I have to start writing this post by telling you that when I went online to do some research and include some photos to demonstrate my point, I found the video that explains the versa tether installation. Which, I suppose, makes this story even funnier.
As you know, Jon and I are what one would call “adults.” We have adult jobs, own an adult home, and are even adult parents to a little baby. One would think that we wouldn’t have gotten where we are without some intelligence and experience. Apparently, this does not apply to installing a car seat.
When I was pregnant with Peanut, Jon and I decided that we didn’t want to take any chances with installing a car seat and called our local police department to find out when they could install it for us. Turns out that the local police department dedicates two days a week when parents can come in to get help with installing a car seat. Technically we went there to learn, but after the nice police officer installed the car seat base for our infant car seat into both cars, we pretty much relaxed and forgot all about it.
This weekend Jon and I were taking a trip out for breakfast when we realized that Peanut was getting too big for her car seat. When we tried to buckle her in, we pretty much had to bend her hand all the way back to slide the seat belt on. Thankfully, we had the beautiful brand new Britax Boulevard carseat waiting for us at home (thanks to Jon’s mom and sister!). While Peanut was taking her afternoon nap, I vacuumed my car and Jon pulled out the new car seat which we honestly thought we could install.
Let me spoil the surprise for you – we couldn’t.
After looking through the car seat manual and my car manual Jon and I spent an hour connecting, disconnecting, reclining, pulling and pushing on the seat. We successfully figured out how to connect the two latches at the bottom of the car seat (but only after Jon almost broke my finger) and then we met our match with the top tether.
A little background for you – the LATCH system is using two anchor hooks at the bottom and a tether at the top (LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children). The anchors were no big deal (and we even figured out how to put them in with a rear facing seat in the middle…yeah, be amazed), but the tether is a whole other story.
(picture via the Britax Boulevard manual)
Jon and I spent the hour looking for the tether hook via the car, the manuals, and anything else we could think of (apparently minus the internet…duh). I even called my bff to ask her what they set up since I know they have the same car seat as us. We figured out that we could tether the seat to the ceiling (like in image B) but that not only looked ridiculous, but tricky to put an almost-toddler into. Needless to say, we gave up and left the seat as is. Jon took Peanut in the old car seat in his car while I waiting for Monday morning to call the local police station.
I scheduled time to come in on Wednesday to check out our car seat and while writing this, found this seriously super simple video for installing the tether using the bottom anchor.
So, how many college-graduates-full-time-working-professionals-with-full-brain-functionality does it take to install a car seat? Apparently more than two.
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