Here's the deal: We live in East Africa but my husband's family is from Adelaide (I'm American) and we feel very at home there too when we come back to visit, deal with immigration issues, and have babies. We're coming back in 6 weeks. In the past, car seats were hired for us or loaned to us, which was really nice but this time we'll have 3 kids by the end of our stay and we'll be there for 6 months. We use car seats here that I'd love to bring out if possible but I don't know if they are ok for use in Australia. I know there are strict laws (none here in Tanzania).
For our 3.75-year-old: We have a Graco Turbobooster circa 2002. It's a booster seat.
For our 2-year-old: We have a Britax Roundabout also circa 2002. It's an infant-to-toddler seat that can be faced rear or front facing and it has one of those tether straps that I know are required.
For the baby on the way: I think we'll just try to borrow a capsule again.
Does anyone know if these seats would be alright or where I could get a hold of the current safety regulations?
While I'm asking questions, do you think I could fit all 3 of these seats in the back of a car? What do the rest of you do with 3 kids in car seats? We have tentatively been offered a Magna to borrow.
Basically you will need a 5 point harness for both your kids & obviously the NB when they arrive. Tether straps also. Here now kids can not be moved to the adult seatbelt/booster set up until they are 5yrs old. HTHs
Thanks everyone for all the help. I read through the SA laws and it says, "Restraints bought in other countries will not meet the Australian Standard - it is illegal to use them in Australia." So I guess that means we're going to be forking out a lot of money or doing a lot of borrowing.
From what I've seen on hiring it's $33/week/seat which would total $1650! I'm sure we could work out some sort of discount for it being such a long period of time. We did hire one once for $100 for 4 months. I'd be happy to get 2 for $100 each for 6 months, but that seems to be stretching it. Since I'm American, this is so hard for me. Cheap or free good used car seats are really easy to get there. I'll check anyway.
I have used them before and not found them too expensive, but not for car seats sorry! Otherwise, could you hire them for a couple of weeks and check out some local baby and kid markets for some second hand ones? Generally second hand ones are not recommended though as you can never be certain that they have not been in an accident.
After further research into hiring I have found that it shouldn't cost THAT much but I'm still waiting to hear back from Hire for Baby and RAA since based on the monthly fees it would be closer to $700 to hire seats for both kids, which is still WAY more than I'm willing to pay. I think it's pretty unusual for someone to hire a convertible seat or a booster seat for 6 months. The capsules are regularly hired out for 6 months for less than $100 but I think most people buy the bigger seats or just hire them for a week to a month if they're travelling or something.
In case you're interested, Hire for Baby quoted me $99 for a 6-month hire for 1 seat and if you need to upgrade to a bigger seat during that time, you just need to pay a cleaning fee of $10. I have a feeling though that someone will end up loaning us either one or both seats we need because all of my friends are asking around but it's still nice to know we can afford to hire them if we need to. I also noticed a good deal on their site for $170 you can get a baby capsule and upgrade it to a convertible seat at 6 months, or whenever you need to, and then at 12 months turn it back in. Then all you have to buy is a front facing seat that can be converted to a booster seat at 4 years. It sounds like a good deal if you don't have your kids really close together since the laws always seem to be outdating car seats.
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Car Seats: HELP!
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