Babysitting, Car Seats, and Capable Kids

This article is a guest blogger submission from Living Almost Large. If you like what you see, why not subscribe to her RSS feed?

A few months ago we were watching our neighbor’s son. He’s four years old and very cool.

Anyway, we were going out to dinner and Chuck E. Cheese and had to put the carseat into a 2 door Ford Focus hatchback. Unfortunately, the carseat was larger than expected, so it didn’t fit through the door. Instead, we had to fold down the seat and pass it through. We also couldn’t figure out how to install it because there were no latches and it wasn’t obvious how it worked.

So the kid hops into the car and say “No, you put it here and do this.” He rearranged the seat, jumped in, grabbed the seatbelt, and showed me how to pull it across him and snap it in. For those parents out there dying and thinking “I wouldn’t let you watch my kid” — I think I did it right. At least it looked how it supposed to look. I just wish we had asked how to use a carseat before we went out.

I was impressed. I guess I have a lot to learn. Too bad newborns can’t talk and tell you how to install carseats properly! Anyway, I learned if you babysit, try to get a kid that is mobile and able to tell you what to do. And geez… Carseats are hard to install!