When I became a mom 5 years ago I really didn’t know all that much. Obviously I knew I had to keep my kids safe in a car seat, but I had no idea what car seat safety was. As I learned more and researched more, I found the Car Seat Lady. She’s a pediatrician but also a CPST (Child Passenger Safety Technician). There were so many things I didn’t know. I didn’t know about jackets in-car seats, or the importance of tethering or that you can’t use the seat belt and latch at the same time.

In an effort to keep my kids safe since we do so much driving and many road trips, I became obsessed with keeping them safe. Some friends and family even called me car seat nazi. I took classes online and currently trying to get my CPST certification because I think safety is so important and is not really that hard to take an extra 5 minutes to make sure your child is secured properly in the seat. This weekend something happened that I feel validated my obsession with car seat safety.

Saturday morning around 3am, we were driving back from Virginia. My husband was in his car in front of me and I was in my car with the 3 kids. We decided to stop at the last rest stop before taking the exit to the Verrazano bridge. We were literally 45 minutes away from home and all I remember was crash. I don’t know how or what happened. All I know is I hit the curb and the car started shaking.

I got out of the car and looked around. I saw my front tire was gone but the car seemed to be fine. My first instinct was to call my husband who was ahead of me already at the stop. The car behind me stopped and asked me if I was ok, at this point I was crying and shaking. In all the shock, I didn’t even check on the kids, who were all sleeping. My oldest woke up when I started to drive the car into the stop and it was all shaky. He said “mami is a bad driver”. It killed me. Thank God it was at the stop already. When I got to the stop I got out of the car and hugged my husband and looked at the car. I don’t know what I hit but it was bad. The front piece and the back wheel was bend and the tire shot.

My husband asked if the kids were ok. It hit me that I hadn’t even checked on them. The little 2 were sound asleep. I didn’t wake them up. They were able to fix the car enough for me to get home. We got home at 6:30 am, the kids woke up when I took them out of their seats.

So why did I thank Diono and The Car Seat Lady? Well because I made sure my kids were secured the best way possible. The forward facing kids were tethered and secured with a seat belt instead of latch, since their combined weight (kid + seat exceeds the LATCH limit). Grace was rear facing. All their straps were snug and chest clips in the right place.

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This is my first accident with my kids. My second accident ever since I’ve been driving. It was in the blink of an eye, and so close to home. It only takes 5 more minutes to make sure your kids are secured. Now you better believe I will be even more diligent making sure everything is in its right place.

We are all good thanks to God and seat belts and car seats, the car on the other hand is not doing great, but that can be fixed! And sorry there are no pics. I have to draw the line somewhere and taking pictures was not something I was thinking about! But this pic is of my kids strapped in!