Sep 08 2008
Car Seat Bad Parenting
After my oh-so-unprofessional locking my kid in the car post I didn’t think it could get much worse. Alas, here I am. I have the best intentions but as namesake of the Unprofessional Parenting blog sometimes I have to admit when I blow it big time.
What now? I might have to defer slightly to my “placenta brain” post on this one but the other day I was leaving my mom’s house and I lifted my son into the car seat and prepared to buckle him in so we could head home. As I was working on getting the straps untangled my mom started talking to me so I turned to answer.
After a brief discussion my phone rang (my husband) and I dutifully spent a few minutes talking to him before I got in the car to leave. Patting myself on the back for not jumping in the car while I was on the phone (the newest major crime in California) I shut the doors and headed home.
It’s about a five minute drive to the store on the way to my house where I stopped to get a few things. When I opened the back door to get my son out I was shocked and very guilty about what I saw. Yes, I forgot to buckle him into the car seat. He was sitting there politely - somehow not motivated to jump down while I was driving thank goodness!
I go back and forth between thinking it was kind of funny (since nothing terrible happened) and thinking I’m the worst parent ever (what if something had happened?). I told my mom who couldn’t get over the fact that he was cooperative enough to sit there the whole time. She clearly didn’t share my sense of horror about the whole thing.
I could take the path of one particular older woman in my family and say that the baby would be safer in my arms than in a car seat anyway. When I politely disagreed with her at the time she said “well, it’s probably okay for someone like you because you don’t know any better.”
I should tell her my story. At least I could make someone proud and convince her that maybe I do know . . . well, something (if not better). 
don’t feel too bad. at least it wasn’t intentional. I know a person who has intentionally not buckled her child or even placed her child in a carseat once in a while….
I bet he was sitting there thinking, “hmmm. wonder if mommy realizes she did this. I better sit here and wait to find out. It might be a test. If not, then she will know that I don’t always do naughty things on purpose. sometimes I just don’t know I’m doing it.”
I’ve done that with my five year old on more than one occasion, luckily for me he can communicate it by shouting “MOM!” at the top of his lungs. “MY.SEAT.BELT.” Thankfully nothing terrible happened.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one this has happened to - not that I’m glad that the kids aren’t buckled in but that I’m not solo on the guilt front.
Now if I could figure out how to not hit my son’s head on the roof of the car when I lift him in I’d be in great shape. . .
I think they need to make the shape of the cars doors ergonomic to fit humans….I always hit my head on my little car….
~Kelly
http://www.30somethingandsearching.today.com/