To the Internet: Chill
January 26th, 2005I know the New Year’s resolutions aren’t working out and we all spent too much on the holidays. So what’s the obsession with my baby girl and how she sits in her carseat? There’s a lot of other things going on in the world today, so Internet, what gives?
Leta is nearly a year old. She’s tall for her age and will not fit comfortably in ANY publicly available carset that faces the rear of the vehicle. We decided that because of her height AND weight, it’s fine for her to ride facing forward. She’s not near an airbag, and our vehicle has the LATCH system, which is recommended by everybody.
Every time we buckle her in, I check the LATCH belts and she is always secured at three points (two bottom, one tether on the top). The straps are taut. She’s buckled in as recommended and her safety is important to us. Most of the time, anyway. When we’re not doing stuff like this:
(sometimes I sign autographs “Joe”)
We had a pretty crazy scene here yesterday. I was driving out west of town with Leta facing forward in her carseat and the cops got involved:
I think they saw Leta facing forward in her carseat because they were driving like crazy:
But when the dust settled the cops just said that I looked kind of like the guy on the left:
Who, as luck would have it, has a sweet bobble head doll of his likeness on sale now.
Moral of the story: Car jumps with flames are sweet. o
January 28th, 2005 at 4:58 pm
This site is pure evil with all of its puppetry. I hope you choke on one of your cackles tonight.
January 28th, 2005 at 5:33 pm
I read Lucky’s post and I gotta say, MY sister -as long as we are discussing adults and airing laundry for absolutely no good reason- seemed like the most brilliant child on earth and now she’s an adult and utterly unhappy, apparenly she feels it is her god-given right to give unwanted advice and is now rejected from all social circles. So watch out for that one!
January 28th, 2005 at 5:59 pm
What’s Cooter got to say about all this?
January 28th, 2005 at 8:36 pm
I think it’s a shame that Lucky’s family spent all their money putting her in “special schools” to help her “learn good social skills” when it seems evident Lucky could have used the same help. Opinions that are not solicited are not usually welcome. Venting about one’s life is not the same as seeking an opinion. Best piece of advice I ever got about child-rearing came from the lady at the Hickory Farms kiosk at the mall “Trust your gut”. Amazing thing is, I have 3 kids (13, 6 & 4) and they’ve all lived past the age of one & survived forward facing carseats without the benefit of Lucky’s expertise. I think I may have met Lucky though when I was pregnant; she was the one who, in my 9th month, shared stories about stillbirths & emergency c-sections with umbilical cords around the neck. Thanks for sharing. Anyway, thanks for the beautiful picture of the beautiful child, clearly taken by folks who love her.
January 28th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
JANET!
I too got a dose of great advice from a Hickory Farms shop at PV mall in Scottsdale AZ back in the mid 80’s.
“well you little shit! you’re not supposed to touch all this food and put it back when you got yourself pink eye!”
i think i was 14.
January 28th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
I didn’t even notice anything about the carseat. But I don’t have kids. I just have dogs. And I just bungee them to the roof.
January 28th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
Can only - say great post - loved the Dukes of Hazzard’s reference. And I never even noticed the car seat thing - some people are just so nitpicky and have wayyyyyy too much time on their hands.
January 29th, 2005 at 6:31 am
DAMMIT. I have been trying to get in the New York Times for YEARS now, and Leta BEAT ME TO IT. She doesnt even have all her TEETH YET.
I feel so ashamed.
January 29th, 2005 at 8:01 am
Regarding Lucky’s post (and what an inappropriate name for such a doom-and-gloom type personality!) … I am an RN who has worked in a private pediatric office the past 5 years. However, I do not feel that qualifies me to diagnose children who I have only seen glimpses of that their parents so generously share with us via a blog. And it is not helpful to share worst-case scenarios of an unrelated person. Yes, it is true that the party line is rear-facing in the car seat until at least 20 pounds AND 1 year of age. Because it is not simply size but also development of head/neck control and strength. So this is what I educate my parents with. BUT given that, anyone who works with children knows there is a HUGE range of normal growth and development. Some 1 year olds are only 16 pounds, may have been premature, may have other issues. Some 1 year olds are 28 pounds and running marathons. Some babies walk at 9 months. Some not until 15 months. All of these things are normal. Despite my position of not making statements based on a small amount of information learned long-distance on a blog… it seems obvious to me that Jon and Heather love, care for, and want only the best for Leta. It seems obvious that they have the resources - intellectual, emotional, financial - to provide the best for her. Unfortunately that is not true of all parents for various reasons. It seems obvious that Leta is a happy, loved, well-adjusted baby who is developing beautifully. So let’s give Jon & Heather our love and support for so generously sharing their lives with us and making our days by doing so. Let’s not give them grief!
January 29th, 2005 at 8:24 am
oh my god, jon, you’re the best.
January 29th, 2005 at 8:28 am
oh yeah.
Lucky, you’re a bitch.
CAN IT!
January 29th, 2005 at 8:55 am
The Britax Marathon is commercially available, and unless your one year old is several inches taller than my three year old, it has plenty of room rear facing for a very long time.
But hey - risk your own child’s life in a wreck if you please. Me, I’m too paranoid to do that.
January 29th, 2005 at 9:49 am
I’m just curious if anyone has ever left unsolicited advice in the “comments” section and attached a real, functional e-mail address.
