The Truth About: Car Seat Safety with Safe in the Seat

A quiet panic at the hospital exit changed everything. Michelle thought she had done everything right—researched the “best” infant seat, checked every box—and still drove away with a major mistake she didn’t catch until a stranger gently intervened. That moment became the blueprint for Safe in the Seat, a judgment-free space that helps parents turn car-seat anxiety into everyday confidence.

We dig into the numbers and the nuance: why over 70% of inspected seats have serious errors, how the same install can be right in one car and wrong in another, and where to actually find certified child passenger safety technicians near you. Michelle explains the biggest transition most families underestimate—moving from a five-point harness to a booster—and why maturity, not just age, drives that decision. If your kid slumps, wiggles, or can’t manage the buckle, you’re not behind; you’re learning the signs that keep the seat belt where it protects best.

Real life shows up in the school pickup line and on the jet bridge. We share simple ways to practice fast, calm buckling, tools for little hands that struggle with release buttons, and the one choice that saves sanity on hectic days: pull over, reset, then roll. We also talk travel truths: the risks of renting car seats, what to consider before trusting cleaning hacks, and why FAA-recommended car seats on planes matter for turbulence, not doomsday. When kids outgrow restraints on board, learn how to check lap belt fit so they stay secure in the cabin.

Threaded through the safety talk is a story about resilience and redefinition. Michelle built a mission-driven business during a divorce and the pandemic, filming courses in her sister’s living room and meeting parents where they actually are—on their phones, in DMs, and on the way out of the hospital. The tone is clear: no shame, just better choices with better information. If you’ve ever wondered whether your setup is truly safe, or how to know when to switch stages, this conversation will leave you with answers you can use today.

If this helped, follow and share with a parent who needs a confidence boost, subscribe for more practical guidance, and leave a review to tell us your biggest car-seat question—we’ll tackle it next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Michelle And Safe In The Seat
• 3:13 The Hospital Exit Wake-Up Call
• 5:38 Myths About Fire Stations And Help
• 8:53 Finding Technicians And Real Resources
• 11:23 Global Travel Risks And Culture Shocks
• 16:53 Harness Vs Booster: When To Switch
• 23:33 Car Line Chaos And Parent Sanity
• 29:03 Building A Business Through Crisis
• 36:48 Redefining Work, Motherhood, Success
• 41:58 Car Seat Cleaning And Safety Risks
• 47:53 Expiration Dates And Target Trade-In
• 52:08 Parenting Bigger Kids, Bigger Problems
• 59:13 Gentle Advice Without The Guilt

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:29

Michelle, welcome to Do You Want the Truth. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much for being here. And where are you in? You know, where are you?

SPEAKER_00: 0:39

I am still in sunny, warm Tampa, Florida.

SPEAKER_02: 0:43

Oh, nice. Exactly as the world or the country from me. Exactly.

unknown: 0:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 0:48

Yes. I mean, it's nice to a degree, right? Like it stays hot a long time here.

SPEAKER_02: 0:53

Yeah. We're dealing with rain over here. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about who you are?

SPEAKER_00: 1:00

Yeah. So I mean, first and foremost, I'm a mom of two. Um, so I think we we start with that. I live in Tampa, Florida, as we talked about. And I started a company called Safe in the Seat out of my own need for more information, more relatability, more help to do one of the things that's the most critical that we do in terms of keeping our kids safe. And I just couldn't find the information I needed. So I said, hey, you know what? I'm gonna get out there and I'm gonna make this um happen for people and let's let's see where it goes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:33

Can you tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to start safe in the seat?

