Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Three Carseats Across…

Three across the backseat

Well, they’re not the best photos in the world, but for those that haven’t seen our personal brand of chaos when it comes to road trips, here it is folks… This is what happens when a family flat out refuses to move into the mini-van. Yup, they do make a carseat that fits 3 across the average backseat (ours is a Hyundai Santa Fe): the Sunshine Kids Radian. Because it is built on a steel frame (instead of the traditional plastic that most carseats are made from), it is equally super-safe, but also slimmer and more “low profile” than our previously purchased carseats (the incredible Britax Boulevard). In these pictures, the Radian is the pink and brown seat our older daughter Bridget is sitting in (Petal, such a cute colour), and the twins are using our two black and grey Britax seats that we bought for Bridget the first time around.

Three across the backseat

Honestly, after using both top quality seats over this past year side by side, I prefer the Radian, hands down. The seat is lower, so much easier for Bridget to climb into without help. The adjustable straps run more smoothly and tighten with less muscle. The fabric colours are SOOOOOO cute in the Radian. The only downsides – its longer when its rear facing, which cuts down on the passenger-side front seat leg room. And the seat is SUPER heavy (easily 10lbs heavier than the Britax), which matters if you are dragging it in and out of separate cars or through a lot of airports. But who travels a lot with 3 children under 3?? Okay, maybe Brad and Angie. But honestly, they have porters to carry their stuff.

So for us, we’ll be buying 2 more Radians next month when I go back to work – yup, that’s right folks. We will soon be the proud owners of SIX, yes six three hundred dollar car seats… Sigh. But honestly, can you really put a price on your child’s safety in an accident?

Oh! And for those of you who noticed our kids are all wearing snowjackets due to the extreme cold snap we had up here, we learned this really great trick from a carseat install tech on how to buckle a carseat safely when forced to wear a jacket: place kid in carseat with jacket on but undone. Click carseat straps into bottom latch, then pull jacket tails out through the triangle of the strap at the waist, so that most of the jacket is on top of the straps, not underneath. Close the chest buckle (again, no jacket underneath) and tighten straps. Then you can use the velcros on the jacket to re-close the jacket over top of the carseat straps, keeping child warm but removing jacket bulk! The only place the straps should be over the jacket is the narrow inch or so over the shoulders!