To still be using a car seat for my daughter?

[TheHuntingOfTheSarky]

DD1 is 9.5 and 139cm. If I'm not reading it wrong, under UK law she is no longer obliged to use a booster seat in the car as she's over 135cm.. However, all Eurooean countries and also UK safety experts suggest she should be using one until she's 150cm tall.

135cm seems really low to me so when I discovered that all these other places are still saying 150cm we decided we would continue to use ours until she's this tall.

However, asking around some friends it seems like we are in the minority for doing this. In fact a few people said I was being overly protective and that as long as she's tall enough for UK law we are being unreasonable to "make" her keep using her seat. I was a bit as the implication seemed to be that I was being an uncool mum and she'll be the only one in the year still treated like a baby etc etc.

DD still has to use her high-back seat on journeys involving the motorway or fast roads, but we do have a backless one for shorter journeys as it makes her feel a bit more grown-up and she says it's more comfortable.

I think my friends are crazy and I'd rather be uncool than unsafe but they think it's the other way round and I'm fussing too much. AIBU or are they?

Yanbu. I kept DS rear facing as long as I could, and had comments made about that but didn't care. He's very tall for his age so had to have him front facing sooner than I would have liked. I imagine when he's older I'll want him to use a booster seat until he's 150cm.

You can't be ruled by the silly decisions other people make.

My DD is 6yo and 118cm and almost all her classmates ride without a car seat. I have given a lift to most of them and they have all complained that they are not babies and do not need a car seat...tough luck, in my car everyone under 150cm gets a car seat whether they like it or not.

DS9 is still on one simply because in my car the seatbelt would be too high on him. In smaller cars he's fine.

I think if she's still happy in the car seat and you want her to stay in for a bit longer, just carry on. It's not going to be doing her any harm. If she starts complaining that she doesn't need to be in it, that none of her friends are etc reassess at that time.

The 150cm guidance does make me smile a bit though because that's my height (if I make the effort to stand really straight and tall!!)