Anyone else's dc unclip their seatbelt in a moving car?

[Mummydaydreams]

My dd age 3 undid her seatbelt when we were on the dual carriageway at the weekend. She's forward facing and in a car seat with the seatbelt on as recommended for her weight. Luckily dh was driving and I could quickly clip her in again. Not ideal to say the least. She's messed around with the strap before but never when we going quite so fast. Is there any gadget that they can't work to escape?

I've had several conversations with her since she's turned forward facing about how only grown ups are allowed to touch the clip and it's very very important to not move the straps etc as the seat belt keeps her safe. Dd always nods wisely and says "I won't touch it Mummy" and then when I said "you must NEVER do that, that is DANGEROUS" just after clipping her back in this time as we were still moving and I was having to take my seat belt off to lean into the back to sort it she said sorry and looked a bit upset/ baffled about the whims of grown ups. Apparently her leggings were itchy and she just wanted to take them off.

Anyone else's dc scared you like this? Felt like my heart stopped when I saw her unclipped as I had images of what could have happened etc.

Yes! So following this for ideas. I just had to stop and pull in as she unplugged the actual seat belt holding the seat in place. She has speech delay and doesn't quite understand if I explain its to keep her safe etc. Although she does know it's something she shouldn't do

One child did it once, aged about 3. I pulled over on the hard shoulder to clip them back in. I pulled off at the next junction, took them out on the side of the road and gave them such a bollocking that they never did it again.

You can get seats with alarms. Or a buckle-upp which wraps around the clip, but that wouldn’t stop a determined 3yo.

The recommendation for booster seats is slowly changing to age 4 because 3 year olds are often too immature to cope with the responsibility of them. You can get harnessed seats up to 25kg, if you have a top tether point in your car. Otherwise if she's under 18kg you might be able to put her back into a normal 123 seat like Britax Evolva.

But that said - DS1 was in a booster at 3, we got around this by explaining that he could undo the seatbelt, but ONLY when we said the magic word, and he would be soooo grown up and clever if he did this. I think we also threatened the loss of some treat if he did it too early. It worked for him. Good luck!

My older dd never tried this shit not once but my 2yo has just started trying. She hasnt been able to get it old but I've told her that the car will not work if she takes it off. It has stopped her so far, but if she does manage to get if off I'll pull over and say I can't go again until its clipped in