SPEAKER_00: 1:37

Yeah. So I mean, I was getting a divorce at the time and I had come from I have my master's in nonprofit administration from Notre Dame, and I had worked for many, many years until I had my second child, and then I kind of had to dial it back a little bit because my husband at the time was traveling a lot. I was also going absolutely stir crazy. So I knew I needed an outlet. That was definitely part of it. I I was just not sort of made to be at home working all the time. I needed to be outside working, outside the homeworking as well. Though we know our stay-at-home moms are working non-stop, too. So that was one of the reasons I just kind of needed an outlet for for myself. But but the idea of actual child passenger safety, it's certainly not one that I dreamt of the time I was a little girl. This was not something I thought I would be doing. So I kind of reinvented my path right around when I said when I was getting divorced, right around 2020, I was just turned 40, which is also very hard to believe and ages me when I say the the years. 40 is great. 40 plus is great, minus some of the body changes. Otherwise, the a lot of the other things just seem so much so much, you have such more perspective. So, anyways, I mean, it really started when my son was born. I think I considered myself pretty well researched, well-resourced. My mom, you know, had done all the things to make sure I was choosing the best car seat and presented a whole plan to me. I kid you not, um, of what the safest products were. And then when I was leaving the hospital, I got it wrong. And I didn't know I got it wrong. And that was sort of for me the first inclination that I was like, there have to be other people that feel the way that I do in this moment. And for me, after a very long emergency C-section birth, like the last thing I wanted to feel was leaving the hospital with my newborn baby, fighting with my at the time husband, because we were like, wait, what? How what do you mean they're not gonna help us? And so it I had this like feeling then, and obviously now, you know, I'm home with a newborn baby. And just as I was talking to my other mom friends, people are having, you know, kids at the same time, it became more and more apparent that I wasn't the only one feeling this way. And I just kept thinking to myself, why do we not have something, a place to go, a person to talk to, a resource that can make this easy for us? Why do we just assume when people have a baby, they're gonna know what to do? And it's so it's one of the greatest risks our kids face. So it was like, I just kind of put in my head at that time like, is this something that I could make an impact in this area?

SPEAKER_01: 4:16

What is the statistic? Isn't it like 90 some percent of parents have their kids not buckled properly in a car seat?

SPEAKER_00: 4:23

Yeah. So I mean, obviously the statistics come from all different types of studies and can slice and dice in different ways, but there's a recent um we as child passenger safety technicians enter in forms when we, well, the ones that do it enter in forms. Long story short, there's like a 350,000-person database, and over 70% of those parents, these are people that are coming in actively to get child passenger safety checks, are doing something major wrong with their car seat. The statistic typically is higher for those that are leaving their hospital or place of birth birth with their child for the first time. We see some stats up into the 90s of people that are leaving with a with a major error in car seat use. How did you know you didn't myself included? Yeah, how did you know you did something wrong? Somebody told me. So I um we had our like newborn photos a week or so later. And I think it was the first time I had taken my son out of the house, you know, and actually put him in the car seat on my own. So we know he left the hospital improperly buckled, but I didn't know it at the time. My the photographer that we were with happened to um have a studio that was adjacent to a baby store that had child passenger safety technicians. And she was super sweet and said, Hey, can I give you some feedback on how you have your son buckled in the car seat? And I was like, girl, give me any feedback you can possibly give me about anything. And but I mean, I still even just saying that a lot get a little bit of that feeling of like, oh man, like I I didn't know that. What if something would have happened before that? And so I didn't have the um the shoulder straps routed in the right place, the harness was way too loose, the chest clip wasn't up as high as it should have been. Just the overall actual buckling of the baby was uh had a lot of room for improvement.

SPEAKER_02: 6:16

But the C itself was incorrect.

SPEAKER_00: 6:18

Incorrect.

SPEAKER_02: 6:19

The C word sounds funny, was in right.

SPEAKER_00: 6:23

The C itself uh was in was in right in one car, and then I realized it was not in right in another car. Yeah. So we had two bases that went with, you know, the one infant, infant carrier, and the one in uh my then husband's car was incorrect, and the one in mine was correct.

SPEAKER_02: 6:43

I had the same thing as you. I don't know about your birth story, but you know, you come out of an emergency C section and you're like, what? You're not gonna help me. And they're like, sorry, we can't legally. And my husband and I like begged her. She's like, okay, you cannot tell anyone that I'm down here with you. And like luckily she came down and was like, Yes, that that looks correct, but she couldn't touch it. And I think she did like check his straps just to make sure, but I did not drive with my son for eight months after that because I was so paranoid. I was like, so what you're doing is great. I know women who have gone to the fire station to have their seats checked before. I never would have thought of that. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_00: 7:22

Because most fire stations don't do that. So there is no requirement that a police officer, a firefighter, an EMT, no one is required unless their station chief requires it or something in their city requires it to be a trained child passenger safety technician. So I think we tend to, you know, we grow up with this idea of like people in uniform are community helpers, right? Are gonna be able to help us with all the things. But that is a major, major myth. Um, that you can just go to show up at a fire station and someone there will miraculously be able to help you with your car seat. It could happen, but it's it's very unlikely.

