Look Ma, No Car Seat!

In March of 2000, we entered a new stage of life.  We entered the Car Seat stage.  We buckled our sweet new baby girl into her rear-facing infant seat in our 1999 Grand Am and drove her three blocks home from the hospital.

And for the last 19 years, we've been a Car Seat Family.  Yes, we've had rear-facing, convertible, high backed boosters and low boosters in both of our cars.  Our parents had boosters in their cars.  We made driving choices based on which cars had the correct car seats installed, because changing the car seat was an activity to be avoided at all costs (you can read about that here).  We were used to finding crusty french fries in car seat crevices and muttering under our breath about twisted car seat straps.  We were experts at wrestling unruly children into their five-point, often maneuvering around bulky coats (kids were allowed to wear coats in car seats back then!).  More often than we wished, we had to disassemble a seat due to vomit, poop explosions or spilled food.

A few years ago, we removed our final five-point harness car seat (you can read about that here).  And of course, because this is me, I was a bit nostalgic about it.  The end of an era!  But we still had the trusty booster, so don't worry, world!  We still had little kids!

But late this summer, we truly moved on.  We are no longer a Car Seat Family.  Our youngest moved out of her booster (and she was the last of her friends to do so, to hear her tell it!!), and we now no longer have any boosters in any of our cars.  And while the freedom of being able to put any kid in any car at any time is amazing, and something I only dreamed of 15 years ago, it's a little sad too. Having big kids is fabulous - I love it!  But having little kids is also awesome, and the passing of the car seat only reinforces that we are rapidly moving out of that phase of life.

BUT - a girl can have hope.  Someday, all these children will give me grandchildren (hear that, kids?), and I will proudly put a car seat or two into our cars so we can be ready to transport anyone, anywhere, anytime.