Do I need two car seats???

jcrising · February 2013

So I drop off DD at daycare and DH picks her up. Until now we had her in an infant carseat so we had a base in each car, but she is about to grow out of it so we will soon be switching to a convertible carseat. Do we need to get two? How do others handle this? It seems like taking the seat out of my car at daycare for DH to pick up with DD would be a hassle... thoughts? advice?

iluvmylab · February 2013

We have two- a Britax for me because I wanted one very easy to use since I pick up/drop off DS 90% of the time and a Cosco scenera for DH since it was less than $50, still safe, and would not be used as much. It was a PITA to install and the straps get tangled sometimes, but for the price and how little we use it, it works fine.

You will not want to be moving the car seat around, even if it's easy to install. That would get old really fast.

FemShep · February 2013

I'd get 2-dealing with installation twice a day every day would be a nightmare.

EastCoastBride · February 2013

You need two. Installing a regular carseat is not "easy-peasy" and I would not want to have to do it twice every.single.day.

It will get old.

EastCoastBride · February 2013

And to follow on Iluvmylab - you don't have to get 2 expensive seats. You don't even need to get 1, but... if you really want a Britax (for example), put that in the car that most of the transporting of the child (family outings/ weekends) will be done. And buy a less expensive one that will be pretty much used ONLY for pickup or drop off.

dimondwind · February 2013

yep, you need two.

EastCoastBride · February 2013

I'm going to add some more "reality".

What if it's raining? Or just REALLY cold? Or your LO is cranky and crying and wants to go?

But, oh, wait.... gotta take the carseat to the car and install it first!!!!! In the rain, or the cold, or w/ a really upset child.

And as someone said - you're going to have these seats for a few YEARS. Make life easier on yourselves and just buy 2!!

lrn327 · February 2013

Yep, unfortunately. We have two Britax Blvds b/c DS is in our cars equally. If one was much less though, I'd buy a Scenara as a second seat.

Katie829 · February 2013

We have a Britax Boulevard for my car who is the main driver of DD, and a Cosco Scenera for DH who takes DD in the car about 3x a week. They are all equally safe and pass the same safety requirements.

Mustardseed2007 · February 2013

Convertable car seats are really big. Even though we had one already (shower gift) we just pulled it out of storage to look at it yesterday and I was shocked. I didn't remember how big it was. It's a graco one that is side impact tested so it is fab, but huge. No way I would I want to remove that and reinstall it in another car on any kind of regular basis.

shannm · February 2013

I would have a seat in each car.

Pips09 · February 2013

Also vote for 2 seats. Soooo not worth the hassle of having to reinstall it everyday.

highlights · February 2013

Yes- get two car seats. Its not worth the hassle to change every single day twice a day.

We got the Scenera for the second car. I don't like it as much as our other car seat, but it keeps him safe and was inexpensive.

michaelaskedlauren · February 2013

Graco came out with a convertible car seat that is good for up to 100lbs (or something insane like that) that has a base.

DH and I were dealing with the same debate, so we just bought that one, plus an extra base for DH's car similar to what we did with the infant car seat. It just snaps right into the base so you dont have to worry about install, etc., plus it keeps the extra space in DH's car available.

The cost ends up breaking down to being about the same as buying 2 convertibles (I think the extra base was like $100 and the original car seat that came the base was around $200+).

As always, it boils down to what will work best for you guys. Just know that the convertible one is heavy so if you do leave it at DC for DH when he does pick ups, its not nearly as light as the infant one.

SunAndRain · February 2013

I posted this EXACT questions about a month ago

We got two convertibles, one for each car.

Maybride2 · February 2013

Ditto everyone else.

Installing a convertible seat is a huge PITA. The thought of having to do it twice a day every weekday gives me a serious headache.

And it's a PITA because it takes effort and time to do it correctly. You'll probably get sick of doing it, be in a hurry and start halfassing it........which means that it won't be installed correctly and will be worthless in a crash.

Get two. This isn't a budget item you want to cut.

ns1 · February 2013

Most people do two I think. It would be a pain to switch car seats - and I wouldn't do that often.

But...we only have one.

DH and I can work it out because my work is right next to daycare. If he needs to pick up DD he can swap cars.

We have had some run-ins where it's a pain to not have another car seat, but we've managed. It might be a pain at times, but with some extra planning it's not impossible to just do one.

itsmevkb · February 2013

I have six car seats and two carrier bases because we have four kids and each of us needs one in each car. It's a big investment but far easier than trying to move them around all the time.

dglvrk2 · February 2013

EastCoastBride:
I'm going to add some more "reality".
What if it's raining? Or just REALLY cold? Or your LO is cranky and crying and wants to go?
But, oh, wait.... gotta take the carseat to the car and install it first!!!!! In the rain, or the cold, or w/ a really upset child.
And as someone said - you're going to have these seats for a few YEARS. Make life easier on yourselves and just buy 2!!

This....

It seemed like a lot of $$ at the time, but I got over it the first morning I had to be at work early and DH dropped her off. I picked her up. No carseat hassle.

Worth it!!! Every penny!

ss+el · February 2013

It's definitely worth getting two seats. Plus, if your daycare is a center and is anything like mine, they don't want your child's carseat there once they're past the infant carrier stage anyway. We got identical seats for both cars, as DH was a SAHD for a while and took DS to activities during the day, but my vehicle was our primary for family travel, so both got used equally. Now that he's working, we went with a less expensive seat in his car.

emberlee3 · February 2013

Get 2 seats. We really like the Evenflo seats and they are not expensive.

anvloveskme · February 2013

We have two and DH doesn't even do pick up/drop off very often. Totally worth it.

BabyNewbury2012 · February 2013

We are in the same situation except DH drops her off and I pick her up. We went yesterday and bought 2 Britaxs, it was expensive but we did not want to be taking that in and out of the car, its too heavy and bulky!

IMO you should go with 2!

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