SPEAKER_01: 8:03

I went to a fire station and they helped us install. But what is the best thing someone can do if they don't live near a fire station that does that? I mean, it's you can follow all the instructions and still get it so young, right?

SPEAKER_00: 8:16

It's there's so hard to, you know, well, and a lot of parents just want that peace of mind check, right? They just yeah, want somebody else to say, you're good to go. So there's a lot of us that offer like virtual consultations or we accept videos and photos for people to look at things to say if we're seeing something that um is incorrect, even from people at the place of birth, can send us a video and we'll reply back before hopefully they're leaving. But the the place where there's over 40,000 of us that are trained in child passenger safety, they're across all of the country and nearly every community. Cert.safekids.org. You can go on there, you can search by zip code, is the best way to kind of find who's in your area and you can see what the resources are for your specific area or areas close by if there's not something, you know, really close to you.

SPEAKER_02: 9:04

And isn't it a like cars are pretty dangerous for kids, right? I mean, I remember when we were kids, we weren't strapped in. There, like I don't even think seat belts were required at in cars at the time. So things have come along a lot. But like I know when I travel, something that I have noticed is often like other countries don't use car seats. And it's it like is kind of panic-inducing. Have have either of you experienced that?

SPEAKER_00: 9:32

I have never braved taking my children internationally. So I will just openly admit um to that.

SPEAKER_01: 9:40

That's smart. I uh before becoming a parent, I haven't been back since I've had kids, but I used to go to India frequently with my family. It's terrifying. The first of all, the traffic in general is terrifying, but it is very slow moving because it's pretty congested, but nobody's in a seatbelt. Yeah. There's like, you know, 10 people in a car sometimes. Kids are not really in car seats. So yeah, I I wouldn't do that with my kids. But every time we've left the country, we have just walked everywhere because I'm just so nervous about yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 10:14

We've we've started using this service called Baby Quip. We just used it for the first time because we refuse to like carry our our car seat anymore. Um, but that actually brings me to another question I have. So my son is five. A lot of people are going through the, you know, stage of putting, you know, we have a four-year-old friend who's in a booster seat where all of these things, and we look at our car seat and it says, you know, he can be in it, I think to like 112 pounds or something crazy like that. And so I'm curious like what your thoughts are on booster safety and when to move your kid over, because you know, Zara, your kids aren't in booster seats, are they?

SPEAKER_01: 10:52

Mm-mm. They're still in the five harness. Yeah. They're almost seven.

SPEAKER_00: 10:57

The max height, uh, big fan of that for a lot of reasons, safety and just sanity-wise for us moms and parents driving these cars with kids around. So harness seats only go up to 65 pounds. So ones that say they go up to 120 pounds or anything else are including their booster mode. So you must have a seat that has like a high booster or a booster.

SPEAKER_02: 11:18

Yeah, we have the Great Go for whatever.

