Man, remind me never to do that again...

So we have kind of a carseat debacle right now. The back of Erin's booster was lost on the flight home, and they haven't found it yet. I've called twice today, but there was no answer either time. Our current carseat options for Erin are her usual booster, in backless form, and one that we used to use for extended harnessing, but is awful as a booster.

The thing that had me confused about these options is that there were holes in every one of them, and I was trying to figure out what the least harmful hole was.

Option A:

Put backless booster in the middle seat. Preferable since the lack of side-impact protection is not an issue. Dangerous since that seat doesn't have a head rest.

Option B:

Put backless booster in passenger's side back seat. Preferable since that seat has a headrest. Dangerous since it's outboard, and the lack of side-impact protection applies.

Option C:

High-back booster that absolutely SUCKS at positioning the belt, and is impossible to buckle. Preferable since it has side-impact protection, and can go in any seat, with or without a headrest. Dangerous due to piss-poor belt positioning.


I will say, for the first time in years, I was completely stumped by something carseat related. What does a carseat nerd do when stumped? Post the question online for more carseat nerds to weigh in on, of course! I went to a popular site for this kind of thing, and posted as a guest. That's what I seriously need to remember to NEVER do again.

What happened? Well, I explained the situation very thoroughly, stated clearly that it's not my idea of a good time to put a kid Erin's age in a backless booster, and I'm trying to find a solution for until the airline finds the rest of the seat, or we buy a new one. Then I broke it down approximately the way I did here, quite thoroughly, and I thought it was pretty clear that I am well-read and conscientious of best practice. That was my aim anyhow.

In response to that, I got the idiot treatment! First of all, they totally told me not to use Erin's backless booster at all because it was probably damaged when it separated from the back. OK, I clearly stated that it was packed separately, so no. That's not an issue. Secondly, they told me that NONE of the options are acceptable, and acted like I was a complete moron for even trying any of them. Third, they all told me to go buy a TOTAL piece of crap booster that won't position the belt any better than the piece of crap high-back booster we already have! Same brand, even!!

Man, I hate how rude the carseat community is. No, I don't want another crappy booster. Frankly, my options are better than most people's. I just wanted to know, officially (as many people there are licensed carseat technicians) what my options were.

Remind me NEVER to do that again. From here forward, I go on gut instinct, and my background in physics.