I strap my children in and out of car seats on average 55 times a week (excluding weekends). That is around 1,860 times a year. The whole ‘strapping in’ exercise takes around eight minutes, with my ‘behind’ sticking out of the rear car doors, heaving children into their seats, fumbling around trying to locate each clip that fits into the right buckle and adjusting straps to allow for the relevant clothing (avoid the puffa jackets!). I then reappear red-faced, with a slight twinge in the back and ready to screech at the top of my voice across the fields.
Weekends are even worse, when we resort to car seat planning sessions to ensure that we always have the right seats in the right car, for the different trips. Inevitably, the plans change or we are late, so my husband flies into ‘car seat panic mode’ flinging the wretched seats across the driveway in frustration.
Spare a thought too for poor grandparents who kindly agree to help out ferrying children around. Mastering the fastening of the car seat can result in many staying at home and avoiding any trips out in the car whatsoever.
According to the new law, I will be required to use three car seats for another seven years until my daughter either hits 12 years or meets the 135cm height restriction. Each child requires a different kind of seat depending on their age, each with different buckles and fasteners which require studying an instruction manual, which in our case usually finds itself unread in the bin in the box it came in.
Interestingly, taxis are not legally obliged to use car seats for children. I am unsure why they are any safer than parents in people carriers. However, some firms, such as Handy Cabs of Stalbridge, do insist on passengers bringing their own car seats. (They deserve a mention as our five-year-old daughter was sick over the back seat of their taxi last week!)
Obviously we all endorse safety for children, but I am beginning to wonder whether this is part of a secret Government environmental initiative to put parents off using their cars altogether and go by foot instead.
