What do you do re car seats if you have two cars?

[Sparksi]

We’re researching all sorts including car seat safety.

We have two cars, both insured on the other but pretty much exclusively drive ‘our own’. I will be off work for a year on maternity leave and baby will (mostly) be with me in that time I’d imagine. However, we’d use DH’s car for days out and longer trips as it is bigger.

I just don’t know whether we need two car seats or if that is a waste of money? I imagine when we get to the stage of outgrowing the infant car seat and moving into a bigger ERF seat, we will need two for convenience - I might drop off at the childminders before work and DH might pick baby up, for example.

How do you make it work? We think it’s really important to invest in the safest/best seat we can find but not sure whether it’s necessary to buy two of them. I can imagine it’s a pain and cumbersome to constantly be switching one seat between two cars and sometimes not practical as above

Grateful for any tips!

You can normally buy an extra isofix base for infant car seats and click the seat bit in and out. I think some brands use the same isofix base for the next stage seat (not 100%) on that though.

We moved the one seat because we never needed a second for separate drop offs and pick ups, easy enough to move them with the Isofix or with them belted in only takes a few minutes. Once they were past the first two stages of seats it’s even easier to move the seats now, but if we had two cars unable to grab the seat from each other between pick ups we would have had to buy two separate ones, can’t see a way around that if paths don’t cross, unless childminder etc is happy to store the seat during the day but then you’ve to fit it every time with a tired baby/toddler being collected.

We just got two.

Even with the isofix bases it’s borderline impossible to just whip them in and out, and second stage seats are HEAVY.

Came in handy when we got divorced too 😏

We had one in each car. As you say, one might be dropping off and the other picking up - that's what we did for all our childminder/nursery years so needed two.

As above, in the infant stage we had one car seat but a base in each car. Once past that stage we have a seat in each car (plus one each for grandparents too)..

Went straight for 2 car seats but the ones that do birth to 4yrs (ish). Never bothered with the ones that you could take in an out as newborns aren't meant to be in them for too long anyway (most of our trips were at least 25 mins one way - but I can see the appeal of being able to leave a baby sleeping in them if you're doing quick trips/errands, which may be your thinking?).

Similar thread which might be useful:
Are we meant to have 4 car seats for 2 children http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/carseatss_chat/5010493-are-we-meant-to-have-4-car-seats-for-2-children

We only had one and just moved it between cars as couldn’t justify the cost of two and didn’t want to buy cheaply. It’s a slight pain but not the end of the world

Thank you. I was under the impression that the seats you leave in the car don’t give a good fit for a newborn until a baby is 4+ months ish, so you need an infant car seat at first? Happy to be corrected this is just what I read on a group.

One car became the family car

whoever had DC that day drove that

Getting two even with bases is easier

We switched them between the cars. They were mostly in mine apart from longer trips when we used DH's car as its bigger and more comfortable. (I find driving a smaller car easier for parking personally).

The very first baby carrier car seat was easy to move between cars, so when I was on maternity leave this is what we did. But once I went back to work we had two seats. Also bought a third for in grandparents car because they were providing some childcare.

Oh well I won't correct you because the answer is I didn't know that! My LO seemed nice and secure with the inserts and seat fully reclined etc - but that's not to say I chose the best option.

We just had one - but although we have 2 cars there’s only really one of them it makes sense to have DD in (it happened to be DH’s if everyone had their own) so whoever was driving DD would take that car.

We never really had a situation where one person drops at childminder in one car and the other collects in another, so it wasn’t necessary to have two really. And the nursery she’s at now (and hopefully school she’ll go to) are walking distance so no car needed. If you think you might have to do this though, even just occasionally, you’d probably need two.

For the infant seat we had one seat but two bases, one in each car.

For the bigger seats we bought two of each, one for each car.

They are heavy and time consuming to move, guaranteed at some point you'll forget and drive away with the car seats when dh needs them or vice versa. You will also do this with your pram at some point too, leave it on the boot of the car and drive somewhere far away when the other parent needs it.

For the first 15 months or so we had 2 bases and one car seat (maxi cosi cabriofix), this was totally manageable to easily change between cars. Now we have been using the graco spin car seat for about a year and just have the one, I use it during the week as DP works away but we switch it over to his car at the weekends, it takes no time at all and is no hassle, you really don't need 2.

As many people have said - when baby is in the infant carrier, it's easy to just have one seat. As soon as she went into the next stage seat, though, we had two. I know this isn't what you asked, but when researching the seat after the infant carrier, see if you can get one that goes right from age 1 (or whenever they grow out of the infant carrier) right up to 25kg (or more - think some might be 36kg!). We didn't know about ERF when our baby grew out of the infant carrier, so ended up getting a seat that lasted us til 18kg but still wanted to rear face before moving to a high-backed booster so ended up having to buy a further ERF seat.

We've just moved from an infant carrier to the next stage up- it is absolutely massive and attached to the base so we will have to buy another for the other car as it won't move easily between the two. The one we've gone for (Joie ispin safe) is suitable from birth to 4 years so depending on whether you'd prefer a carrier that attaches to a pram base or not, it might be an option for you to just go straight for two 0-4 car seats and save some money. Personally the convenience of one I could attach to the pram when baby was tiny and had fallen asleep in the car outweighed the cost saving of going straight for the bigger seats.