Q: Why are car seats so hard to install? It should be a lot easier than it is. And where do I go if I need some help?
A: I hear you. Something so important shouldn’t be so hard to get right. As adults we wear seat belts, which is as simple as safety gets. Then you have a kid and you need a mechanical engineering degree to figure out how to take them home from the hospital.
Maybe some of you reading this found installing a car seat easy. If so, you’re in the minority. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 59 percent of car seats aren’t installed correctly. In the past I’d have had to include myself in that group. Back when my kids were young I took a car seat installation class and realized I’d been doing it all wrong.
We’re not getting it wrong because we don’t care. Ninety-three percent of us wear our seat belts, so it’s clear that most of us value safety. It’s just that we don’t know. So let’s start with the law, as it lays out the groundwork for the first step: choosing the right seat.
- Children up to age two must be in a rear-facing car seat.
- Children ages two through four must ride in a car seat with a harness (rear or forward facing).
- Children four and older must ride in a car or booster seat until they are 4’9” tall.
For the best protection, keep your kid in each stage as long as the car seat will allow, based on their weight and height.
Once you have the right seat, the next part is knowing how to fit the seat in your car and your kid in the seat. With so many car seat options and so many kinds of vehicles there’s no single answer. Instead, here are some resources, ranked (in my opinion) from least to most useful:
Owner’s Manual: I’m not suggesting that an owner’s manual isn’t helpful; In fact, that’s where you should start. It’s just that if you run into questions it might not have the answers.
Videos: For the visual learners, actually watching someone install a seat might be more helpful than reading about how to do it.
Virtual Car Seat Check: Now we’re taking a big leap forward in helpfulness. With a virtual check, you video chat with a car seat technician. The tech can see your seat and car, so they can give you advice specific to your situation. It’s also convenient – you don’t even need to leave your driveway.
In-Person Car Seat Check: This is one-on-one support to make sure you’ve got it right.
If you want to learn more, I’d recommend starting at wacarseats.com. From there you can find any resource you’ll need to get your child properly secured in their seat. For those a smidge too proud to ask for help, consider this: If you think something is so obvious that anyone can figure it out, remember that on every flight there’s a flight attendant demonstrating how to put on a seat belt.
Regarding car seat difficulty, maybe there’s a different way to look at it. When Formula One drivers get in their cars, they have an engineer that buckles them in. Putting your kid in a car seat with a five-point harness is closer to race car level restraint compared to the seat belts that adults wear, and that extra safety comes with additional complexity. Think of yourself as the Formula One engineer making sure that your teammate is as safe as possible.