Car seats, am I being too precious?

[SimonJT]

My son is four, he rarely goes in a car seat as we live in London so we use the tube/walk most of the time. When I do drive he is in his car seat in the rear of the car, he is forward facing as his head has started to go over the top of his extended rear facer. He has been forward facing for about three months.

Half term ends today where we are, I have just noticed an email on school comms for a trip on Thursday, it’s free, looking on google maps it’s a 40 minute journey that includes the M25 on a minibus. This means they will be wearing seatbelts, but they will not be in appropriate car seats on a motorway. I know from previous meetings parents cannot drop off their own booster seats to be used.

I absolutely cannot have Thursday off work so I can’t deliver him to/from the school trip.

Am I being unreasonable/too mean of a Dad to say he cannot go on the trip as he won’t be in an adequate car seat?

@JacquesHammer I was reading this:
I wonder this too. Our children’s school own two mini buses that they use for trips. I have seen car seats been put into these but sometimes if not all children can get on the minibus teachers will drive the children with NO car seats.
...to mean teachers were taking children who won’t fit on the bus in their own car with no car seat. Perhaps I misunderstood and the OP just means they get on the bus with no seats (do car seats take up more than one seat then? Don’t understand how this would allow more children on?)

It does seem a bit precious tbh - obviously living in London it might not be as much of an issue as many school trips can be organised using public transport but in most other parts of the country primary age children who would be in car seats in their parents car would go on a coach for an educational trip. I can’t imagine many parents (I’ve never heard of any) who would make their child miss out because they weren’t in a car seat on a coach/minibus.

Sorry for taking a while to get back to you, hectic week at work and at home.

School forgot to have the keys available to look at the minibus on Tuesday so I had to go back and have a look at drop off on Wednesday.

The seat belts did have those little sliding ‘clips’ but some of the belts were completely twisted through it on some, so on those they didn’t move down at all.

I said he could go if they were willing to promise he would not be sat on one of those seats, they wouldn’t commit to that so I decided he wouldn’t be going. Thankfully the trip was cancelled due to flooding at the site they were visiting so no children ended up travelling with an unsafe seatbelt.

They did say they regularly having reception parents making the same query regarding car seats etc. So I don’t understand why they don’t publish what they do, it would save time in the long run.

Are you at a local school? If so send a letter to the governors saying you are concerned about this practice. I would at least want to provide a booster cushion for my child - which requires no special fitting. And explain you checked the bus and the safety feature wasn't working in all seats. -- hopefully they will at least get the seatbelts fixed.

I appreciate the seatbelt clips weren't working on this bus, which needs to be fixed as a matter of absolute priority, but the clips are designed to replicate what a booster seat does - make the seatbelt safe for the children. Why they don't just sell these and make them compulsory instead of changing the guidelines and seat requirements every five minutes is beyond me. Surely an adjustable clip on the seatbelt is much better than a one-size-fits-all booster cushion.