We have a carseat for GS installed in “my” car. So when DW goes to pick him up we have to make sure to switch cars. Its kind of a pain during soccer season since i have to move coaching gear out.
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Well, H’s new lexus should be big enough for a car seat of booster. St least it seats 5, unlike my Prius which just seats 4.
My BIL just swapped his 3 row SUV for a Toyota Sienna minivan, upgraded from the one I drove for 20 years, largely to drive his 6 gkids.
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@snowball I have also had the “pleasure” of being wedged in between two car seats. Once on a six hour trip.
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Yes, it’s a mixed “blessing” being thin enough to be wedged between car seats. My sister and BIL and brother and SisIL don’t remove their car seats much either.
Me three!! But not on that long of a trip!
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My GD is 4.5, really tall, and not yet tall enough for a booster based on our state laws. You might want to watch for a car seat sale!
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No car here. I usually take GD1 on the city bus. She loves to take a bus. If we need to get in an uber, she has a seatbelt harness (vest) that fit in my tote.
One time she just stood at a curb. I asked what she was doing. She said she was waiting for a bus because she was tired. She didn’t know there were destinated places to get a bus. 
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When I was the regular pre-school pickup person for a year and change, rather than keep carseats in my small car (Fit), I would drive to D’s house, switch cars (she also has a Fit), pick up one kid, hang out, pick up other kid, then switch cars again to go home.
Today, H and I are doing an outing with D and the two kids, and we will probably do two cars for the five people rather than try to squeeze someone between car seats. Hate to use the extra gas, but even though I’ve lost a lot of weight, I’m not THAT skinny.
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I did the grandparent squeeze between the seats once. Even though I am tiny it still hurt. Next time we either walked or took an Uber. I think when they finally get to the booster seat it will be better. I skipped the booster with my younger one who with her adult size would probably still be in a booster!
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Try it when you aren’t tiny! I was a nanny to twins and their older brother. I often had to sit between the twins in back while their brother sat in the front seat (mother driving). Father NEVER rode in the car with the kids. He had his own car and sometimes let the older boy ride with him, but there were a lot of rules (no snacks, no drinks, no endless loops of Baby Beluga) so the kids didn’t like riding with him.
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To be fair, unless we were driving long distance, my kids did not eat or drink in my car. And I never played “ kid music”. They listened to classic rock, the 70’s and 80’s music.
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That’s great until your 7 year old is belting out “Pleeze, go all the way.” Ask me how I know.
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Ah, the patriarchy strikes again. Nice that Dad gets to set rules for his car but the default is that Mom is the actual parent. Plus a solid dose of classism that the adult nanny has to sit squashed while another child of the family sits in the adult seat up front. My feelings are showing…
My sister had three infant seats across the back seat of her car (probably something like a Corolla at the time) for her close-in-age kids. She was pulled over because of lapsed registration and she told me, “the officer took one look in the back of the car and said, ‘I can’t imagine what your life is like but please just do the registration as soon as possible’”
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I was on a family vacation with D1’s family recently. We had 2 car seats in the back, D1 sat in the middle and I sat in the front. GD1 has a bad case of car sickness. She throws up whenever she is in a car. They have plastic bags with them at all times. She doesn’t get sick on a plane or boat, just in a car. GD2 is easy peezy in her car seat.
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Or “I smell sex and candy” at 6! D was 9 & told me that her brother should not be singing that. Flash forward & her kid was belting out “H-o-T-T-o-g-o” at 4!
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D2’s favorite song at 5 was Dixie chicks “Earl must die.” She wanted to sing it at her school talent show. D1 said, “No.”
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I had an 8 CD player in my trunk for many years - so I played a lot of classical music when driving DDs around. Also, a single CD player on the dash for select listening. DD1 has the classical station tuned in with her kids and they enjoy listening to it. Obviously, as the kids get older, they will be like DDs and hear all kinds of music and lyrics.
DD1 does lose her filters sometimes and the kids hear inappropriate words out of her mouth. I was there and witnessed such - GS2 at age 3, when the over-rambunctious kids came in from outdoors, he said “shut the F*** up!”. I knew he was just repeating what he has heard his mom say - and I have heard it out of her mouth as well. Later, I mentioned to DD1 and SIL my concern about where GS2 is hearing these words (I already knew it was from DD1, but one has to bring these things up innocently) - and she admitted she needs to do better with her words.
H-O-T-T-O-G-O was GD’s favorite song last summer. She was two.
She will sing anything after hearing it 2 or 3 times.
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My GD sings constantly. She loves making up songs. She moves on from the pop songs quickly, so she doesn’t sing cringey songs for long, fortunately (although she would if we told her not to sing them!).
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We have one tonie for 3 kids. The twins are the primary users (since they had it first). They share pretty well and seldom fight over it. We even have 2 sets of earphones with a signal splitter jack so they both can listen at the same time without annoying everyone else (like on car trips).
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