Why My Nine and Eleven Year Old Kids Still Ride in Boosters

Safety Comes First

We get it. Car seats can be a royal pain. Kids don’t love them, installation can be a nightmare, and they can cost a lot of money and expire even when nothing is obviously wrong with them. Many kids and parents alike want to get out of the car seat business as soon as possible, moving from a convertible car seat to a booster style restraint as soon as possible. So why haven’t we?

The answer is simple. Car seats provide protection for my kids and I don’t trust other drivers on the road. All it takes is one person answering a text for my kid and my life to change forever. Despite all the hassles, for our family, it isn’t worth the risk. 

As kids age, each type of car seat provides less protection. Even switching the same seat from rear-facing to forward facing can increase your child’s risk of serious injury or death by 75 percent, according to Consumer Reports. A five point harness offers more security than any seat belt. And you can buy models that offer the look and feel of booster seats and include a five point harness.

My eleven year old daughter has always been petite. She has zero growth concerns, but weighs only a bit over 60 pounds and stands around 57 inches tall. That puts her firmly in the booster seat category, even though she just started middle school. She rides in a Britax Grow With You Booster in one car and a Diono Cambria (which we originally bought for my oldest child) in our other vehicle. My youngest son weighs about the same, and measures roughly the same height. He also rides in a booster seat, the Graco Nautilus Elite 80, even though he is tall for his age. 

We’ve spent years explaining to our kids that car seat safety has nothing to do with age, and everything to do with height and weight. All three of our kids have outgrown their various car seats by height long before they reached the weight limits of each stage: infant seats, rear-facing convertible seats, forward-facing convertible seats, five point harness boosters, and seat belt boosters. While my kids don’t love their seats, they do love the extra cup holders and other comforts provided by these seats made to keep kids safe in worst case scenarios.

We will be riding in booster seats until they reach the maximum height limits so I can drive with one less thing to worry about.