SPEAKER_00: 11:20

Yeah, forever DLX. Yeah. So that one is supposedly gonna last you until your child's 120 pounds, just a heads up. It will not last you. Cool, cool, good to know. Um, but you'll get a lot of use out of it either way. So for booster, it's the biggest transition but in the whole car seat safety like cycle. Because in a harnessed car seat, you're in control, right? You're the one buckling them in, you're the one tightening the straps, you're the one placing the snaps, the snaps, the straps. That's all you you're responsible for their safety at that point. When a child switches to a booster, you're passing the baton, essentially. Yeah, you've got to make sure the booster's in there, right? But you guys, the booster just has to sit in there. Some of them are able to attach, some of them aren't. It's the seatbelt that protects them. And because the seatbelt, as we know, being seatbelt users, we can move in that seatbelt. We can put that lap belt where we want, that shoulder belt behind us under our arm. Hopefully, no one's doing that. But to me, it's a big question of maturity. Is your child mature enough without you having to turn around every two seconds and say, Don't do that, sit up, stop putting that behind your back. You're not allowed to be in with the backpack. Is your child mature enough to be able to sit properly for the entire ride? And are you ready for that responsibility of constantly managing them in a different way than you've ever had to when they were in a harness seat? So I personally have a nine-year-old who's still in a booster seat. Um, she was in her both my kids were harnessed until seven till they outgrew their seats and they're in the 90th percentile. So they max out the limits. In general, I recommend maxing out the limits of stages. Are there circumstances? Of course there are. Like I'm gonna count that comes from a mom perspective first. So I get it. But boosters are equally as safe, I would say age five plus, as long as the child is sitting in it properly. If they aren't, that's when the risk becomes so much, so much greater.

SPEAKER_02: 13:24

That makes sense. Yeah, my my kid, he's responsible for all this stuff, but tightening his harness because he has to get himself out of it and buckle. So we're like, you own getting in, getting set up, getting out, because at drop-off he just has to do it himself. Yeah. And that's been really nice. But we did do a booster seat when we were traveling, and it was weird because I'm like, oh, he can't just like fall asleep like they can in, you know, if we if he's really tired and all of those things because you're gonna like fall out of it, you know? It's exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 13:55

I think it's some, it's sometimes we don't sometimes, I mean all the time, anyways. For me and parenting, I'm like not totally know what's coming up in the next stage, right? So I don't in anything. So I don't know like what are the problems I could face because I haven't ever faced them before. So boosters, I think, surprise a lot of parents for that reason, right? If you have a sleeper, we definitely recommend you max out that harnessed seat because they're gonna fall over and then not be best protected. There's also the buckling issue for a lot of kids. A lot of kids can't reach in to where that seatbelt is either because they're right next to another car seat or it's pretty far away from where their hand is that needs to go down. The buckle stock could be a pain in the butt. So you're used to like having this straight-on way to buckle your kid and the harness. And then now all of a sudden you probably get to the point, like you said, where your kids are able to buckle themselves in. And then you go to booster and you're like, wait a minute, I thought I passed this stage. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 14:47

I thought I was done with it. Another little tool because we had to initially get a tool to teach him how to do it. Yeah. Because you don't think about like the strength it takes to open it. So that it's like, well, like on the bus, they have seatbelts now, which is incredible. I did not know that that was a thing. And none of the kindergartners can buckle or unbuckle themselves because they don't have the hand strength. That's right. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 15:07

Yeah. I think one of the most stressful parts of being a parent, especially when your kids go to school, is that pickup line when you're like everybody's putting pressure on you to keep it moving, and then your kids are like, you know, taking their sweet time. And like my daughter always gets in the car and she like has some sort of a trinket that one of her friends has given her, and she's like climbing into the front seat to show it to me. And I'm like, yourself buckled. Like it is so stressful. Yeah. I mean, it still is.

