Peace of Mind

It's gone. My mom warned me of this. Although it's been slowly slipping away since the birth of Brody, it has recently escalated to extreme.

It's mostly my fault in that I read to much. I tend to become overly involved in researching products, child rearing methods, etc. It's while doing any or all of these things I suddenly find myself wishing I'd just chosen the product because it was cute.

Let's take carseats for example. In the next few months we'll transition Bman from his infant seat to a convertible carseat. We already have one; a generous gift from my in-laws. I chose this seat because it's a Britax and I've heard nothing but amazing things about the seat and the cowmooflage pattern was irresistible. We'll need another seat for Aaron's car and I assumed I'd just get the same seat.

That was until I began reading and became overly educated on carseats but completely ignorant at the same time. Britax is a fabulous seat. But so are other seats that are more affordable. Since all seats sold in the US need to pass the same safety standards they are all safe. However, there are lots of differences between the million options of carseats.
One thing being rear facing. Some are better than others in terms of how long you can rear face. For safety purposes I'd like to keep Brody rear facing as long as possible. The Britax is a good seat in this category and allows for rear facing up to 40 pounds but has a short shell so if he's tall (which he's been consistency in the 80% for height) he may have to be turned forward facing before I would want. There are a few other seats with a taller shell and heavier rear facing weight. However, with Aaron being tall this creates a whole different issues...

They recommend you place your car seat rear facing (as long as possible) and in the middle seat. But what happens when your car does not have a latch for the middle or recommends you do not install in the middle seat? This is true of Aaron's Land Rover. The next 'safest' seat is behind the driver. Well, that's not happening either. I could barely sit behind Aaron let alone install a rear facing (massive) car seat behind Aaron. Even if there was just the right amount of space behind Aaron's seat, his car says no 'bracing' or the seat touching the back of the seat. So he'll (Brody) need to be installed on the passenger side- apparently, the least recommended seat in the car for a car seat. Fabulous.

The size of the seat matters too. We both have SUV's but these seats are massive. The Bell 5 year plan is to add one more Rugrat to this clan and call it your all American family. However, if that plan fails and we somehow end up with the all American family +1 we'll be left either having to buy all new carseats or a new car because three seats across in the back takes thought, planning and the right brand.

With all these decisions I am left confused. All I wanted was to buy a second seat for Aaron's car and instead I am utterly confused, want to keep my kid in a bubble and perhaps move to a place where we can walk everywhere.

Yup mom, you were absolutely right. Peace of mind is a thing of the past.


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