Car Seat Rules in the U.S.

by Jamie Rhein on

We’re heading to Montana via Seattle, Washington in two weeks and I just found out we’re in the market for a car seat. Washington’s car seat rules changed over a month ago and my son doesn’t meet the new criteria for not needing either a car seat of some sort.

A child needs to be 8 years-old or be 4 feet 9 inches tall to only need a seat belt. My son doesn’t make it on either account. Since there’s no way he’s going to agree to going back in the car seat he’s used since he was younger than two, I think we’ll get him a booster seat. I’ve been thinking about getting him one of these anyway. He’s safer if he’s buckled in at a better height. These two booster seats are the ones I’m thinking about. In case you need to know some car seat/booster seat rules for other states, here is the list of the ones that also require seats for the not a baby, but not big enough yet crowd. Montana is also one of them.

Now we will have one more piece of luggage to take that I wasn’t counting on. If we check the booster seat, it’ll cost us $5 on Skybus. Of course, we could carry it on the plane and let him sit on it. Does that count as a carry-on? According to the Website, a stroller can be carried to the gate and Skybus folks will check it then at no extra charge. I’m assuming this means the booster seat counts as well. There is no one to call to ask. I’m still waiting on a response to the email I sent Skybus two months ago asking a security question about the safety of ordering tickets on-line. I did order the tickets anyway.

Plugged In or Tuned Out in Amish Country

by Jamie Rhein on

Once, when I was about ten years old, my grandparents came to visit my family in State College, Pennsylvania where we lived. Afterwards, they brought my brother and me back to their house in Dayton, Kentucky right across the river from Cincinnati. They were excited to take us on a side trip through Amish country on the way.

Since the oldest settlement of Amish in the United States is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a drive through there guarantees coming across horse drawn buggies, white farmhouses with laundry flapping on clotheslines, and fruit and vegetable stands that also sell homemade pies and jams. I was happy to drive through Amish country, but after awhile was more interested in reading my book than keeping my eye for another buggy much to my grandmother’s displeasure.

Now that I’m traveling with my own 14 year-old, I can somewhat relate to how my grandmother felt.

This My Turn Essay by Lisa Segleman in this week’s Newsweek magazine addresses the road trip with kids issue, something that I’ve also written about in earlier posts. In Segelman’s account, everyone in her family was plugged into their own electronic devices, thus did very little to interact with each other while they traveled from New Jersey to Florida. I understood her feelings about not having anyone to interact with since everyone was busy interacting with their gadgets, but also wondered why no one said, “Unplug.”

On the other hand, perhaps part of the pleasure of a road trip is the coziness of being in a vehicle with family members without arguements. Still, whenever we go on trips with my daughter, we do tell her to take off the earphones from time to time to visit with us. And sometimes, she hands me her headphones so I can listen to her favorite songs. The only time I do this is on a road trip and I always feel great when I’m plugged in.

Colin Thomas snapped this picture of Bethany and posted it on Flickr. His comment said, she said, “You’re so annoying.” Yep, sounds about right. I don’t think Bethany is an adolescent though, but the sentiments are the same.