Heather C Heather C is a married, mom of three: big sis Lily and identical twins Natalie and Sophia. She has been guest blogging for Mumbling Mommy since February of 2012 and began working as a Social Media Editor in 2014. After nearly a decade in banking, she now works part time at a doctor's office specializing in breastfeeding medicine and spends the rest of her days in her Midwest home as zookeeper/stay-at-home-mom. Heather C is also a runner, hiker, yogi, bike rider and more. She reads when she finds more than a few minutes to herself and she hosts a lot of pajama dance parties in her kitchen. In her spare time, she's the co-leader for her daughter's Girl Scout troop and an active member of the school's Parent-Teacher Committee as well as a certified postpartum doula.

Car seat safety. Oh boy, now there is a topic for mommy wars. Or is it? In early January, one of my twins woke up throwing up. (Ugh!) I posted a cute picture of her holding a giant bowl in our van because I still had to get my oldest daughter off to school that morning. One of my friends, fellow writer Rachael, commented among other things that I was one of the only people she knew who could post a picture of a child in a car seat and it actually be done correctly. I took it as a compliment and didn’t think much of it after that until a conversation with another mom came up a couple weeks later, completely unrelated to the first, where the mom admitted she doesn’t post pictures of kids in car seats because she doesn’t want to get attacked.

Attacked! Just because you post pictures of kids in car seats!

Ladies, other moms are not ATTACKING you. Maybe they come across as know-it-alls and yes, that is really unfortunate. And no, no parent ever wants to admit they are doing something wrong. But this is important. There is a right way to buckle your child into a car seat and there is a wrong way. If someone points out that you are using the car seat incorrectly with your child, this is not attacking you. This is actually helping you! Swallow your pride and please, just listen.

We are not talking about a debate over watching TV at the age of 18 months or avoiding all screens until the age of 4. This isn’t a debate on vaccinating or not vaccinating. This isn’t a debate on staying home with your children or sending them to daycare. There are plenty of studies and scientific evidence to back up both sides of most parenting wars, but car seat safety isn’t one of them. Again, there is a right way and a wrong way.

Post Pictures Of Kids In Car Seats

So no, please do not be afraid of posting pictures of your children in car seats. I’m not. I don’t claim to be perfect either. If I miss something and someone points it out, want to know how I respond? “Thank you!” That’s all. I don’t type out my long excuse or get defensive. I just thank my acquaintances, double check my kid, or think about what I can do better to keep my kid as safe as possible, and then I move on with my life. No relationships are destroyed over the interaction. No one’s feelings are hurt. These other parents aren’t judging me. They aren’t attacking me. They aren’t hating on me. They know I would never intentionally put my children at risk, and they offer tips because they care about me and know how devastating losing my child would be. Period.

I’m not afraid to post a picture of my kids in their car seats because it takes a village to raise a child. Let the village help you.

If you need information on how to properly buckle your child into a car seat or just want to brush up your knowledge, our writers have contributed other blog posts to this topic already. You can read them here. More information can be found at safecar.gov.

Category: Featured

Tags: car seat safety