[blparent] Car Seats for Kids Whose Parents Don't Drive?

Sun Sep 6 01:59:49 UTC 2015

All,

I thought to jump in here and especially recommend Corbb and Briley's
recommendation of the Cybex Aton 2.  There are a couple of other advantages
that may also make it well worth the investment--especially if you may be
getting it off a registry.

By way of introduction, my wife and I are both blind and are the proud
parents of a boy who just turned 7 months.  (Those of you who attend NFB
meetings where the presidential release is played may have heard Mark
Riccobono's congratulating us a few months ago.)  A few different years I
attended with other friends planning to be parents one day the meetings that
Debbie Kent Stein hosts at National Convention, the most recent being last
year when unbeknownst to me I already was a father.  Why neither I nor the
whole family was at National Convention this year is a longer, more
interesting, and challenging story.  I've enjoyed reading this list over the
years, gotten many ideas that I've found helpful, and been very glad for the
supporting community.  I suppose I'm one of those people who rarely posts to
a listserve or speaks up in a large group conversation unless I'm absolutely
sure I'd have something useful to say which is why it's taken me so long to
post anything, and I hate rehashing the same old questions.  And I suppose I
have the fear that I must have everything together and close to perfect
before stepping out; perhaps I need to work to get over that.

Anyway, my wife and I use and especially love the Cybex Aton 2.  She gets
all the credit for finding it.  It is indeed light and safer than most other
car seats that don't also have the European routing clip for a shoulder
harness.  It makes for a particularly easy, tight fit without having to
perform any gymnastics in the backseat of a taxi or Uber.  Finding a design
like this in the United States, we found, is fairly difficult since so many
Americans are used to car seats with bases, you know, to go in the car they
always drive, and many can't fathom a car seat nowadays that doesn't have
one; you can get Ubers in New York City with car seats in them before people
will think of having their own car seat that doesn't require a base that
works extremely well!  The Cybex Aton 2 is also designed for up to 35 lbs.
and remains rear-facing.  Europe--and I saw recently New Jersey--require
children to remain rear-facing much longer than most of the United States,
and that is much safer.  So this will last you a good couple of years.

Very best,
Nathanael

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Corbb
O'Connor via blparent
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2015 11:50 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Cc: Corbb O'Connor
Subject: Re: [blparent] Car Seats for Kids Whose Parents Don't Drive?

Allison,

Please pardon my brevity
I am in the midst of preparing for an exam in the
morning but saw your e-mail and wanted to reply while I was thinking about
it!

My wife and I don’t have a car of our own, but we use the Cybex Aton 2 car
seat. There are lots of colors available and we bought ours on Amazon. Here
is the cheapest (currently $250)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H6CKG1S/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_Tkr6vb1VAKB76

We love it for many reasons, but chief among them is that it’s only 7 pounds
(without the base). Because the car seat uses the European belt path (using
both the lap and shoulder restraint), it fits very snugly even without the
base. Even better, my wife and I can comfortably both sit in the back seat
of a sedan with baby between us in the middle seat. (Beware that some, older
cars, the middle seat belt is shorter than the two sides and sometimes it
doesn’t fit there
but that’s been the minority of instances.)

We keep the base here at home and if we’ll be using the same car repeatedly
(e.g. when a friend or family member comes to visit or in our driver’s car),
then we’ll install the base to make it faster to click the baby in and out
of the seat.

The only downside (other than the price) to this car seat is that the
stroller options with which it is compatible are limited. We use the Cybex
Onyx, but we got the last unit left in North America. (Even then we had to
import it from Canada!) There may be other compatible models by now, though;
just search for “cybex aton adapter” and you’ll find a few.

As far as buses and light rail, we’ve used a few trains with baby
and—honestly—you’ll worry less about safety than you will be ecstatic that
you don’t have to strap baby into a carseat! However, remember that if you
are out and want to come home via Uber, Lyft or Sidecar, legally you do need
to be using a carseat (though some drivers are more flexible than others
but
honestly the safety factor is pretty real).

I hope this helps!
Corbb & Briley O’Connor

On Sep 3, 2015, at 11:27 PM, Allison via blparent <blparent at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

Hi Everyone,

My apologies because I suspect this topic has been brought up before.

My fiancé and I are both blind and expecting a baby girl in January. We went
baby registry shopping the other day, and got to feel exactly what today's
car seats look like.  Now I get what people mean when they talk about
installing a car seat base. I guess that sighted people leave the base
installed in their car and then move the car seat in and out as needed.
However, what do people do who don't own their own car and use various other
forms of transit? Since fiancé and I are both blind, we ride in a variety of
cars in any given week. We use Uber, cabs, paratransit, or friend/family
cars. I do have blind friends who have showed me their car seats, but all
these blind parent friends have sighted partners with their own cars. So I
was hoping to hear from other blind parents who don't have access to their
own cars. What is the car seat situation like for you? Do you carry car seat
and base around with you everywhere you go?  Do you have a specific brand or
style of car seat that you think is especially portable? When your kids get
older and the car seats get bigger, how do you travel with all that
equipment? Do you have any other tips for car seat shopping and baby travel
planning?

Also, I've heard that people are allowed to travel on buses and light rails
without car seats. Has anyone done this and does it feel safe?

Thanks in advance.

Allison

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