Here in Germany children up to 12 years or 150cm (59inches or 4 ft 11 in) have to sit in a car seat or booster (at least a simple one without high back).
Normally only babies up to 13kg (29lb) or 12 month travel backwards seated.
Only Children from 9 month to 4 years or 9-18kg (20-40lb) sit forward seated in 5-pt harness seats. Only since a 1 or 2 years there is a new norm for rear-facing car seats which are very expensive and quite uncommon but getting more popular here. But the age and weight limits are the same from most manufactures.
In the US there are these very nice extended 5 point harness seats with up to 80lb ore more.
What's your experience?
How long would you or are you letting your child sit in a 5pt harness car seat?
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
Back when I was born(in canada) My mom said (nowadays) that you were required to be in a child seat until you met these standards
Be 5’0 tall
2.weigh 95lbs
were 13 yrs old
Luckily I didnt stay in those things long.
Heck When I was adopted I moved to the US and was out of Car seats by age 2 due to an allergy caused by the straps. Heck even today I cant wear a normal safety belt due to the allergy. When I get pulled over I have to show the officer a medical card stating that I cant wear a seatbelt due to a major allergic reaction caused by it.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
Wow, I now officially know of 4 people who share that allergy with me. I hate it when cops pull my wife and I over and have to deal with it. I’ll never forget the douchebag cop who thought my card was fake because he’d never seen one before and tried to take me in. Lucked out that his partner had actually seen one before and knew me personally. Not an experience I care to repeat.
In the area I live in, the rules aren’t that different than Germany actually. The only real difference is the height requirement to get out of a booster seat which is 4’ 9" here.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
I know the feeling, I went out with some college friends to the bar last week and I was the Designated Driver. We are about a mile from my house and we get pulled over. The officer was a complete douchebag. He asked me why I wasnt wearing my seatbelt I showed him my card and practically the same situation as you happened except I called the chief(who just so happens to be my uncle) and asked him to explain to his deputy that the card is legit, which he gladly did and I was on my way.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
As I said in the story thread, I was out of any sort of protective device by the time I was in the third grade, and even before then, all I had was a sleeve that went around the shoulder/lap belt, to make them fit me better. I don’t really recall when I was last in a genuine booster seat, maybe when I was about 5? Anyway, I wasn’t really big for my age or anything; we were probably breaking the law at some point.
If it’s any consolation, I’m a religious seat belt user, and I didn’t move to the passenger seat until like freshman year.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
My cousins in Germany have told me those stories. I have two thoughts on this
How on earth would you get a child that old to agree to use a Car Seat and of course the answer is easy if you grew up with it and it was a fairly common occurrence it really wouldn’t excite comment
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
I’m not sure ze can tell us, because unless I’m mistaken it was written under Renko’s <em>non</em>-ABDL identity and as such letting us know would be cross-pollination, which almost always ends dangerously (as the ABDLs start seeing it, and one of the people involved with the <em>non</em> identity tracks them back, and eventually deciphers that Renko’s an ABDL hirself).
That’s the disadvantage of first meeting someone in this fashion; there’s literally <em>no</em> safe way of their revealing any of their other identities to you.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
I almost didn’t reply because of the use of “ze” and “hirself”. Totally ignoring the fact that “they” is perfectly acceptable for gender unknown singular and has been for generations, literally two seconds looking at the mini profile by my post would have told you the correct ones to use…
Now, that being said I don’t have an ABDL Identity so there’s nothing to protect on that front. I mean hell, all of 5 minutes to search and the domain name will give you my info if you really want it.
I do wear diapers medically, and due to an incident a few years ago my family knows I host this board so for 99% of the people who know me there’s literally nothing to find out. I’ll cut you little slack for assuming I’m an ABDL though as that is a very common assumption since I host this board and I’m not bothered by having to wear diapers for my incontinence
I actually can’t post that, even if I didn’t want to keep my pen names (yes, I have more than one) secret because of the contract with my publisher. Describing the plot would be enough to find it when it’s published so it would be viewed as self-promotion which I’m not allowed do until 30 days after publication. Not the best contract, but the advance finally paid off some of my wife’s old medical bills
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
I didn’t want you to coax you into revealing anything. I was just generally interested if the car seat part of the story has any bigger part or if it’s just a background fact. There aren’t many story’s out there where a car seat plays any kind of role. Correct me if I am wrong.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
That is a strange contract provision. You’d think self promotion would be encouraged because the publisher makes money off of pre-orders on Amazon and generating buzz pre-publication can elevate a book to the the New York Times Bestseller list. You have to follow the terms of the contract because you agreed to it, but next time, see if you can strike out or at least get an explanation for questionable terms. Also most agents will take you on if you already have an offer and they can help negotiate a contract.
