~carseats!!!~

Tweet

Warning: this post will probably bore you to tears unless you (1) have struggled endlessly with a carseat at some point or another or (2) simply enjoy reading about carseats!!!

Today E and I drove to the Knoxville PD for a FREE Carseat Installation Inspection. We recently purchased a Convertible Carseat as he had outgrown the Infant Carrier. No, the carseat is not for a Convertible car either...LOL!

Anyway, I was not convinced that it was in right to begin with because when he would fall asleep, his poor little head would fall forward and it looked oh so uncomfortable. It really bothered me. O showed me how he installed it and that it was according to the directions, so we assumed that was how it was supossed to be.

This is where it gets crazy....after waiting 1 hour 15 minutes in line, our turn finally arrives. We pull into the HOT garage with big (not so helpful) fans and the lady comes over to help us. Bless this woman, she was patient, kind, fun and amazing yet had to be unbelievably frustrated with my car & carseat.

Turns out that choosing a carseat for YOUR car is sort of like choosing a mate. You must find the correct match or it's a terrible marriage. In my case, or that of my car I should say, it's not a great marriage btw the Ford Escape and an Eddie Bauer Kingston Convertible Carseat. Now, we did not pick out a bottom of the barrel carseat either so for the price we paid, you would certainly think that it was a lot easier to install and would be nothing less than PERFECT. Wrong!!

As I was waiting in line, I wondered what the big box of Pool Noodles was for... I quickly learned that they cut them into pieces and end up using them to get the carseats into their proper position - which is a 45 degree angle in the rear facing position. WOW did this look different when they finally got it in place.

This whole process took 2 hours!!! They worked on MY car WITH me for 2 hours - did I mention this was a FREE service! Wonderful if you ask me. E is much safer now when we are in the car. I am disappointed though that we cannot use the Latch system in the car and instead must use the seatbelts - ugh. If the carseat wasn't going in the middle, then we could use the Latch system, but since we have only 1 child and the middle is the safest spot, then we must use the seatbelts.

Sidenote...did you know that the govt regulates the price of tomatoes?? They don't regulate the price of gas though...which by the way was 3.69 here on Thursday and is now 4.99 with most gas stations already completely OUT of regular unleaded. Thank you Ike! We are not going anywhere Sunday, Monday and if I don't get scheduled to work on Tuesday, we aren't going anywhere then either. My car will sit as long as possible. They say it will be at least 5-6 days 'til they get more gasoline..anyway, I digress...my point is that CARSEATS should be regulated. The box that my carseat came in should have said that it was suitable for XYZ cars and not so well for ABC cars...then I would not have had such a problem. Of course, this will likely never happen, because it would cut into the almighty 'bottom line' I think I'll still send them an email though! :-)

Did I mention we are on diaper bag #2 with this one already falling apart...it is also Eddie Bauer. I called them the other day. I'm getting a new one FREE in the mail. Yay!