Category Archives: installation

Necessity Breeds Sufficiency

Today I increased my self sufficiency by a smidgen of a notch.
A year and a half ago when I wrote this post about car seats Hubby was around all the time and I didn’t need to know anything about how these contraptions work other than getting the kids in and out of them. Even though Hubby has been away a lot recently, I still didn’t need to know. In between the times he left and the times he came back there was never any reason for me to learn how to install a car seat.
Today Munchie got car sick, and threw up in the car, and Hubby is out of town. I tried using Clorox wipes to clean out the car seat. It was one of those vain attempts, where you know what you are doing isn’t really helping, but you are really, really hoping. Half a roll of wipes later and I finally gave in. The car seat needed to come out.
I practically wrestled this thing out of the back seat of my car, climbing over it, into it, around it, straddling it. It was quite the circus. But I found all the little hooks, releases, and clasps. And actually figured out how to use them.
The car seat came out, and my car is clean. If Munchie hadn’t thrown up everywhere I may have never learned. I guess necessity really does breed sufficiency.

Child Car Seat Confession

I have a confession. I am on my second child, and I still have no idea how car seats work. Now, before you call Child Protective Services, I assure you, I properly use the car seat every time we go anywhere. But aside from taking it in and out of the base mounted in my car, I am clueless.
What if I needed to move my children from my car to a different car in some type of emergency? I have no idea how to install a car seat base, or even how to get the car seat in the car using the belt system.
Sadly, I am not even sure I know how to adjust the straps, but at least I am somewhat certain I could figure this one out if needed. Unfortunately I do not foresee a strap emergency anytime in the future. I know kids grow fast, but they will not outgrow their current strap position in the time it takes us to get from home to school or the grocery store.
This is partly because so many people make such a fuss about proper child seat installation. When I was pregnant with my first, my husband and I attended some courses at our local hospital, and one of the lessons was on child seat safety. The man and the manual for the class made it appear that proper child seat installation is akin to advanced astrophysics (a subject I successfully avoided all throughout college).
I know I am not alone. I was recently talking to a friend of mine who is on kid number four, and she lamented being in the same predicament. She also has no idea how many of her child safety gadgets work. We realized this is all our husbands’ fault. They are so savvy and good at mechanical things we have no reason to take care of any of this. I really hope my husband is not reading this right now. He may take it as a hint to stop being so helpful, and then I will have to mount our newest convertible car seat (that just happened to arrive today). Hopefully he realizes that if he were to have me install it, he would essentially be compromising our Munchie’s safety, and risking her life.
Are child car seats that tricky? Is there a trick to them?