The moment they grew beyond a certain age, it becomes extremely difficult to convince them to buckle up.
BHPian enj0y_ride recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Many of us might have already gone through this: It’s never easy to convince kids to stay buckled up, especially when they reach an age when they are hyper-active (never willing to stay on the seats for a longer time). There are many threads in the public domain, but all are focused on Western geographies and the tips they talk about, never work in India.
Taking my own personal case, when my kids were < 3 years old, I was successful in buckling them up in child seats. But the moment they grew beyond that age, I exhausted my wits to even convince them to sit on the seats when travelling. I bought booster seats, but in vain – they better stand than sit on that.
I am only successful in convincing them to sit in the rear till they are big enough.
Can you please share your experiences around these and tips that worked in your favour?
Here’s what BHPian Rajeevraj had to say about the matter:
Right from the time when my kid was a couple of months old, she has always been in a suitable car seat. Since she was always in the car seat, as she grew older, it was naturally ingrained into her that ‘If I am sitting in the car’ it will be in the car seat. There was absolutely no compromise to that and it became a natural habit. Moved to a booster seat at around 8 years and recently removed that also as the regular seat belt became usable.
Again, all this, until now-Only in the back seat. Front seat was never even an option (apart from some rare unavoidable situations).
Not sure what are the ages of your kids now, there is some natural resistance that comes when they are 3-4 years old. Needs to be quickly and firmly handled (keeping aside the parental love and immediate gratification for that and thinking of the greater good-Definitely not easy). Once they get used to being unbelted and have got away with it, difficult to bring back the habit.
So my advice is, if you want your kids belted, do not compromise on it at all. Apart from resisting pressure from the kids, you also will have to resist pressure from your spouse (sometimes, in my case I had the full support) and more often from extended family-especially grandparents and uncles and aunts.
Only a teeny tiny percent regularly buckle up their kids. I have been ridiculed by a lot of people including friends and family, but I am glad I stuck to my position that a safety mentality is now ingrained into my kid and she naturally buckles up in any car she gets into.
So it is a tough one, but definitely worth the effort
Here’s what BHPian condor had to say about the matter:
There was a lovely approach shared by a TBHP-ian in another thread, the gist of which I remember as:
He got the child seat and left it in the living room. His kid began to sit in it and began to like it. After some time, he moved it to the car. The kid took to the seat in the car too, without any fuss. I don’t think it can get smoother than this.
Here’s what BHPian SmartCat had to say about the matter:
Buy seat belt pillows from Amazon.
It is very comfortable for kids. Make sure you buy 2 pillows and fix both on the seatbelt. This way, the pillows cover the whole point of contact between the seatbelt and the child’s body. My car:
Here’s what BHPian libranof1987 had to say about the matter:
Just be strict about it. Tell them, the car won’t move until they’re buckled up / in the car seat. They’ll throw a tantrum once, be angry twice, the third time, they’ll listen. Our job is to parent them and wearing seatbelts is non-negotiable so let’s parent them right.
Additionally, have your kids’ teachers tell them that they should wear seatbelts at all times – that does the trick a lot of times. If you can find an episode on Peppa Pig where Daddy Pig says so – even better. It is ridiculous how effective that can be.
Keyword: How to convince kids to wear seat belts in cars