving, I am worried about everyone else who is driving.

I buy the best possible car seats and install them correctly (well, I have my husband install them correctly). My almost five year old son is still in a harnessed seat and will continue to stay harnessed until he grows out of the height/weight restrictions on the seat and my daughter will as well. When I see kids in booster seats at my son's preschool I think death traps- how in the world can a booster seat protect as well as a harness (the answer is it can't). My baby will stay rear facing until she is at least two years old and she has a seat that will accommodate her up to 45 lbs rear facing if needed.

Sure, these things make life a bit of a pain but I say who cares. It is what is safest and if God forbid I am ever involved in a car accident I want to know that I did everything I could to keep my family safe even if it meant that I had to buckle and unbuckle three kids every time they got in/out of the vehicle. Having to install car seats into other cars when my kids go places with other people sucks too but I do it.

That is why I am flabbergasted that babies under two years old are not required to be in car seats on airplanes. The whole lap baby thing seems so dangerous and the only reasons parents keep their babies on their laps is because they are too cheap to buy a ticket or are ignorant of the dangers. Please go to Car Seat Blog to see why putting a baby on your lap on an airplane is completely irresponsible.

If you don't have enough money to buy every member of your family a ticket then you don't have enough money to fly. Put your children's safety ahead of your pocketbook, please.

Safety First...

Yesterday my husband told me that my son was getting way too big for the extra car seat my in-laws have. We bought the seat when I had no idea abut car seats so it was just whatever we could get for as little money as possible. Since then I have become very well versed in car seat safety and what seats are the safest. After much research I bought both of my kids Radian XTSL seats and even though it hurt to put out the money for them I feel completely confident in their ability to save my kids lives in the event of a car accident. Researching car seat safety opened my eyes to so many things I did not know- you should rear face your children as long as possible (turning them around at one year old is not a good idea) and that kids should stay in a five point harness for as long as possible.

So when my husband said my son was outgrowing the extra seat I starting researching what the safest forward facing and harnesses seats were. I found the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's list of the safest booster/combination seats. In the best bet column were four seats- the Evenflo Maestro which was pretty inexpensive but only harnessed up to 50 lbs, two Recaro seats which were just not what I was looking for and the seat we bought on Amazon today, the Britax Frontier 85. I went with the Britax because my son can stay harnessed to 85 lbs and once he hits the harness limit it turns into either a highback booster or a regular no back booster. I know a lot of kids at my son's nursery school have already been switched to booster seats but it just is not the safest option to protect your kids in the event of an accident.

During my research I found the Kyle David Miller Foundation. This family lost their son in a car accident and afterward found out that his death could have been prevented if they had had him in a harnessed seat instead of a booster seat. It is so heartbreaking to read the events of the day they lost their son but they are trying to spread awareness of car seat safety to prevent other parents having to go through what they went through.

I really urge everyone to research car seat safety. Just because a store sells a seat does not mean that it is the safest option for your child and just because something is the normal thing to do does not mean that it is the safest option for your child. Will my kids look like weirdos being in harnesses car seats throughout elementary school- I suppose so but I would do anything to save my children's lives and making them look like weirdos is one of them.

I did not write this post to look down on others who have not made the same decisions as me- I wrote it because I was a parent who just assumed whatever seat I bought was fine and that when my baby hit one I should flip their seat around and that when my child outgrows their car seat they should use a regular booster seat. I want to let other parents know who may have not even thought of these issues that there are safer restraint options for their children.