It’s amazing, but somehow that Little you just brought home for the first time yesterday is now not so much a Little, but is ready to be behind the wheel. It’s an exciting time. For the parent, it’s another set of wheels in the house to run errands and drive around younger siblings. For the teen, it means freedom.
If you’ve ever flown on an airplane, you’ve heard the flight attendant instructions to put the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting your child or other passengers. It should be no different when you are in a vehicle. You’ve done the research and made sure your children and passengers are properly restrained, but are you?
When children come into our lives, their future is a wonderful, terrifying unknown. As they grow from tiny babies to small delightful people we might have more of an idea what that future can hold, but we don’t stop imagining it. Imagining that future and all that it might be as they grow is one of the things that makes us different from who we were before we had kids.
For much of North America a big yellow bus means kids are going to school (and for parents in late August that can be a big relief!). Putting a school age Little on the bus for the first time can be stressful for lots of reasons, but in general parents can rest assured that yellow buses are a very safe way to get kids from home to school and back again.
All major health and safety organizations strongly recommend that kids under age 2 ride rear facing. Scientists, statisticians and child passenger safety advocates agree on the immense safety benefit of rear facing to very young spines.
This summer, we’re making vehicle heat stroke awareness our top priority. We’ve shared some of the specifics around hyperthermia in our longer article. We’ve put together this handy, shareable guide to help get the word out!
We’ve all been there. Parents post a cute picture of their cute baby on Instagram in her car seat and the Chest Clip Brigade starts in with murmurs of, “Gently, mama, her chest clip needs to be 3mm higher on her chest or your baby will die in an accident. Don’t you love your baby?”
Our Facebook page and our Facebook group are home to many, many questions from caregivers. One of the most common questions is how to choose the right car seat. In many cases, the child in question is well over 2 years old and rides forward facing but is not yet ready for a booster. Sometimes a great deal on a convertible car seat seems too good to be true and our users don’t want to pass up what seems like a great deal. The catch is that the convertible or multimode car seat on sale might not be the best value for a child who is already forward facing. That very common scenario begs the question: what type of car seat — convertible, multimode, or combination is best for this kiddo?
“Longest lasting seat on the market!”
“The last seat you’ll ever need!”
These phrases are music to a frazzled parent’s ears: researching and choosing a car seat is confusing, time-consuming and the idea of doing it all over again in a few years (or months!) can make even the most calm and collected of parents want to sell their car and move to the city. But sadly, car seats are not one size fits all, and marketing claims aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
A baby shower is such a fabulous event! They’re often full of brightly colored products that promise to make those sleepless nights and exhausting days with a new baby easier. These products speak loudly to friends and family who look forward to welcoming a new baby.
