Idle Chat: Child Safety Seat Install -- Seatbelt Or LATCH?
Hi, meet Bryn MacKinnon and Brent Romans, two editors at Edmunds.com. Each Wednesday in the Idle Chat Lounge (read: a dusty couch in the breakroom), they pontificate on a topic that's kinda about cars.
Today's Idle Chat Topic: Our cantankerous editors are at odds about whether seat belts or LATCH connectors are better for securing child safety seats.
Mr. Romans: I've been using a child safety seat for a year-and-half now. Not for me, obviously, but for my 1.5-year-old daughter. And I must say I greatly prefer securing the seat in my car with LATCH connections. I don't know why people bother with the seatbelt method. If LATCH is done right, it's quick and easy. With the seatbelt method, you have to unreel the belt, thread the buckle through the back of the seat and click it in, all while trying to keep everything snug and not letting go. Getting my kid into the car is hassle enough; I don't need more of it.
Ms. MacKinnon: Brent, though you may think using LATCH is the way to go, I respectfully disagree. I've found installing with seat belts to also be quick and easy -- and I switch our car seat in and out of different test cars almost every day as a part of my job. And regardless of how much easier you think LATCH connections make the hooking-in process, LATCH doesn't eliminate the need to put your weight on the seat and pull with all your might to tighten the seat down - my most hated part of the whole thing. Another tick in the seat belt method's favor: Rear seat belts are in every car built since 1968, making installation via seat belt an equal-opportunity, all-inclusive way to travel with the kiddie. Seat Belt Nation. Love it or leave it, babydaddy.
Which install method do you prefer?
(Disclaimer: This post is not intended to be a serious discussion about safety. If you want authoritative advice, read your child safety seat's owner's manual as well as our safety seat story. Also, Bryn and Brent advise to play nice, chew your food slowly and not to run with scissors.)
- Posted by
- Brent Romans February 18, 2009, 12:00 PM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Car Safety, Idle Chat
- Technorati Tags:
- Auto Safety
Well, if we're not supposed to be serious about safety here... I'll avoid casting a vote. I will say that you guys are going to LOVE it when your kids are old enough for booster seats. I have three sons, and only one remains in a 5-pt harness car seat. And his brothers help him unbuckle. I haven't been in the back seat of our car for a long time, and I like it. I don't even have to open and shut the door for them. Those little things that parents had to help with every day really add up.
It's like when they finally learn to wipe and flush and brush their teeth and take a shower without your help. It used to take me 30 minutes to get everyone cleaned up and ready for bed. Now I actually have time to watch or read the news while the boys get ready for bed all on their own. Imagine that! They just pick out and bring me the book when they're ready for me to read a bedtime story. Heck, sometimes I even have them do the reading. Because reading is important, ya know.
Oh yeah, they can also put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and their dirty clothes in the hamper. I really look forward to them doing laundry and yard work one day! And, of course, fetching Daddy a beer. ;)
wow, ahightower. your words are like nectar of the gods. I'm not trying to wish these years away at all, but the day I stop having to deal with a child seat will be a day of much rejoicing!