A flash thunderstorm blew through Emerald Isle last night just at dinner time, and took about 15 degrees with it.
So to turn the heat back up while I head out to the beach with the kids and my new notacowboy hat, please read this fine, angry rant about the awfulness of car seats from Big Daddy Drew and the sportsmen at Kissing Suzy Kolber.
You "need" three different car seats for each child you have. Three. When they're young, they need the baby carrier with the snap-in base. When they outgrow that, they need a toddler seat. And when they outgrow that, they need a booster seat. Current safety guidelines mandate that a child stay in a booster seat until eight to twelve years old. TWELVE FUCKING YEARS OLD! What the fuck? When I was a child, my parents strapped me to the fender and I LIKED IT! No wonder we've raised an entire generation that thinks Linkin Park constitutes acceptable music. Recent studies have shown that car seats aren't really any safer for kids over 2 than a normal-ass seat belt. Granted, that research comes from "Superfreakonomics," but it totally works with this rant, so fuck it. I'm using it. MY PROOF IS IRONCLAD.Maybe we don't have to just resignedly accept the world as it is when our newborn kid drags us into it after all.
This Week In F--k You: Child Car Seats [kissing suzy kolber via dt reader dt]
The Freaks' argument against car seats is so full of holes that you could install a Britax Regent in its center and still have room for someone to sit in an adjacent seat. If you put all the holes together to make one big, vehicle-interior shaped hole, I guess. With LATCH anchors.
But I like the author's admission of how conveniently located that particular Kool-Aid is, and how refreshing it can be, when you're looking for a reason to fight progress.
true enough. I do sometimes wonder what the child car safety landscape would look like if it were designed from scratch.
Sweden?