children in cars

what the fuck, am i right?

i neurotically pull over to make sure they're strapped into their carseats like every other time we drive somewhere

I would pay serious money for a limo-style plexiglass partition - not between the front-seat adults and the back-seat children (though that might be nice sometimes) but in the middle of the back seat, between the two children. We can just barely manage a three-hour beach or mountain road trip, and we have to resort to bribery items such as electronics and snax.

On car seats - I think we did the rear-facing buckets til 1.5 or so, front-facing seats til 4 or 4.5. My daughter is now seatless at 9, and my son is in a backless booster at 5.

This progression was a little accelerated compared to the CDC and AAP guidelines. I hate to be like "oh, my parents let us cling to the roof-rack and we turned out fine," but. By current guidelines, you might plausibly have a 12-year-old riding in a high-backed booster seat five-point harness. That strikes me as cumbersome.

As long as the shoulder strap hits their shoulder in the right place I don't see the issue

YMP we are on about the same pace as you. Older one got too big for rear facing well before age two (they say it's ok to scrunch up their legs but come on).

partition between the back seats otm, tho this stage has more or less passed for me now thank god

My step-dad had one of those partitions between the front seats and us kids in the back.

http://i.imgur.com/KPsw06B.jpg

Hah, pplains. I have ridden in such vehicles as well, but I doubt I'd cruise down yr average suburban street like that today.

In my childhood, the preferred method for long car trips was to fold down the back seats of a Beetle, spread out blankets and sleeping bags, and have everyone (5 kids + dog) lolling about in this space.

For shorter trips, the two smallest children (my stepsister and I) were placed in the "wayback," that is, the space between back seat and rear window.

Unfortunately, this topic tends to invite choruses of Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen-style "Luxury! We had to travel in the wheelwells; me ma was in the trunk! We had gravel for breakfast and rotten badgers for supper AND WE LIKED IT."

I tell my kids the same thing. (We're at the same stage you all are.)

"Yeah, we got to ride in the back of pick-ups. We'd lay the seats down in the back of my dad's 280Z and my sister would have a pillow pallet back there. We ride in the storage space of the Suburban or the station wagon, and sometimes when we were tired, we'd pull the vinyl shade from its roll over us and take a nap!

"Also, your aunt's head went through a windshield not once, but twice. IT WAS A PART OF LIFE."

It built character. You pansies.

Four lads, three seats, lol smallest

lol pplains

my son was in a full 5-point harness until he was almost 7, my daughter rode rear-facing until she was 4, come at me