SPEAKER_00: 15:34

Yeah. Do you have any tips for that? So, I mean, if we started like very first, when kids are first going to be going through a car line like that, practice, practice, practice. So before first day of school, like again, you don't totally know what to expect in Carline. They certainly don't know what to expect in Carline. So I really think actually going through, like, if you can get into the circle at school, if you can like go through the exact steps, practicing unbuckling, like you said, that's not easy for a lot of kids. Sometimes they need a tool to help them with that finger strength. The daily in and out, I mean, listen, I have a 12 and nine-year-old, and it is still a struggle to get the hustle done. So sometimes I would say, stop and breathe. Our our sense of timing can be really um out of whack when we're in those high pressure situations. So, what maybe actually taking 10, 20 seconds, we feel like has been 10 minutes. So take a pause. Your the safety of your children is obviously the most important, but so is not being hated by everyone in the car line. So, and not being that parent. Getting your kids to understand to sit quickly. And sometimes I realize that's not as easy as saying, hey, you need to sit quickly. Don't show me your trinket right now. We need to have some positive reinforcers in place a lot of the time when they're younger. So, what are the ways that we can get them in quickly? Is there a song that we're gonna play? And by the time we hit this beat, you're gonna be in the seat. Is there a game mommy's gonna play with you? I'm gonna count to this. And when you're by the time I hit X, Y, Z, you're gonna be in the seat. For our younger kids, things like that can be really, really helpful because their sense of time, well, they don't have a sense of time. They they don't care. I I will just say we're all in it together. We're all feeling that hurry up and get out, hurry up and get in. Pressure. Worst case scenario, and I imagine some of my colleagues would like be throwing things at me if they heard me say this, pull over as quickly as you can to get everybody situated, right? If there is a spot to pull in, some schools, which is great, have a pull-up area where you can pull up and walk them out or buckle them in and gives you a little bit of time. If that's what's necessary for your family, explore that option. But but if you have to be in car line and your kids are getting in and they're still standing up in the car, get pulled over. Do not go on any main roads. Get pulled over as soon as you possibly can to get them buckled in.

SPEAKER_02: 17:56

You know what I use to, well, I use social pressure, like, oh, your friends are behind. They're not gonna be able to get out because he's very concerned about his friends. The other thing is whoever gets in first, and is if he gets in like easy, he gets to choose what we listen to. I don't know if that will work with your kids, Zara, but you know, he wants to.

SPEAKER_00: 18:21

I could never put my kids in competition with each other. It always ended in a real, real bad space. So I don't, but I will do if both of you are buckled into by XYZ. My daughter, though, is nine, I still have to tell her every time she gets in the car, please buckle your seatbelt. When we get in the car, we buckle our seatbelts.

SPEAKER_02: 18:38

I'm like, oh yeah, I I compete with my son. We only have one kid. So yeah, I I agree with not the siblings competing, but I'm like, if I if you get in within five seconds, you guys can pick the music or whatever. But yeah, my son and I compete to get to the car, and because that's how I have to motivate him. But yeah, I get the sibling, the sibling rivalry. So you, I know we're talking a lot about safety here, but I am curious about you because you were building a business going through a pandemic. You had just had an emergency C-section, you had a toddler at home, right? Like a two-year-old.

SPEAKER_00: 19:14

So a five-year-old? I have my first son was born in 2013. So he was, well, he's my only son. I have a daughter. Um, so he was set six, six going on seven at the time of the of the pandemic. Um, and my daughter was three. Um, yeah. Those are not easy ages. It was wild. Um, and you know, we're expected to homeschool at that time. My son was um, they had held him back here because he's a July birthday, and so he was in kindergarten again. Um, it was just me really managing both of them at home. I had started Safe in the Seat a little bit on Instagram at that time and was doing in-home consults. That's really where Safe in the Seat started, is I was doing in-home consults, which obviously the pandemic had I couldn't do anymore. So I was doing more virtual. But really, the launch of the business um a huge credit to my sister, who actually left her job to come and battle this out with me for a year to say, can we make this into something where I can be profitable, where I can support my kids and my family on my own? Or am I going back into my nonprofit world and working insane hours and traveling all over the place? I still work insane hours, but I don't have to travel all over the place in the same way and obviously. Well, you dictate the hours. Yeah. I do. Yes, I do. Uh, which is good and bad, as many of us know, right? So yeah, we took a year and um I I can still picture in my head the we transformed her house into a recording studio, a filming studio for our first course, which was unbelievable. We were doing it in the pandemic. So we had one group, you know, a videographer one come back and forth from his house to our house, you know, with masked up, but that's all he did. So for safety. And over the course of about six months, we filmed the infant course, which was the first thing that we um that we launched.

SPEAKER_02: 21:23

Yeah, it's wild. And you were going through a divorce, or did the divorce come through all of that?

SPEAKER_00: 21:29

It was all and I was going through a divorce. So in 20 start of 2020, that's when kind of everything started. And so we're going through the divorce in the middle of the pandemic and living together. And I was trying to figure out how to get safe in the seat off the ground, and I had two kids at home, and I was trying to teach my son kindergarten, who could not be the literally a textbook case for absolutely online learning is never gonna happen for this kid.