January 29th, 2005 at 10:09 am
Wow, if I ever have children, remind me not to keep up my blog. I mean, how the hell are you supposed to walk into parenthood being completely and utterly above criticism? Eek. Once upon a time we didn’t even know much more than to PUT a kid in a carseat and yet most kids were pretty much okay.
Oh, and if you don’t have a blog, don’t ever criticize someone who does for being overly sensitive. Most of the time my readers are local and long lost buds who just like to read about my latest happenings. No one should have to be subjected to public abuse just for writing about their life.
I agree that the internet needs to CHILL. It’s sad that people out there have so much spare time on their hands that they think they have all the facts and statistics about your day to day life just because they read random anecdotes & snippets of your life in a blog. Anyway, in all of this I heartily admire the grace with which you handle such morons. Today’s entry had me laughing heartily, especially the first photo with the arrow indicating where Leta was.
January 29th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
what’s the point of comments if you don’t want people to voice an opinion? I think you both are tremendous people, and I spend WAY too much time following your lives, but look how many people have left comments on this thread alone! As of this post about 90. If you think you’re not going to get a few negative posts, well I think you’ve got too much faith in humanity. And yes, the in-tanet gives a voice to many opinionated fuckers…
When I was a kid, nobody used car seats, or seat-belts for that matter- Amazingly, I’m alive to this day…
January 29th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
Jon & Heather, I love you two and think you’re wonderful parents. I’ve cringed every time I’ve read that someone has emailed you with a laundry list of what you’re doing “wrong” with Leta. You are obviously completely in love with your little girl and on top of her every need. That said, she really should be rear-facing still. The statistics don’t lie on this one and they are staggering. Regardless of a child being “big” for her age. Actually, “those in the know” recommend rear-facing for much longer than 12 months but the carseat industry has people ready to hop into that next seat ($$$ for them) as soon as possible. Ignore them. Get a Britax Marathon (available everywhere) and not only will it be the safest seat you can buy for her, but she will be able to stay rear-facing for quite some time yet.
January 29th, 2005 at 6:03 pm
my kid is 6 months, 21 pounds and is facing forward on the passenger side of the backseat.
may i burn in hell.
January 29th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
Um. I don’t feel so good about a product that keeps getting mentioned that was recently recalled:
http://tinyurl.com/582pt
January 29th, 2005 at 8:53 pm
I really wouldn’t bother with the haters. Seriously, there will always be those who want to rain on someone elses parade. Fuck’em. They are low-life attention seekers and nothing more, but this is a damn funny post! =]
January 29th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
JOE!
I saw the Dukes of Hazzard in concert once. Tom Wopat & John Schneider. They sang the Dukes theme song. It was way postmodern.
Rock on, Jon. This post rocked.
January 29th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
Well … at the risk of having my head bitten off … I don’t think it’s a big deal that Leta’s facing forward. And although you and Heather didn’t ask … I guess I must say that I didn’t notice from the picture, but if the Xterra allows for the seat to be in the middle, I’d put it there. She’s not going to fly through the window if there’s an accident (WAY too strapped in), but most accidents are side-impact, and even a relatively low-speed impact would crush the door in several feet. While she is encased in a nice safety seat, I still think that’s a little dangerous. And … we went to get a seat check-up before our kid was born last year, and they made it clear the seat should ALWAYS be in the middle. Yeah, I know, who is “they”? Fuck if I remember. It was some outfit associated with the police department.
Just because someone is offering unsolicited advice, don’t throw it out, yo. You might be missing out on something valuable, just because you were pissed and bitter at their (my?) crappy tone.
BTW I think you guys seem like incredibly awesome parents. Leta is adorable, and I love to read your blogs. I’m not trying to criticize.
January 30th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
Really, try not to take some of this advice as critism. It’s NOT. There is no way anyone can know everything about any topic, let alone parenting and parents passing along bits of advice and cautions is the way its always been done. How else do people find out things like which baby carrier totally rocks and which only makes your back feel like you SLEPT on rocks?
Of course, as you don’t actually KNOW any of us I can see why it would be difficult… But the Britax Marathon really IS known as “the best seat out there” - recall or no. The recall applies to only certain dates of manufacture and is a simple fix at that. We have 2 Marathons for our 2 kids and can’t speak highly enough about them.
Rock on, Armstrong family.
January 30th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
i’m a longtime fan….and i felt compelled to post. you two are the kickass-ing-est, rocking-est people/parents/interwebbers. EVER. my 16 month old daughter was in a forward facing carseat at 10 months because she’s a MONSTROUS giant child. at that age, she was wearing size two everything, and weighed 27 pounds. now that she’s six months older & two sizes bigger, i have her in one helluva special EJECTION carseat that will just fling her out thru’ the roof if we should ever get in a smash. till then, let’s keep our fingers crossed that she doesn’t figure out what that big red EJECT button does. whew.
you guys are the best. happy early birthday, Leta.
January 30th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
Thus spake “whatever”:n”But hey - risk your own child’s life in a wreck if you please. Me, I’m too paranoid to do that.”
No, you’re too well paid by the company you shill for to listen to your sense of decency. I know viral marketing is all the rage– but insulting another person in the process is just unconscionable.
January 31st, 2005 at 6:30 am
Thank you for this post! I love your sarcasm!
When I saw your pictures of Leta in the carseat, my first thought was “Ooooh, nice car seat. What brand is it?”. You and Heather should be paid for product placement.
Take care, and keep up the posts. I really enjoy them.