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I'm much more strict about it than anyone I know. Most parents I know turned their kid at 2 and I'm not even sure if the installation was correct. I get a lot of crap for my kid still being rear facing at almost 2.5 but I don't care.

I am more aware and strict than most people I know- though I feel like I'm middle of the road on here. Most people I know turned shortly before second birthdays and some turned right at one. My sister has jokingly called me the car seat police (she knows I'm kind of paranoid about it, and we were on FaceTime once as she buckled my nephew in and his strap got twisted and I told her to stop and fix it- she knew I was right but didn't feel like fixing it for a short drive).

My mom is happy to follow my advice about car seat stuff. My dad rolls his eyes and grumbles that "you kids were just fine" but he would never actually not do the car seat the way I say to.

I think Im in the middle/more strict. My son HATES the car seat and I have a feeling he will be much happier forward facing. That being said, I plan to wait until he is 2 and reassess how he is doing. Id like him to RF a bit longer but I'm willing to see how it goes. I have two friends who are planning to rear face until 2 and one who turned at 1. My sister turned pretty early (around 2) but I feel like she is strict about some stuff in regards to the carseat i.e. takes hers on the plane and buckles it in and is SUPER judgy about lap kids. I have a lot of friends in California and their rear facing law is about to change to 2 years old. I think it comes into affect in 2017.

We're more strict than most, I think. Or at least we try very hard to do everything "right." She's still rear facing at almost 3 and we bought a Clek specifically so she could rear face for a long time. I buy winter coats that are specifically recommended for car seats (i.e. non-bulky ones) and don't let her wear bulky things in the seat. I am relentless about checking in on my dad when he has her (he has a terrible tendency to "forget" to tighten the car seat straps). We get comments about how strict we are occasionally, but I am pretty good at either ignoring or shutting them down.

The ironic thing is that we live in the city, so we only drive one or twice per week on average. But I have a bit of a car phobia, and the drivers in our city can be really crazy, so I want LO as safe as I can make it.

We are more aware and more strict than most of our friends and family!

More strict than most I know, except one friend. Someone recently told me that RF past 1 is dangerous bc of breaking legs.... I replied with a smile," well, you can fix broken leg, but you can't fix broken spines and spinal cords." They just then muttered something about the research being conflicting... No, it's not.

Car seat safety is the mountain I will die on.
We have three rear facing and have no plans to change any of them any time soon.

We are the only ERF family at school and I'm the only one that takes off winter gear.
I never preach about it but it bugs me that I get perceived as judgy or uptight when I'm just following best practices.

We RF until two and don't put bulky coats on in the car. I'm a stickler for safety. I hope to RF longer with A, especially because we will have a bigger car. A friend of mine turned at one and I'm having a hard time not saying anything but I don't want to come off as judgy.

I RFed DD until 23 months and that was much longer than most parents I know. The law has since changed to 2 years and LO2 hasn't reached that age yet so I don't know how long we'll keep him RFing.

I am suprised that I know three friends that go out of their way to drive sports cars to keep babies up front.

@maddyz: yes, agreed...most people don't realize the LATCH weight limits, but I think that's one of those things that happens naturally when you begin replacing seats. I wouldn't expect a parent of a newborn to know that, but a parent of a preschooler likely bumped up against that information when researching seats.

I know maybe 2 people IRL that RF passed age 1. A friend switches her kids at 20ish pounds (so like 10 months) and put her 3 year old in a non harnessed booster when he was 38 pounds. I don't say anything and I'm quite certain she thinks I am insane for having my 2.25 year old rf still. We are very different parent-wise though, and it wouldn't be good if I brought it up.

Most people I know switch around 12ish months citing their kids legs are too long.

@Mrs. Sunshine: isn't that illegal???

@LulaBee: @Adira: not in every state. Here's the law for the state Mrs Sunshine and I live in. It wasn't easy to find.

"Children under age 8 and less than 57 inches must be secured in a child passenger safety seat system in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions."

Everything else is just a guideline. The DPS recommends following AAP guidelines for forward and rear facing, but it's not a law.

So if Mrs. Sunshine's friends baby hits the height or weight requirements for forward facing its not illegal. That would be a big baby though, wouldn't it?

@Mrs. Pickle: Oh wow, I didn't realize it wasn't a law everywhere!

To answer the original question all the parents I know seem to be on the same page for car seat safety: rear face until 2 and then flip the seat around. Some friends flipped right at 2 and others waited longer. I'll keep DD rear facing until 2 and see how she is. I'd like to wait until she's closer to 3 to turn her, but if she starts fussing in the car and distracting me while I'm driving I'll turn her around.

Just had this convo with a friend today. I feel like we are in the middle. I keep DD RF until just over 2 when I physically couldn't put her in anymore, I was 7 months pregnant and she wouldn't climb in. And DS is 16 months old and RF and I plan to keep him that way until 2. My friend doesn't agree with the safety facts and brings up the whole when we were kids blah blah and we were fine. Says it's all sales ploys basically. Just have to agree to disagree.

@maddyz: Ever since I saw this comment I've been meaning to check our manual for the latch weight limit and I finally did it today. Ours didn't say in the manual that the weight limit was any different, though. Did you get that info. from an outside recommendation or specifically for your car seat? I want to make sure I'm not missing something.

Looking at the manual was helpful because I realized our seat is only good for about five more pounds!

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Which seat do you have? I have a Graco and it only specifies that there can be no bracing and the space between seats has to accommodate a piece of paper moving freely in the space.

I am older as in I am the youngest of five kids and the only one of my siblings to have sat in a car seat and I believe the only reason was when my parents bought a new Rambler station wagon it came with a car seat that hooked over the back of the seat. LOL very safe. But car seats have come along way and it is important to use them correctly and some times parents and grandparent sitters and others just need little education. Sometimes knowing what you are supposed to do isn't as effective as knowing why you should be doing it.

Any parent who's ever bought a car seat has likely read in the instruction manual about the proper placement of the chest clip – which should be situated at armpit level – but countless injuries and deaths have still resulted from children not being correctly secured at the time of an accident.

That's where Mr. Bones comes in. In just two simple Facebook images, the skeleton – created by child passenger safety advocate Ashley Kulm – models the correct and incorrect ways to position the chest clip. What makes this visual so much more eye-opening than one with an actual child is that you can literally see what the chest clip is doing to the body.

In the event of an accident, if the clip was placed in the wrong position, shown on the left, Mr. Bones would likely have internal bleeding to his vital organs. In the correct position, shown on the right, his organs are protected from impact by his rib cage. Kulm also notes that the chest clip, when placed too high – at the shoulder level, for instance – can cause asphyxiation.

In Australia, I'm middle of the road. Changed to FF at 9 months. My American and Canadian friends basically think I'm a murderer.