Car Seat Safety

I am a huge car seat advocate. When I had my first child almost 13 years ago I had no idea about any kind of car seat safety. Car seats were a pretty new thing back then...kind of! Well when I had my second child just over 9 years ago, I did not know enough about car seat safety then either.

Well I had my third child 2 years ago and this time I knew A LOT about car seat safety!! I did spend 6 months on bed rest and I didn't have much else to do besides play on the computer, read, talk on the phone and watch TV. When I bought Kobe's car seats I made sure that they were good car seats that scored well on the safety lists. I definitely did my research and made sure that the car seats were always properly installed.

Now that is not exactly what I want to talk about today!?!? Surprised??? Don't be. I want to talk about car seat safety out of the car!!! In today's world it is so common to have your children in their car seats more than just in the car. For instance when people go to the store they take the car seat and either place it on the shopping cart or they put the car seat into the stroller and off they go. Parents also put their children in their car seats when they are at home and Mom or Dad need to do something and need their hands free.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with having your child in a car seat....don't get me wrong that is not what this post is about either. This post is about the parents that have their children in car seats outside of the car and DO NOT strap their children in the car seats!!!

Do people not realize how dangerous that is??? This summer while we were in Chicago visiting Dewayne's family there was a horrible accident that happened involving a child not strapped in their car seat. A husband and wife were arguing and the wife fled the 3rd story apartment with their infant in the car seat and the baby was not strapped in. The boyfriend kicked her down the stairs and the baby flew out of the car seat and fell off a third story porch. The poor little baby died because it's father kicked the mother down the stairs and also because the parents had not strapped the baby in the car seat.

Now people said that the mother was fleeing, fearing for her life. I am not blaming anyone for what happened. All I am doing is pointing out the obvious, if baby would have been strapped in the car seat then the baby would most likely be alive today!!!

This is just one example of many I have about children being injured or killed by not being strapped into their car seats. If you have your child in their car seat and you are walking in Wal-mart carrying the car seat and the baby is not strapped in and someone bumps into you, the baby can fall out of that car seat and no matter how tight of a grip you have on the car seat you can not save the baby from falling!! If the baby is sitting in his/her car seat and the car seat is placed on the couch, the baby can wiggle his/her way out of the car seat and fall off the couch (or where ever else the car seat is sitting).

Moral of today's story....strap your children in their car seats even if you are not in the car!!! But especially if you are in a car. Make sure your car seat is safely installed in the car. Most fire stations will install the car seat in your car for free!!! Protect your children they are innocent! Here is a link to a site about car seat safety.