Car Seats—The Best Gift Grandparents Can Receive!

So I am finally up in New England, and I’m anxious to see my baby grandkids! My husband and I enjoy our role as the new generation grandparents. You know, the ones who spend part of their time here and there—often referred to as Snow Birds in Florida.  I resent that title though.  I like to think of us as being able to spend loads of time with the grandkids up North and then with the two grandkids down South! I like to think of it as Jet Setting Grandparents! 

But the one thing I always seem to forget or ignore is the car seat problem. So, adult children, here is a great gift for the grand parents who have two locations, twice a year!  Buy two car seats for the up North times and two car seats for the “I’m going to visit, so I know there won’t be car seats in Florida, or North Carolina or wherever the grandparents are.”  First, I’m assuming you may have two small children since you are older parents and want to have all your children before the pre-determined age of 40 or 35 or whatever the designated year of child completion.  Your babies are precious cargo, so help your parents out for goodness sake! 

 

Did you ever look at the car seat aisle in Walmart or Target or any baby store?  There is no way ordinary grandparents—with Ph.D.’s even, can figure out what all those car seats can do. They’re large enough to place an engine on and take off by themselves.  They’re padded for safety but add 50 more pounds to their original weight. The straps to push and pull baby are impossible to figure out, let alone install by one half way intelligent grandparent, and   their remains the  daunting task of trying to figure out which car seat you can buy that costs under $150.,  and then multiply that number by two!  Plus tax!

 

 I went car seat shopping myself and can’t figure out which one is suitable for which weight.  How much does my grandchild weigh?  And I need the height and age of the child too before I can determine which car seat to buy? And what about the padding?  Is all that padding really necessary? And am I suppose to purchase a front facing car seat for which grandkid? And how soon do they outgrow the front facing seat? Is it when they kick the shit out of the person in the front seat? Or when their legs permanently turn into a pretzel because they have grown much too quickly, but still, according to the laws of that state, must stay facing forward?  And what about Florida? Are the laws different there?  The front facing laws do not apply I heard? And how much time must a grandparent spend in the local gym to gain upper body strength to hoist the front facing car seat with the baby who weighs a gazillion pound from the car to the stroller and then back into the correct thing-a-ma-jig, so that the baby’s car seat “clicks” correctly into the socket and the baby is back securely strapped into the front facing car seat? 

 

Give me a break!  Parents can assist the process by giving grandparents the gift of a state of the art  car seat or car seats as a Christmas gift, birthday gift, Mother’s or Father’s day gift.  It would be much appreciated.  AND also, while they are at it, give the precious gift of instruction.  Even with my doctorate, or Dad’s doctorate, neither one of us can figure out how to install the damn car seat. Cross my heart. I tried. 

 

Two years ago.  I had to go to the fire station and wait my turn so that the twenty something fire fighter could install the new car seat.  But since it wasn’t the “bring your car seat to the fire station and we’ll install it” day, the twenty something firefighter with a young baby himself didn’t have a clue about how to install it. He has last year’s model.  They are more complicated now.  More complicated than what?  Nothing is more complicated than the installation of car seats, so a gift of a car seat of parent’s choice without the gift of installation and instruction, (just in case in the oft chance the grandparent must pull the car seat out to use the seat for company), is no gift at all!

 

Tip:  Realize that the grandparents of the twenty-first century, while hip and “with-it” in some respects, are no match for today’s complicated car seats.  Make sure that if you want the grandparents to help with the grandkids, that good car seats, properly bought for the correct age and stage of your child’s development AND properly installed by the parents, are best investments a parent can make and the kindest gift a grandparent can receive!