thank God for squirrels - a cautionary tale

i was walking with a friend this morning and she was commenting on how the squirrels seem suicidal lately because they are all running out in front of her car.  she said that she had to stop for three just this morning.  and then i told her my squirrel story from this morning...

as i was driving the boys to school a squirrel ran out in front of the van.  as always, i slowed down (we were already going pretty slow on a neighborhood side-street) but this squirrel didn't run back out of the road when we approached like they usually do, instead it kept going.  i slammed on my brakes to stop for it and maddux' car seat fell forward into the back of my seat!!!!  he was NOT hurt.  let me get that out of the way.  we were going very slow at this point, it was just a very sudden complete stop.

he was able to push himself back into the upright position before i could pull off the road and see what had happened.  i think it scared him more than anything but he did say that he bumped his nose.  there was no red mark on his face of any kind when i checked him out.

while i regularly check the position of the kids' straps and buckles on their carseats, i can say that i don't check the way they are attached to the car other than when i am carefully installing them (seriously, i am careful.  like i read the manual step-by-step every single time).  when i looked at his seat today i saw that one of the kids had unbuckled the seatbelt that holds it in place!  (our back row carseats are all anchored in addition to the seat belt but we don't have as many options for the middle seats - although i am going to revisit the van manual to see if there are any anchor options besides the seat belt that we have missed.)  you would think that we would have noticed this because his seat would have moved when he climbed up into it, but there were no noticeable signs that it was loose.

this was after i had re-secured the seat to the van seat.

we do talk regularly about how important it is to not touch or pull on any carseat straps because it can make them unsafe, but i can't remember the last time we told them not to touch the seat belts. 

thank God for squirrels because without that squirrel providing this warning, we might have been dealing with something much, much worse some day.

so there is my cautionary tale - regularly check (like every time you get in the car) how the carseats are attached and make sure your kids know not to touch them.

i have been thinking about how to prevent this in the future.  is there a 'lock' of some type that can keep kids from pushing the release button?  or is that a safety risk in an emergency?  or maybe car manufacturers can give indicator lights of belts successfully buckled on the dash?

love.