I tested having 3 car seats across—this is what I learned
Clek
I refuse to have a mini van until it's absolutely necessary.
Clek
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Our Subaru Outback was practically new when we found out I was pregnant again, this time with twins. One of my first reactions to my husband was “we are going to need a new car!” because two babies and a toddler didn’t seem to be a possibility with our setup. My reaction was part of the denial I had about having three under 3, especially with twins. But also, as I said, our car was practically new, we didn’t have the budget for a bigger car, and also, I hate minivans.
We made it through almost a year with our Subaru with two car seats—one forward-facing for our toddler and one bucket seat for a baby. If we needed to take the two babies somewhere, we switched the convertible seat for another bucket seat. And on the very rare occasion we needed to take everyone somewhere—we used a borrowed car which had a half third row. And I say half because it was really the trunk that converted into a tiny third row. We had our toddler all the way in the back, the twins on the middle seat and it required a lot of coordination to get them all in safely.
In some ways, the pandemic was an advantage because we honestly never really went anywhere, making a new car super low in our list of priorities. But when the twins finally outgrew their bucket seats, we were confronted with two options: either we could get a mini-van or we could have three car seats across one row. Investing in car seats was more within our budget and safety comfort, so that’s the route we took.
Instead of getting three of the same car seats, I decided it would be a great opportunity to test three different brands. After all, having three across is becoming more of a thing, and I wanted to be able to give a more thorough review for parents of multiples + other kids.
Before even attempting to install the car seats I read all about three across from The Car Seat Lady and also started following Safe in the Seat on Instagram because she has a ton of tips when it comes to having three car seats across one row. I’m a visual learner, so seeing Safe in the Seat install three across and point out things I should be looking for (like car seats need to be installed independently, without touching or overlapping) was super helpful to me. Another key factor to keep in mind is that the setup you had in mind might not be the one that works best for your car. In our case, we have our toddler in the middle, which means he needs to sneak under one of his sister’s seats and then climb onto his. Then, we then buckle him from the front.
These are the car seats I tested:
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