Car seat escapee on the freeway

Help! My 3 year old decided to sit in his brother's seat today (we have 2 identical boosters and the boys like to trade). About 5 min into our ride he started whining about not wanting this seat and wanting to move. I told him firmly that he could move back to his seat the next time we got in the car, but he picked this seat and could not change while mommy was driving. He kept whining and screaming, and after answering him a couple more times I told him we were done talking about it. He continued to whine and yell (so I ignored - the nut in me worrying if he was having some kind of premonition and thinking about how awful I would feel if we had an accident on that side of the car and he knew all along that he needed to move to be safe but couldn't articulate it ). A few minutes pass and I look in the review mirror to see him crawling across the backseat of the car!!!!!!!!!! I'm ON THE F*ING FREEWAY! I flip out, pull over, scream at him as he's getting into the seat (in hindsight I should have made him get back in the other one), tell him if we got in an accident while he was unbuckled there would be no more Quinny (I was really off my rocker), buckled him in, nearly escaped death while merging back into traffic .....

I need a nap.

Has anyone else had their kid do this, and do you have suggestions? I'm hoping my response was enough to scare him out of trying it again.

[Phoebe]

Wow! That is scary! I can say that has happened to me with Avery. She regularly unbuckles the top of her 5pt harness and the rare times she has been in a regular booster she has unbuckled herself. She doesn't like to be confined, especially when she is upset. I usually have to stop and I have yelled at her. Recently, I have actually driven her to the police station and told her the cops would give me a ticket or put me in jail. Not the best Idea to scare her, but she is stubborn and I don't want to mess around with her safety.

HTH, Jennifer

[houseelf]

duck tape?

Kelly

[Rapunzel]

That is one of the few instances where I would spank my child. It's not just disobedience here - it's a serious danger. In fact, this has happened a couple of times with different children. And, what I tell them is: "Buckle back up immediately or I will pull this car over and you WILL get a spanking." Enough said. I don't have to scream it because I actually had to carry that threat out once and it left an impression. It's soooooo serious. I don't blame you for being exhausted after that.

Jennifer

That is an idea. I could pretend I was really calling the police. The problem is that our seatbelts are really touchy (lock pretty easily) so the boys cannot buckle themselves in. I thought they were just being lazy, but then when I had Sydney (SueC's daughter) in my car she couldn't do it either, and she can do the ones in her car.

Quick thinking on your mom's part.

I agree with Jennifer. That is on my short list of spank-worthy. That would scare the pants off of me.

Not to be all fear-mongering here...but my 1st grade teacher friend had a child in her class who was left handicapped from an accident involving her unlatching her carseat. Unlikely to happen but potentially very dangerous.

[mommax3]

This has happened and I have pulled over, but I haven't spanked because I would feel uncomfortable if I saw someone spanking their kid in public, so I try not to do that. (Even though I know sometimes it is totally the right thing to do.)

Once we were on our way to a birthday party (I was actually on the phone with Kelly when this happened, as I recall) and DH got pulled over for speeding. He got off with a warning, but not before the nice policeman noticed that my middle son (without our knowledge) was riding along in the backseat without any type of restraints. It was SO worth the warning (and even would have been worth the ticket, to be honest) to have a policeman lecture my son (with the other two watching and listening) about being properly buckled in his carseat. Did the trick, that's for sure!

Sally

[Sheherezade]

We had this happen too. I did pretty much what you did. It didn't happen again. I spent a little time talking with DD about her seat. Turned out the straps were pretty uncomfortable and needed to be adjusted. Your son should have listened to you, but he was probably just unhappy with his seat selection. I bet he never guessed you'd react so severely. It probably won't happen again. If it does, they do make little latch covers to put over the buckle. I bet "Safety First" makes one. Look it up on the internet. I thought about using one if DD tried it again.

I think Angie makes a good point. It reminded me of a seatbelt problem we were having 6 months ago (and that Jlynnb had the pleasure of witnessing ).

There were two problems: a) the seatbelt was malfunctioning and would lock but not unlock and b) my daughter was doing her fidget-wiggle and would pull the belt enough to make it lock and retract and then get pinned in. She would pretty much freak out. Dealership couldn't fix the belt -- it was great fun! Luckily at 4 1/2, she knew better than to unbuckle it and after telling her to sit tight each time until I could pull over would have been in trouble otherwise.

So....maybe you could ask him if he is having a particular problem with the seat, if so fix it, and use that as an opportunity to let him know again just how serious seatbelt safety is.