The car seat requirement limits the extended family who can take kids off your hands for a few hours.
Aunts and uncles used to pop over and take us out for an afternoon at the zoo or to get ice cream. Nowadays I can't take my nieces and nephews out like that until they're practically teenagers because I don't have car seats.
It is really easy to move a car seat from the parent's car to your car. They aren't welded in or anything. After 4 years old they only need a booster seat, which is even easier.
It's only easy to do so if you're transferring them on an infant seat. It's a huge pain in the butt to move a convertible car seat. You'd have to uninstall and rei-install the isofix base each time. The most convenient thing you can do is to install those isofix bases in both cars, which is not going to happen.
You and I must have very different ideas of what pain in the butt is. I consider a 5-min install for a handoff a long time. With for non isofixed infant seats, you could replace a seat in less than 30 seconds. Regardless, I love my babies so no amount of time spent on them is too high a cost to bear.
In the Netherlands it is allowed for emergency transportation not to use a car seat but just the seat belt. Obviously this doesn’t work for baby carriers. This is the reason why the baby carrier is left with the child, eg at daycare, so that the child can always be transported safely.
You’re wrong. If you want to properly install the seat, it’s going to take at least 10 minutes for someone with practice, and a very frustrating half hour for someone without practice. Latch or no latch.
The permissible lateral movement specs can be hard to hit even if you know the tricks.
I’ve watched easily a few hundred people install car seats in the back of a Prius and it probably isn’t as hard as you make it out to be.
I had this one single mother I’d take all the time and she’d have that seat in under two minutes, just clip the little hooks and strap in the kid.
Don’t know how properly the seats were installed because I honestly didn’t care and I never touched the things because then I’d be liable in the case of an accident.
Never once had someone take half an hour because I’d have been pissed for them wasting my time.
The NHTSA observed a 46.7% "loose installation rate" among experienced caregivers, and higher still (85%) among novices. [1]
So I don't think it's as easy as you make it sound - and I might even go so far as to suggest you check the lateral movement specs on your child car seat to make sure you are within tolerance. The rule of thumb seems to be no more than 1-inch side-to-side movement at the belt path [2].
The car seat requirement limits the extended family who can take kids off your hands for a few hours.
Aunts and uncles used to pop over and take us out for an afternoon at the zoo or to get ice cream. Nowadays I can't take my nieces and nephews out like that until they're practically teenagers because I don't have car seats.