Crying Car Seat
We’ve all felt it… that instant anxiety that doesn’t even have the decency to creep up on you. You’re driving, someone else is driving…Hell somebody is driving and your baby begins to holler as if to warn you there’s a T-Rex chasing after us – Straight Jurassic Park style! (Shannon is rear facing).
You ask baby what’s wrong in a calm voice. You reach back to comfort with the touch of your hand. You jingle the toys hanging over on the carrier bar attached to the seat and nothing. The crying has not ceased. If anything the hollering and the voice raises up some decibels. And now baby is screaming in full-blown “death to the car seat” mode. It immediately translates to “how dare you try to appease me with nonsense!” And let’s not forget you already tried singing out loud and turning up the music. Yeah it didn’t work!
SooOoo
Your relaxed one hand on the wheel position becomes 10 & 3. Your grip gets tighter on the wheel. Next thing you know you begin to sweat and your heart beat picks up the pace… Here it comes; full-blown panic/anxiety attack.
What do you do? Do you pull over and proceed to sit on the street or in a shopping center parking lot to feed the baby, comfort the baby, take baby out of the car seat? Or if you are not driving and riding while on a road trip, do you take the baby out of the car seat and proceed to nurse and change diaper and ride that way till baby calms down? Or do you simply just continue driving to the destination and listen to the hollering because you believe the baby is simply “just acting out”.
What matters most? Safety first? Or Baby’s emotional needs first? If the baby is dry and fed do you continue just to pull over every time, extending the trip to simply entertain and calm?
What do you do?
Photo: Shannon is not riding in the car this way, she was fussing and I simply put her in & took this picture to relate to the article She was at Chuck E Cheese lol
