Why Do You Do It?

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volunteer with parentAs a tag onto Darren’s post the other day about CPS burnout, why do you do CPS?  What brought you into the field?

It’s a question I get fairly often at checkup events from parents: what made you decide to do this?  They find out that I’m not a police officer, I’m not a firefighter; nope, not EMS either.  Just a mom, who, for some crazy reason, decided to learn how to install carseats.  So why did I decide to take a 40 hour class on just carseats and seat belts and crash dynamics?

It was simple.  I was frustrated.  When my 5 mo. old ds needed to switch from his infant seat to a convertible, my dh and I wanted the “best” carseat for him.  But which model was best?  I researched as best I could back in 2000.  The internet wasn’t quite as developed as it is now and there wasn’t much information on carseats on it back then.  I read Consumer Reports (!), but their recommendations were a year old and I wanted something more current (Whew!  At that time, their recommended carseat was convertible with a 22 lbs. rear-facing weight limit that my ds had already outgrown and an over the top of the shell rf belt path!).  I think the Baby Bargains book was the only resource I remember being around.  I managed to find *the* premiere carseat bb online at the time, ParentsPlace, and the wonderful moms there steered me to the Britax Roundabout I still have sitting in my ds’s closet.  It’s long since expired and served 2 children wonderfully, but really, who can bear to part with their first-loved carseat? 

Because I’m . . . anal . . . about researching and sharing information, I created my first web page to share my newfound knowledge with my ds’s birth board and the rest is history.  That simple web page of “Did You Know . . .” morphed into www.CarSeatSite.com.  My whole reasoning behind CarSeatSite.com is that carseat information shouldn’t be hard for parents to find.  Carseats shouldn’t be difficult for parents to use.

So, what’s your story?  How did you decide to get involved?

10 Comments

  1. Jools November 18, 2009
  2. Heather (murphydog77) November 14, 2009
  3. Cowgirlsmommy November 13, 2009
  4. lg's gma November 13, 2009
  5. ThreeBeans November 13, 2009
  6. Heather (murphydog77) November 12, 2009
  7. Rachel November 12, 2009
  8. QuassEE November 12, 2009
  9. ketchupqueen November 12, 2009
  10. crunchy November 12, 2009