Any parent knows that you practically have to have a PhD to install a car seat these days – and that’s not hyperbole. Research tells us that almost 60% of car seats are actually installed incorrectly!
But back in the day…
ANYTHING went. Literally, anything. Case in point:
Today it’s all rear facing, five-point restraint safety-rated car seats that can ONLY be installed in rear seats. But a few short decades ago…
Yes, that baby seat is literally just propped up on the slick front seat with a wing and a prayer.
The little fella below is at least buckled into the car…
But even the earliest attempts at child restraint car seats were flimsy affairs…
The one pictured below was just a swing that held the baby at an angle!
Weeeeeee!
It’s hard to believe that these seats would contain a child in the event of an accident. But then again, cars back then were sturdier and didn’t go as fast as the cars of today.
Many of the car seat manufacturers even made it fun for the little tykes with their very own steering wheel:
Beep-beep!
These car seats really didn’t do much in the way of comfort or safety; they were more intended to keep the kids out of the parents’ hair.
Tired of holding your squirmy baby?
Just plop him in the car seat!
Wow – 98 cents! Average cost of a child car seat today? Around $200!
Somewhere along the way, designers decided that baby needed a more plush ride so padded seating was created.
They also realized that high backs and head rests were a good idea.
Baby likes!
Then in another direction, chunky large solid seats came into favor.
These actually look really safe!
But maybe too many kids got broken noses when their parents had fender benders, because they soon fell out of fashion.
By the early 1980’s House Crazy Sarah remembers her baby sister riding in a car seat just like this one:
We’ve come a loooong way in terms of child restraint safety seats for cars.
Let’s not even mention the plywood platform traveling playpen!
Yikes!
~~~
Wow! I guess we really have come a long way!