Life on the Road

We got into an interesting discussion a while back on a networking group I belong to…  I was fascinated/horrified by what Kay (the owner of My Precious Kid) had to say about car seats.

I had already bought a nice little booster seat for Miss J, since she will be graduating into that size catagory right about the time the baby comes.  But Kay was adamant from her research that these still-really-little people need to stay in a 5-point harness as long as possible to keep them safe.

There are a bunch of very sad videos on YouTube about this topic, such at this one: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azgBhZfcqaQ[/youtube].

I was convinced, and I got Miss J a “Big Girl Car Seat” from Kay’s site:  the amazing RADIAN 65 Car Seat.

There is a Radian 65 and a Radian 80, with the difference being the weight limit.  Since J is much taller than she is heavy, she will certainly be outgrowing either seat by height before she reaches 65 lbs., making the 80 unnecessary for our particular situation.  It does come in pink, though, which was tempting… 

I read though some of the reviews of the seat on Amazon.com, and it was pretty amazing to hear the variety of whines about difficulty to install, weight, etc.

Was it easy to put in my Tahoe? 

Well, okay, not as easy as the booster seat, no.  And some of the things I did have to readjust after installing it once and looking at my handiwork.  Nick helped (can you see me trying to reach over the seat to get to the buckles with my 8-months pregnant belly?  Not.), and it took the two of us… oh… maybe 10 minutes.  Let me be generous and say 15.

I’m not kidding.  Is 15 minutes, once, not a totally reasonable time investment for something that can save your child’s life?

I have a little more sympathy for people who said it doesn’t fit in their vehicle.  I was originally going to put it in the center of the back seat, where she’s currently riding.  Turns out it can’t be installed there, because of the seatbelt buckle configuration of my pre-LATCH vehicle.  But of course after watching Kyle’s video (above), it really shouldn’t be there, anyway, as there’s no place in the center back to link a top tether!

So, off to the side she went…  The passenger side, because that’s where I happened to put it, and because that’s where it’s easiest to see her.  Whoops, then over to the driver’s side…

It’s a Florida thing, but people here are not big on obeying stop signs or stopping when a light turns red.  At a 4-way stop, you have a 50/50 chance at either side of the vehicle.  But a left turn leaves the passenger side vulnerable, whereas a right turn doesn’t open you up – so I feel much safer here with her on the driver’s side.

(BTW, installing again on the driver’s side, now that we’ve “got the drill down” and have all the correct straps installed and adjusted, took about 3 minutes).

It has so many great features you just can’t dismiss:  steel frame construction, trim profile and upright position (J HATES reclining!), a unique “safe strap” for use in certain configurations (including Miss J’s) that would help reduce the strap load on her in the event of a collision (WOW!), it folds flat for travel and transport (and is FAA approved for airline use)… 

I find it in all ways superior to the Britax Marathon we have now . . . and did I mention that it’s a lot less expensive?!

Where was this seat when I was shopping so diligently 3 years ago?  Yep, it’s new…