Do people in your state follow your state laws?

[VitaW]

I have always wondered why carseat laws aren't made at a federal level. Every state has its own law which is kind if silly to me. Here in Florida we just have to have children in a seat until they are four or something ridiculous like that. So no one uses them past infancy.

Do you find, if you live in a stricter state, that people follow the law?

[MamaNae]

To the bare minimum, perhaps. I know a few people who flat out stopped at 5-ish "I'm not taking a kid to kindergarten in a car seat! They'll get made fun of!!" but for the most part to the bare minimum. Usually straight to a booster at 3 or 4.

I was so happy because my SIL put my oldest niece (4) in a harnessed seat vs a booster! DN still undoes her buckles and sits with it all bunched up around her waist. On a trip to Disney on Ice I fixed it half a dozen times and then made it tight as it's supposed to be so she couldn't slip out. hehehe

[mrspnut82]

No, people stick kids in boosters or seatbelts way before they should and forward face before a year. At least here you can threaten family with the law, a ticket is sometimes motivation. Down there you have no incentive, since you know, preventing your kid from dying isn't a good enough one.

[jackyl08]

......No. Most people just do whatever. Pretty sure even the cops don't.

[moms5angels]

nope, nowhere near the law here eather. ik kids who were in boosters by 2 & ff b4 1. cops do nothing about it.

[Computermama]

A lot of people here at least don't research this stuff. At all. It's frustrating. I had an argument with a friend of mine who has very small kids that the law here was 40lbs period to go into a booster because she had her then 4 year olds who were about 30lbs a piece in boosters. She kept telling me it was 4 years OR 40lbs, and I finally had to look it up and show her - it's just 40lbs in Ontario. I've had plenty of arguments with people who don't realize taht there's 2 sets of laws in Canada, provincial and Federal, that even though the Ontario law says kids under 20lbs must be rear facing, that doesn't mean that their 21lbs 6 month old can forward face legally - the federal law is 1 year and 22lbs and I believe has a clause about walking independently. The federal law also has a proper use clause, so if the seat says it can't be used forward facing before a year, then you're breaking the law if you put your 8 month old in it forward facing. I also meet a lot of people who assume that all car seats are good for 10 years, or have no idea that car seats expire.

And the police I've met are completely useless. My sister in law was listening to me about ERF, and then went to a "car seat check" with the Ontario Provincial Police, and she promptly turned her 9 month old just barely 20lbs daughter forward facing because the officer told her she had to because the child's feet were touching the seat back. I was furious. Not at her, at the officer.

[Holly dolly]

It's SOOO lax here! My dh got pulled over once (for a blown tail light) and the cop didn't even check to make sure the kids were buckled in!!

My sil had her kids in boosters WAY before they were ready...and now they don't use anything at all...neither of her kids are tall enough to use a seatbelt without a booster. You can't talk sense into her though.

My best friend is the worst...her kids ride around all the time with their chest clips undone and arms out...her ds was actually sitting buckled in a carseat that wasn't even latched in the car!!!

[L J]

No. It's way more common to see 2-3-4 years olds riding loose in the car than it is too see them in a booster - much less a car seat. Most of my extended family stops using a car seat when the child outgrows the infant seat. Seriously. :/

[TalkinBoutMyGirl]

Nope. Alabama is a 1 OR 20 lb state. Pisses me off big time. But generally kids are in boosters at 3 or 4 and by 5 they are in nothing.

[Kimmyann]

No, they don't. Most kids are in just seatbelts by Kindergarten here. I know several kids at my sons preschool are already in just seatbelts. (Even the police officers kid that is smaller than my son)