A true story…

We’ve just arrived in Phoenix for a family vacation, and I reserved a rental car, along with a booster seat. I did not need to reserve a convertible seat for my younger daughter, since we were bringing our Radian on the plane. When I reserved the booster seat, I asked the agent to please ask the local office to call me in advance if they wouldn’t have a seat available for me to rent. No one called.

Can you see where this is going?

We picked up our rental car. No booster. The Hertz agent told us they were “sold out” of booster seats. Sorry. At the time, I didn’t know the law in Arizona, but regardless, I wasn’t leaving the airport without my older daughter (who is just shy of her 5th birthday and barely 40 lbs.) properly restrained in a seat. When the agent realized that I was seriously not going anywhere until they found a booster seat, the most unbelievable thing happened:

He gave me a pitying look and said, “Have you ever seen a booster seat, miss? It’s only, like, an extra two inches of padding. You don’t really need it.” I introduced him to my husband, a certified car seat installation technician, and asked him to repeat what he’d just told me. Needless to say, we had a booster seat in our car within the next 5 minutes.

As it turns out, the law in Arizona states that every child under the age of 5 must be properly restrained in a car seat or booster seat. So not only would I have been putting my child in danger by skipping the “extra inch or two of padding”, I would also have been criminally negligent in doing so. I’m glad I knew better, but if this agent had been talking to someone who doesn’t eat, sleep and breathe baby gear, the outcome would likely have been different.

I don’t usually get all worked up about stuff like this, but this whole episode really made me angry. Am I overreacting?

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