When We Know Better, We Do Better

Car Seat Safety

It's a passion of mine. That's not a secret.

Friends message me daily asking for car seat advice, they send me pictures to make sure they are buckling their children properly. I have people drive to my house so that I can install their car seat and adjust the straps on their seats to make sure they are doing it properly 100% of the time. 

I'm not a CPST... yet. Let me make that clear. I have plans to take my courses, but I have not yet done them. Hopefully soon I can say I'm certified, but for now it's just because I'm a mom who has a passion for keeping my children safe 100% of the time while traveling in a motor vehicle.

But, did you know I've not always been a car seat "know it all?" Did you know I used to make A LOT of deadly mistakes? Did you know that I once used aftermarket products? Did you know that my straps did not always pass the pinch test? Did you know that I didn't always place the CHEST clip on the CHEST?

Well, I once made a lot of deadly mistakes when my son was little. Mistakes that I'm so incredibly ashamed about. Mistakes that could have cost my child his life had we been in a motor vehicle accident.

Did you know...

That motor vehicle accidents are the number 1 cause of children deaths under 15 years of age? 

Number One

Cause of

Death

Under the age of 

Fifteen Years.

That's scary. That's enough reason for me to make sure my children are buckled in properly, in the proper seat, installed properly. Every time. No matter what.

So... while I may be a car seat "know it all" and many roll their eyes at my car seat posts on Facebook, I wasn't always this "obsessive."

I was pretty ignorant actually and I just thank God every day that an accident didn't occur when my child was not strapped in properly.

I whole-heartedly wish someone would have called me out, whether publicly or privately... shit, I wish someone would have slapped me across the face... 

Kind of like this...

Because I was risking my child's life. 

But I had no idea at the time. So I needed a slap into reality.

So here you have it folks, my mistakes before I knew how to properly use my car seats every time to keep my children safe for every vehicle ride.

I cringe every single time I look at these pictures. What was I thinking? I wasn't... I wish I could go back to these days and see what was going through my head as I buckled him into his car seat like this. I'm ashamed at how ignorant I was and how much danger I put my child into. One accident... that's all it could have taken to take my baby boy right out of our lives forever. One minor accident. 

I thank God every single day that he spared us and we were never in an accident because I do not even want to think about how our lives could be today had one occurred.

Since my son was about 10 months old, I opened my eyes to the importance of car seat safety and I take the extra few minutes each and every time to make sure my children are buckled in properly, every single time.

I hope you can relate to this and have either already made the conscious decision to properly buckle your children in 100% of the time or will from here on out. It takes one accident. Don't become a statistic. Let's spread the importance of car seat safety!

Until next time, friends