Car Seats

I wrote a post years ago about how we will leave our kids in rear facing car seats until they are too tall or weigh too much. It is so much safer that I couldn't justify turning them around until needed. The law varies state to state and even more country by country. The best way to research is to look for the countries with the lowest car crash fatalities and find out their standards. Did you know a few countries don't allow for forward facing until kids are 6? Unfortunately, our seats weren't built to those standards so we didn't make it that long. However in a time when most kids in the US are turned forward facing at 1, we just continued rear facing. So when the kids turned 1, we changed nothing. Same at 2, 3, and 4. Here are pictures of the kids at 4 (a month before turning 5).

Sweet Daughter comfortable and happy.

All of these photos were taken in Wonderful Husband's car, but I assure you they were rear facing in both cars. These are Britax seats while in my car they have Radians. Even once we turn them forward facing they will be in a 5 point harness for as long as possible.

Sweet Son is sleepy.

So what did their friends say? What does everyone else think? First, who cares? My kids are safe and we are making the decisions for them not anyone else. Second, no one cared. Few people even noticed and those that did would often mention they have heard it is safer, but choose not to do that for their kids.

A side picture

The question we got most often, "Where do they put their legs?" Here they show you two different options, criss cross or over the side. Sometimes they stretched them out on the back of the seat. They never complained. When we traveled we would often travel without the bases so they would have to sit facing forward. They did know what it was like to face forward and didn't care either way. They were comfortable.

If you don't know about "extended rear facing" (what it's called in North America) please do your research. There are seats that go to 50 pounds rear facing. Yes, you will pay more, but if it saves your child from injury once (or possibly something worse), it's worth every penny. Also please find out the expiration date of any seat you buy. Many expire after 5 years while some last 12 years. That's a huge different when you are considering the price of buying a new seat every few years.