XP Car Seat Rental

punkyb0528

Has anyone ever rented a car seat when you have a rental car? We are flying tomorrow for a funeral & have a 3 1/2 drive once there to the funeral location. We have DS in an infant seat & DD in a convertible car seat and were debating if we should rent them from the car rental place to help eliminate extra baggage. WDYT or what has your experience been? TIA

emiliemadison

First, I'm very sorry for your loss

I would never, ever rent a car seat. Not only can they not guarantee that you'll get the appropriate seat for your child, but even if you do, you have no idea if the seat has ever been in a crash, how many kids have peed/pooped/puked in them, if it's been treated correctly (like, you can't put the straps in a washing machine after it's been peed/pooped/puked on!!), and you wont be familiar with the seat in general and installing it may be very difficult.

Bring their seats. You already know their history, you know how to install them, and you know your kids fit properly in them. Lots of people see bringing car seats as extra baggage, but I see it as extra insurance that your kids will be as safe as possible. 

emiliemadison

Kirbus:

I love that you're around to answer all of our car seat questions.  I think you're one of the most helpful bumpies out there!

Aww, thanks K! I'm super lucky that I enjoy what I do in my professional life and that I can help people who ask for advice, and that they're usually receptive to it.

KristinKD

For all of the reasons emilie posted, we always bring our car seats with us.

When we've traveled with the two kids, we've used the JL Childress ultimate car seat travel bag to check DD1's convertible seat and gate-checked DD2's infant seat with our stroller.