Why are people trying to talk me out of extended rear facing?

[dejagerw]

I really don't understand why people care that I'm still rear facing my 25 month old.  My dad the other day was trying to convince me to turn around my son.  Just because my dad didn't use a car seat and turned out okay does not make me feel its okay to turn my son ff.  "see, there's a car with 3 car seats forward facing"  he says.  My husband has also jumped on board with wanted to turn our son too.  I just don't get it.  My son is perfectly content rear facing.  He's a great traveler.  I just don't understand people trying to convince me to turn my son around.

[babygirlie]

I don't know... me too! I just got a new carseat. Convertible rear facing professionally installed. I went to thanksgiving at the in laws and they noticed it right away and asked why in the heck wasn't it turned around!! I said it's a convertible so I can't turn it whenever and they looked relieved. It's weird. I don't get what's so bad about rear facing.

[ElaynesMom]

So many people I know have tried to talk me out of ERF (my 39 month old dd is still rf in all cars she rides in). I have encounted many reasons for this, including; worry over her legs breaking in a collision, worry of her not being comfortable without more leg room, thinking that I'm actually doing things 'wrong' because the person believes you HAVE to turn ff at 1 and 20,people thinking it's fine to turn ff because they are never going to get into an accident. Really, the list goes on. None of the reasons I've encountered have been valid, so now I just say, "I've done my research and decided this is what my family is going to do". and I don't discuss it further anymore. If you argue with people they think they have a chance of "winning", or changing your mind :)

[lifeguard]

Most people that made comments to me seemed to be worried I was judging them for not doing it - they just seemed to need to defend their own decisions (although I have never commented on someone else's decision).

I got a lot of worry over his comfort as well.

[Spring Lily]

Most people haven't been critical of it to me, but when they see the seats in my car they sometimes do start telling me all the reasons they turned their kids FFing.  I think it's part of that worry that your decisions are going to be judged or that you're not doing "as much" for your kids as another parent.

Word of warning:  keep the naysayers away from your kids!

My mom made comments so often about   DD "looking uncomfortable with her legs bent like that," that by 2yr 10mos DD started mimicking it and asking to FF.    Thanks, mom.  I had planned to wait till she hit the limit on her seat.  The funny thing is, you never hear "their legs look so uncomfortable, dangling like that" about FFing.

[elisheva]

I give naysayers the one piece of info that won me over: kids vertebrae will flex/stretch if they are thrown forward on impact. Their spinal cord won't stretch but will snap instead. My kid's head is in the 95th percentile.

They are usually quiet after that.