I for one would not want to cross-pollinate, so if I do get that big contract, I will not be promoting it here. But I will be able to market my own book and create hype for it pre-publication.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
It depends on your vehicle. If your vehicle has adjustable seats that can reach the seat at lowest height + booster seat then it’s not required for an adult in either seat as long as the belt fits properly when the seat is at its full height. Otherwise, it’s mandatory for any seating position in the vehicle.
I actually agreed to those terms to get them to agree with some terms they weren’t happy with. As far as I’m concerned it was a good trade off since it means two other novels I wrote under a different pen name that no publisher would even look at will get published around the same time, and I was allowed to retain the digital publishing and sales rights to all three
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
A bit late to the party but I used a booster seat in our family car until I was 14, it was just one of those backless ones. I think i had technically out grown it since about age 9, but I kept arguing that I needed it to see properly out of the car window. We had bucket seats and high windows so I had more of an argument, but even still I used to slouch whenever I had to sit without it to make myself look like I still couldn’t see properly.
Having a booster seat meant I didn’t have to sit in the middle seat in the back, and the seat armrests stopped people squashing me when there was three people in the back. I used to love sitting on it, especially being higher up. When I was really young I used to feel so grown up sitting in a “big boy” seat. That was a bit of a contrast to when I was getting towards my teens and being told i was sitting on a little baby seat.
It wasn’t all great I suppose. The seat was hard plastic (there was a small thin cover with cartoon animals on, but that went “missing” probably when I was around 8). So on long journeys like driving to France my bum seriously hurt. Also during a hot summer the seat used to get really hot in the car, and it would sting the backs of my legs if I was wearing shorts and sat on it. I didn’t dare mention anything about this as my dad would surely get his wish and “ditch the stupid little babies seat”.
I was in the last year of primary school so about 12 when the car seat laws changed (Up to 12 years or 135cm tall). No one else in my class used a booster anymore as far as I was aware, the majority stopped by about age 7. They handed out leaflets in class about the new laws to take home, the other kids were all reading it and saying stuff like “would you dare sit in a car seat”, “I’m not sitting in a booster”, “my bum won’t fit in that”. I was sat there pretending to agree with them while thinking, oh I’ve still got one, they can’t find out about this.
Since the stricter laws came in I think it’s become more accepted to use a booster at an older age, but still most seem to stop using them by about age 10. I think there’s a lot of parents out there that stop using car seats before they should, due to convenience and a lack of education/enforcement.
Re: Car seat discussion – to harness or not to harness?
When I was a child, I didn’t sit in any car seats when I was four years old, I was sitting in regular seats and so were my brothers at that age. They didn’t have big kid car seats then, we all sat in car seats and booster seats until we were three. That was the average age for when kids didn’t use them anymore. My son is five and he quit using car seats because he doesn’t find it to be comfortable due to the straps he has to sit on and my husband doesn’t think he needs one of those booster seats that are for older children up to 100 lbs where it’s only for your butt to sit on and that is it, no back to it. But he quit using the car seat traps when he was four because he was getting too big so I started to use the regular seat belt for his car seat which is made for kids up to 100 lbs but he is about to outgrow it because the head rest is on the last notch and after that it can’t be raised anymore and the tip of his head sticks above it.
From what I have read online from my country, many parents don’t make their older kids sit in car seats because it’s about their pride than about safety and it doesn’t seem to be enforced anyway. Maybe there is no law about it like there is for toddlers and infants. I certainly wasn’t given a ticket when I was pulled over 11 days ago. My son is big for his age because he is up to my boobs just about.
