Car Seat Anxiety Attacks

Have other generations of mothers felt this much pressure to choose the right car seat? I've said all along that I won't skimp on a car seat. Maybe on the stroller or Target/Outlet mall play clothes, but never the car seat. For months, and based on many online mom comments, I had my mind set on a Britax. If I've taken anything away from my adoption and parenting research it's that if I didn't buy a Britax, I would be putting my child's life at risk every time we got in the car. Truly, I could hear the cyber gasps as I browsed to the Evenflo or Graco websites...and I had 2 total strangers tisk/tisk me(in 2 different stores)as I looked at non-Britax car seats, pushing their carts as fast as they could away from me- the soon to be child abuser.

This led to many late night computer cookies spent browsing every Googlable site for info about what car seat to buy. Every page came back to Britax. Ugghhh! I said I won't be a trendy "keep up with the Jones's" mom and I'm bound and determined to stick to that. My child will be able to have sugar from time to time... will be allowed to get dirty...and will be able to watch TV (I watched a lot of it growing up and managed to develop an appreciation for the outdoors, reading, and learning, despite the evils of Nickelodeon, Saturday morning cartoons, and PG movies). Note: in a 1980-something lapse of judgement, my mom did let me watch Cheech and Chong and Fast Times @ Ridgemont High when I was pretty young and I understood none of it. I also never remember being in a car seat. Ever. It doesn't mean I wasn't in one at some point, but at some point shortly after infancy, we all just jumped in the car, gave no thought to the seat belts buried deep under the seats of our station wagon, and...dad with beer in hand (it's OK, it was before the DUI was invented)...took off at mach speed toward our destination... I don't even think there was such a thing as a booster back then (I'm 33.9, so that means we're talking 1970's). I digress...

So, I came pretty close to buying a Britax because I never wanted to say I didn't put my child in the best car seat and thus regret it terribly after a car crash. I would also be lying if I didn't say that I also thought admiringly about the nods of approval from the other moms at my choice...wishing they too could have a Britax...However, someone on a message board made a great point: If it didn't meet US safety standards, it wouldn't be on the market. Ah! It was starting to become clear that the reason there was an overwhelming number of good reviews of this car seat is because they have a good marketing plan, cute colors, and thus more VOLUME in sales to generate more VOLUME in reviews. Some extra padding and a pink flowered cover is what came down to their success...not to mention the fact that they figured out that with few exceptions, Mom A wants what Mom B has . Smart fellers over there at Britax. Now, if they could only hide that RECALL section on their webpage...apparently the vast majority of the population hasn't looked at their website, just saw the cow print seat in the Volvo of that PTA gal with the Coach purse and $200 jeans. (Who knew it all went on the Mastercard!)

I started digging a little more into this perplexing world of car seats and found that there are many excellent models out there that can also serve multiple purposes. Since Ian will be close to or over 18 months old (and a chunky 18 months), I needed to find something that would grow with him...not just good for a year and then need to be upgraded to a booster.

After much research, I came across a brand that is making huge strides in child restraint safety, comfort, and flexibility... Recaro.

Recaro is a German sportscar seat manufacturer, which designs and engineers side impact systems and restraints for race & sport cars in Europe. They also have a child seat segment with branches in Asia and North America as well. As I read, I became more and more impressed with the amount of work that they have put into not only the safety design, but also the dynamics of the car seat to prevent slumping, back/neck strain, and increase visibility while maintaining side impact protection.

To top it off, the Recaro seat that fit my personal requirements (the Young Sport model) looks just like a sports car seat and is made out of a much softer and easier to clean microfiber fabric than the Britax models. It was less expensive too. I found it on an online website called tinyride.com for a good price with no sales tax and free shipping.

Once Shawn sees it, I'm hoping he will want to order the black/cobalt version for his truck...and we can all zoom zoom zoom without my guilt guilt guilt!!!