Kids in Front Seat..........Seatbelts......

first off, the bench seat can totally be done. if your kids are old enough, backless booster seats that dont have their own seatbelts but just make the kid sit taller are great for tight space. if you have the other kind of booster seats, i would put the seat with the most accessable seatbelt buckle in last. I'm not sure what the legal status is for a child in the front seat. I believe they have to be big enough not to need a car seat any longer before they can legally ride in the front. I know from personal experience, thats not always an option, in which case i put the oldest (or biggest) up front.

Hi Linda,

Here is a copy of the RCW: http://www.800bucklup.org/parent/images/6-07Anton'sLa...
http://www.800bucklup.org/parent/washingtons%20law.html

I believe it's saying that if you *have* to, you can put a child in the front seat, but legally, they have to be in the back if they are under 13(the RCW states "when it's practical to do so").

K. W

I'm going to cut and paste a few sections of the law here for you...but here's a page that has the link to the entirety http://www.800bucklup.org/parent/washingtons%20law.html :

(a) A child must be restrained in a child restraint system, IF THE PASSENGER SEATING POSITION equipped with a safety belt
system ALLOWS SUFFICIENT SPACE FOR INSTALLATION, until the child is eight years old, unless the child is four feet nine inches or taller.

(c) The driver of a vehicle transporting a child who is under thirteen years old shall transport the child in the
back seat positions in the vehicle WHERE IT IS PRACTICAL to do so.

We're lucky enough to have both cops and docs in our family, so we get chapter and verse on this. The cops all agree it's fine legally to have FRONT FACING children in the front seat if they're properly restrained. The docs disagree because the heat for the air escaping the airbag can permanently blind children and smaller adults.

What we do is try and rely on common sense. If we have our son in the Jeep (seats 2), we turn off the airbag on his side. If we have him in the car and I'm moving something I don't want to fall on him (like an amp, or heavy schtuff from homedepot) I pull him and his booster up front with me. If I've got 2 fullsize carseats in the back seat I pull him up front with me. He's the biggest, although not the oldest, of the kids we drive around. Even without his booster, the seatbelt fits him hip-hip-shoulder...with his booster he's up even with me and taller then some of the adults that have been passengers of mine...so pure and simple I don't worry about the airbag. This may sound like he's up front an awful lot, but in reality it's about once a month.

Sorry, I've never been able to get 3 car seats next to each other. 2 carseats and a booster, yes....but that also involved a lot of scraping knuckles and cramped fingers!!! Is there a reason why you don't have one or two of them in the first row (back) bucket seats?

~Z.

In the state of Washington it is illegal to have a front seat passenger under the age of 13. I'd check with the Tacoma PD to be sure, they'll know! The biggest risk is the airbag, even for people older than that but shorter than 5 feet-ish.

About the boosters-depending on how old the kids are do the backless boosters work better maybe? The new clek olli ones seem pretty small, and the graco ones seem small enough too, but I've never tried to fit three in one seating area before!

Linda,

If the child is under 12 they should not be in the front seat period. If all the other seats are taken and there is nowhere else to stick a kid I'd put the oldest kid in the car in the front seat, as far away from the dash as possible.

If the bucket seats are not taken I'd put one booster seat there and leave a space in the middle for kids to try and keep hands to themselves.

My two kids are 5 years and 17 months. I have a Minivan with two bench seats. We tried putting them next to each other on one bench seat, and my older one **could not** leave his sister, or her things, alone. They each get their own bench. It helps keep the peace.

Good luck,
Melissa