No new parent has an easy job of raising their child. There’s a seemingly endless amount of considerations you need to place to get your home life setup and adequately functional for your new baby to inhabit. This includes baby proofing absolutely everything you can think of. In fact, it’s likely that as a new parent, you’ll go overboard in this regard so you provide your child with the safest environment they can possibly inhabit. While fretting overly about this isn’t recommendable, and can actually have the opposite intended effect of looking after your child, there are some considerations you should place deep thought in.
Driving your child from the hospital, and around in the future is something you should prepare for. It will take a change in your standard driving habits and car equipment in order to best make your vehicle a habitable area for your child to be.
This list will help you assign the most responsibility to your new parenthood, and will allow you to rest easy in the knowledge that when on the road, your child is as safe as they possibly can be.
Correct Child Seats
If you have a child younger than 12, it’s important that you provide them with a booster seat. This varies from full protective baby seats to small raised platforms to ensure seat belt safety for older children. The actual law will vary dependent on what country you’re from, but regardless it’s important to make sure your child is as safe as possible while riding in the back of the car you’re driving.
Safe is secure, with new car booster seats that have little to now wear and tear, and are checked frequently while driving. If you have a convertible, you might look for a specialty seat, such as the ones explored by Parenting Pod parentingpod.com/best-safest-convertible-car-seats/. It’s important to ensure that your child has the best adequate protection at all times while within the vehicle.
Car Maintenance
It’s important for other drivers and yourself to make sure your vehicle is properly maintained and routinely passes its inspection tests. However, when carrying a child, you must be extra diligent in your assessment of how well the car is doing. This article from U.SNews details the best ways to ensure you help your child stay safe in your car, and includes maintenance tips: https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/four-keys-to-keeping-kids-safe-in-cars. Research online effectively to get the broadest knowledge here.
A small windscreen crack renders your car unable to drive until you get it fixed because the problem can be much worse. You might be tempted to complete a small trip to the shops if you’re the only one traveling, this would be wrong, but you might be tempted. It’s important to completely be aware of any little bad habits you have that could further compromise the safety of your child. It’s usually the habits that you don’t even know are bad habits that could catch you out here, so be sure to revise your understanding of the rules of the road and take extra care when driving from now on.
Safe Driving Habits
As emphasized before, you must conduct yourself on the road with a degree of care that you might not have thought about applying before. During this, you’ll realize why it’s so important for everyone to drive as safely as they can at all times. Just because you have a child in your car now doesn’t lessen the fact that you probably pass hundreds of other infants in vehicles on your travels daily. This widening perspective will make you a better driver, as long as you adhere to the message it’s teaching you religiously.
Take Less Busy Roads
Maybe taking the highway, unless required, is something you should avoid from now on. Take less busy roads to your destination, at least while you get more confidence driving your child around, to get to your chosen destinations in future with ease and calmness.
Minimise Distractions
It might be tempting to play nursery rhyme CD’s at high volume to settle your baby down when they’re unsettled, but this can impair your driving ability. Do everything you can to make sure your child is entertained (to the degree they can be) while in the car, but also place your driving aptitude as a high priority.
Help Your Child Feel Safe And Secure
Your baby is learning many new things per day, and the whole car experience can be relatively overwhelming. Ensure that they’re well supplied with blankets (weather dependent) and their favorite toy. Anything you can do to maintain their happiness and feeling of safety is paramount. This can also include planning trips and taking regular breaks. Be as wise as you can be.
These car tips, duly followed, will give you and your child the best safety on the road.
1 Comment
Loved reading this guide! I especially agree with you on the “minimize distractions” part. I still get baffled how many parents play their songs in high-volume when traveling with their toddlers. They’re putting all of their lives at risk for apparently a reason that doesn’t matter much. And I say this as a person who owns a car audio blog.
The volume, for children’s music or not, should always be at a level that doesn’t cause any sort of distraction to the driver. Thank you for this post! I’m going to share it with few people who need to read this ASAP.