Hudson Valley Target Stores Holding Car Seat Event

So you have your "little one" or your "not so little one" in a car seat? Are you looking forward to the day that they no longer are legally required to use one in the car? While that might be a few years away, what is the condition of your car seat? Is it a hand-me-down? Has it seen one too many squashed Cheerios and juice boxes?

All parents know that they keep our kids safe. In New York State the law says that:

• all children under the age of 4 ride in child safety seats
• all children ride in child restraint systems until their 8th birthday

If you have a child safety seat and you want to make sure that it is installed correctly, there is a list of permanent child passenger safety seat checks across New York. These are free to attend and listed at the New York Traffic Safety website. 

So what is the big deal about Target offering a car seat trade-in? The 'deal' is that car seats are expensive. I think when my son was just born (1998) car seats averaged (infant sized, rear and front facing) about $150. Fast forward to today where the infant versions I looked at online were about $330 and the booster seat plus versions were about $100.

Are they important? Yes. Do you need to use them? Absolutely. If you have a car seat that is a little meh, not in the best shape and you were just 'waiting for a sale' to get a new one? Or you only needed it for a short amount of time? This might be a great opportunity for you to at least go see what is available in the marketplace. You might be able to do ok with the current seat that you have. You might not, only you can make that call.

Targets car seat trade in, is at all of their locations through April 17. This is not an advertisement for Target, just passing the info on from one parent to another.