What is a child passenger safety technician? And why do I constantly have to explain that mouthful to everyone I introduce myself to? Who created this crazy title? I’m extra special in that I even have the word “Instructor” after my long title, which means that I must teach people how to be this mysterious technician thingy. So what are we all technical about? Because we can get quite technical about such things as crash forces, why there are weight limits for carseats, injury and death statistics, vehicle safety features, biomechanics, and other fun things. Yes, fun things 🙂 . Do you know what a child passenger safety technician is? Did you know before you started Googling for information about carseats for your child?
A child passenger safety technician teaches parents how to use their carseat for their child. We teach the parent how to install the carseat in their vehicle and how to install their child (giggle) in the carseat. We’ll even help with the selection of the carseat for both the child and the vehicle because each and every time it will be a *custom* choice. What works for your sister or best friend may not work for you. Cars and babies are built differently and if the carseat doesn’t fit either perfectly, it can be a deadly combination.
So going back to this awful mouthful—child passenger safety technician—it’s on a lot of stuff that I own. It’s
my profession, so I have business cards and clothing with the wording. My SUV has a sticker on the back window proclaiming that I am a CPST. It’s my third car with the same sticker; I guess at one point I thought someone might ask me about it, but no one has. I think for my next car I’ll leave the back glass pristine. It’s not as if it gets me into a crime scene or anything.
And you’d think that a certification, an actual certification that requires several days in class with several tests along the way (ask those who drop out of the class if they think it’s a piece of cake), would garner some respect. But it all goes back to the fact that no one knows what a child passenger safety technician is. Maybe we should be called Carseat Techs or Carseat Educators (but never Carseat Installers). I suppose that we’re likely not going to get much respect because the majority of us in the field are women and child safety issues aren’t sexy. Well tough, because this child passenger safety technician will continue to educate on safety issues, but I may introduce myself simply as the “carseat tech you have an appointment with.” It’s easier that way.
Where can I take a class to become one? I see so many parents not doing it right around me and I wanna help!! Our local police department even STOPPED doing carseat installings and promoting it in general. There’s no one around her to help parents.
Lots of typos… My apologies 🙂
Katie, you can look for a class near you by going here: http://goo.gl/VzW2KI . Some classes are controlled classes, which means you’ll have to contact the lead instructor to see if they’ll allow you to take the class because it’s closed to the public.
There may be resources in your area to help and you might not know about them. I’m the president of my local Safe Kids coalition (have been for a few years) and only just found out that there’s been another group running events in my city. Since I’ve been very active in my community, it was a shock to find that out! Most of us just don’t have an advertising budget.
Since everyone thinks firefighters are all carseat installers, does that also make us firefighters? Maybe I should try just saying THAT…Hey, I’m a fireman, I can check your seat! Might get me more attention at BRU than telling people I’m a ‘carseat technician’, which is usually all I can spit out in a ‘find me if you need help’ 2 seconds of introduction. Not that I’m allowed to check seats there… so we have a profession no one recognizes, and a job we can rarely legally do. Talk about an altruistic bunch 😉
Yeah, I’m not sure where our support lies with SK. There’s support within the technician group of SK, but I don’t feel it from SK as a whole. But it is a grassroots organization and there’s little money to be had for grassroots orgs–if we had MONEY behind us as a profession, people would know who we are.
I just say what I do, not what I am. “Hi, I teach classes on car seat selection and use/ Hi, I do car seat checks with , would you like some help?” Usually this is to someone standing there looking shell shocked at the rows of seats in Target or Babies R Us, but it works for friends and family too.
Maybe we need a branding campaign. My husband is an Enrolled Agent. For several years he would introduce himself as one and people would give him blank looks. Then the national professional association for EAs (NAEA) started a big branding campaign, taking out ads, promoting EAs as “America’s Tax Experts” (which they are.) They got companies (like H&R Block) to make a big deal out of having EAs on staff and what that means for clients. And it worked! He rarely has to explain to people looking for a tax accountant what an Enrolled Agent is anymore. Companies post ads specifically looking to hire EAs. People search for one online.
I think it could work for us too… If we had a professional association. I don’t know that Safe Kids has the same kind of goals for that, being a non profit. Hmmm.