3yo mostly rear facing but front facing in second car?

[forwardbackward]

Being at an age of tantrums and car seat resistance...has anyone tried letting a 3yo front face occasionally (second car), while still rear facing for most journeys (main car)?

Our currrent 18kg rear facing seat in second car will soon be outgrown due to high centiles. I'd like to avoid shelling out for another 25kg rear facer just for occasional short slow journeys, but thinking it may be a false economy if it leads to toddler then taking against the rear facing seat in the main car!

Don't they say most accidents happen close to home so if you want them to rear face until older I would buy another seat.
You can get an Axkid move for £229 at the moment.
Britax SAFE-WAY M for £279
Lot's more options if you spend more.

Some points in toddler life I have used bribery with chocolate buttons to get into the car for a short while. They don't get the option to forward face and never will until much bigger!

When do they turn 4? If by the summer I would look at seats at will last until they are much older, look at the maximum height for belted in particular. Or just switch the seats if it's occasional until later this year. Only you know how tantrummy and how briberble your dc is

My nearly four year old travels differently in different cars. Always RF in our cars, 90% RF in childminders car (but is oldest, so sometimes gets bumped to FF to let the younger kids have the RF places), and always FF in my mums car (no very often).

He just accepts that he has to sit in the seat he is presented with, whichever way it is facing! No diacussion, no choices, this is the seat and we're leaving in a minute so get in!

I think this is only a problem in spin seats if they know it has the option to put it both ways or they have the choice e.g. sometimes using one seat, sometimes using another when a sibling is not in it.

If they know (or think) that Car A has a purely rear facing seat, and Car B has a forward facing seat, they generally don't question it.

It's just like if you put them in with a seatbelt in the car but no seatbelt on the bus, they don't then go "Well I don't need a seatbelt because I don't have one on the bus!" they just know that's the bus, and this is the car, there are different rules.

Is the other seat outgrown by weight or height BTW?

Thanks all, useful perspectives. I'm feeling more optimistic about getting a forward facer for car 2. It's only rarely used, eg when one of us needs to drop off to nursery then the other pick up, normally we do both in the main car.

DC is coming up 3 shortly, has 1.5kg left to grow to hit the 18kg weight limit on current car 2 seat, but is also getting increasingly adept at wriggling out of the straps of this seat but not the car1 seat so we might look to change the car2 seat sooner for something more secure.

OK, if 1.5kg off 18kg and not yet 3, then you'll need a 25kg limit seat regardless. For forward facing, that's Joie Bold or Joie Bold R - make sure you don't get the iBold or Bold R129 (those have a height restriction on the harness).

It needs to be R44 compliant as this is the older standard with no height restriction.

Cozy n Safe Hudson is the same - R44 compliant version is 25kg weight limit, but the new i-size version has the height restriction so is no use.

Thanks for the pointers. I was hoping to find something not by Joie as it's a Joie that DC is currently escaping, and also unpopping strap covers from. The other brand looks similar though.

Depending on DC height, Britax Evolvafix might be worth a look instead? The pads are much flatter on this one and don't unpopper in the same way. It has a harness limit of 22kg, but it is height limited to 105cm too, though they can physically fit for longer than this.

Thanks, you are clearly an expert in this and your help is much appreciated.