Anyone not car pool on school trips?

onetwofree · September 2012

DS's class will be making monthly trips to our local nature conservation center. They requested that parents sign up to car pool the kids there. I work most of the week, so I can't do it. But I would have my sitter drop DS at school with his car seat. Then the designated mom driver would have to install his car seat in her car and drive him there. Then they drive him back to school and my sitter will have to reinstall the car seat in her car. It just seems like a lot of work especially since my sitter will also have my DD with her.

I don't know that many mom's in the class so it makes me nervous that someone else is installing and buckling him in since there are so many people who do it incorrectly. Plus, DS is in a Graco Nautilus and my sitter's car is a small 2 door coupe, so getting it in and out is a pain. He's not 40 pounds yet (or 4 until October for that matter), so he can't sit in a booster.

Did anyone just decide to drive their kids directly to the class trip rather than car pool?

Angela814 · September 2012

I would not be comfortable with my preschool age child being driven to school trips by another parent. I really don't trust anyone but myself or DH to install the carseat correctly or even to buckle DC in correctly. I see so many people do both wrong. I would absolutely have the sitter drive him.

KathrynMD · September 2012

why doesn't the sitter just drive him?

onetwofree · September 2012

KathrynMD:
why doesn't the sitter just drive him?

The teacher said she preferred if all the kids car pooled (I guess that's how they've always done it). I'll just talk to her and tell her that I would rather have my sitter drive him there directly. I didn't know if carpooling was a common thing among preschool class trips or not. No one else in the class seemed worried!

KathrynMD · September 2012

that sounds like a giant PITA w/ all the car seats having to be moved around.

Mama-Bear · September 2012

I'm not a car pooler. DS1's preschool does 1 trip per year (I think it's only 1 if I remember correctly) to the firehouse on fire safety.

Angela814 · September 2012

fredalina:
I've never had a class trip like that. One preschool field trips about twice a year but the parents drove and supervised their kids. The current preschool has a family day trip at a pumpkin patch coming up but it's on a Saturday. FWIW my sister has 4 kids and is a preschool teacher and bus driver. I know she understands carseat safety, but a couple of times the possibility of her meeting halfway and installing a carseat herself has come up and I'm not too comfortable with that and we haven't done it yet, partially for that and partially for other reasons. I would NOT be okay with a carpool in those conditions, but then my LO is the only one in her class to my knowledge still RFing.

Yeah... I'm going to be buying the Graco Size4Me before DD2 hits 35 lbs (her current seat's limit) so I can hopefully keep her rfing to 4 years. I may be a bit more obsessed with carseat safety than the average mom.

When DD1 was in daycare, they occasionally took a field trip somewhere using a regular school bus for all the kids (starting at 3 years). I was more okay with that than the possibility of someone mis-installing our carseat. A school bus is so much safer than a car.

penguingrrl · September 2012

I don't let my kids ride in other people's cars until they're booster age and able to advocate for themselves if they're buckled in wrong (DD1 won't let us pull away until she's buckled in perfectly). I see far too much carseat misuse (outgrown seats, incorrectly installed seats, loose harnesses) to trust another parent to use my seat correctly. In fact, it's sad but I can't think of anyone I know that actually uses their seat correctly. I plan to drive DD2 to her class trips myself.

Littlejen22 · September 2012

onetwofree:
KathrynMD:
why doesn't the sitter just drive him?
The teacher said she preferred if all the kids car pooled (I guess that's how they've always done it).  I'll just talk to her and tell her that I would rather have my sitter drive him there directly.  I didn't know if carpooling was a common thing among preschool class trips or not.  No one else in the class seemed worried!

No way in hell is someone besides me or DH driving our kid in a car unless it was an emergency. I almost did not send DS on the bus for Kindergarten this year. I would have no problem telling the teacher no and that I do not allow others to drive my car and that it is not safe to move car seats that often. I know in NJ there is no distinction legally for when a kid can be moved to a booster seat so legally I could use it in your situations but nope.

jlw2505 · September 2012

The daycare preschool we went to did not do fieldtrips with kids under 5 and then it was kids in the school age program so grades K-5 and mainly only over summer and school breaks. The PreK program that my older DD did and my younger DD is in now (must be 4 by 9-1 of that school year) does field trips but they take a school bus. I would not allow my kids to ride in someone else's car unless I saw the car seat in the car - my kids have ridden with others that I trust but I have always been there to help put them into the car. I know the daycare has a rule that all kids must be at least 5 to ride a bus and the school PreK program, the kids are all 4 or 5.

onetwofree · September 2012

-auntie-:

onetwofree:
KathrynMD:
why doesn't the sitter just drive him?
The teacher said she preferred if all the kids car pooled (I guess that's how they've always done it). I'll just talk to her and tell her that I would rather have my sitter drive him there directly. I didn't know if carpooling was a common thing among preschool class trips or not. No one else in the class seemed worried!

It's how DS's preschool ran things. Parents volunteered and drove. It was a pretty well educated crowd and great car was taken in getting seats installed.

It's easier for the teacher if everyone arrives at once, plus the whole point of preschool is for the child to be part of a peer group rather than with mom. If it's not comfortable for you, perhaps you could volunteer to be a driver. You don't really want to be that mom who drives her kid alone.

If I could volunteer to be a driver, I would, but as I stated in my original post, I work during the week and will not be able to make the field trips. I work in a hospital, so I can't just take time off whenever I want. Vacations are requested a year in advance for guaranteed dates and for last minute things (which this is since I just found out about it during Parent's Night), I can request, but I am not guaranteed the day off until the schedule comes out (which is is a few weeks before). I do not want to volunteer and then find out that I can't get the day off. My babysitter can not fit another car seat in her 2 door coupe, nor would I want to put her in the position of being responsible for other kids.

None of the parents will be staying with the kids during the field trip. Everyone just gets dropped off. So DS will be part of the peer group while he's there.

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Anyone not car pool on school trips?

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