SPEAKER_02: 21:53

I mean, yeah, kindergarten like the I remember because I had and Tsara too, probably. Your kids were a little bit younger, so we didn't have to deal with any of that. For me, I it was like a blessing that I didn't have to go into the office and I could stay home. And you know, we had somebody come in where basically all of our money just went to having a nanny come so we could come, you know. Yeah. But I imagine that was so hard. I remember looking at people who had kindergarten kids and they're like, How do you think they're gonna stay online for seven hours? Like, what is this?

SPEAKER_00: 22:24

Yeah, my email went in relatively quickly to say, Listen, I understand what we're trying to do here, and we're gonna have to do this in a different way. I'll have him check in for the testing or whatever else that needs to be done, but I'm gonna have to like get him there in my own way. And just as I've learned with kids in general, it doesn't really matter. Yeah. I can see my mom being like, Michelle, I can't believe you would say that. But in the scheme of all things, I think we have to back up sometimes and look at what's the most important in that in any given scenario that we're in. Of course, still keeping everyone's responsibilities and all those things, but like that was survival mode for me at that time.

SPEAKER_02: 23:06

Yeah, I I I can't imagine going through any of those things. Like it pandemic was hard enough, you know. I going through a separation is like hard enough. Going through raising kids and having them at home. Um, how did you get through that?

SPEAKER_00: 23:22

I could I I can cry even when you just asked me that. I still don't know, other than I didn't have a choice. Okay. You know, um I look back at it and I think that's such a gift and a curse of motherhood, right? That we, I'm gonna get up every day, I'm gonna take care of my kids, I'm gonna get us through this until I am able to hit the pillow at night, and then I'll wake up four times in the night and then I'll do it again. I had I have really good uh family support. During the pandemic, though, they have, you know, my parents are a bit older, like we they weren't coming over to actually help. Uh my sister, as I said, was huge in the business side of things, just really helping me get that off the ground. And then she kind of moved on to her continuing in her career. I think you know, it's amazing what comes out of necessity.

SPEAKER_02: 24:15

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00: 24:15

It's amazing how when you have to really dig deep and find a way. Like it does, it makes me tear thinking about it. I had to do it. I had to figure it out. And I was really committed to both serving in a way. I've I had, you know, I grew up doing a lot of nonprofit-based work. I have my master's nonprofit administration as I shared. I worked in the nonprofit field leading up to, well, until my second was born. So serving in some way has always been like really a key to my um happiness. And I wanted the flexibility. I my son has a lot of things that he needs that are different than some other kids need. And I really my availability was critical um to be able to kind of do things at a moment's notice to to best help him. And my daughter was little, so you know, there was still so much to juggle. But I mean, at the end of the day, it was like you gotta put your big girl panties on and face this shit every day, and we're gonna figure it out. And if we don't figure it out, we have to figure it out. It's like we have to figure it out.

SPEAKER_01: 25:30

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes your kids just kind of propel you, right? They kind of like get you over that finish line of doing things that you never thought you could do, but you're like, I have the most important thing that I have to show up for, so I'm gonna do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:44

Yep. Yeah. And I think for me, you know, there's that whole like, how do you decide to get a divorce, right? So do you stay because of the kids? Do you not stay because of the kids? And I am no judgment to anyone else who's, you know, been through this process or thought about this process, but I really wanted to model for my kids that even though it's hard, it's the right thing to do for me and ultimately for them as well, to model what healthy relationships look like, to model what you can do when things are hard, to model how you can show up for yourself, to model how you can reinvent yourself at, you know, 40 and be like, I'm gonna just, I mean, they don't know the age situation, but but they know this is a new-ish business and that I'm trying, you know, I've been trying to get it off the ground and now, you know, we're kind of thankfully a little bit more than off the ground at this point. A little bit, just a slight, just a slight bit. But I mean, you know, I I wanted them to see that. Now, if it could not have happened during the pandemic, that would have been awesome. Um, but who would have known?

SPEAKER_01: 26:51

Yeah. Yeah, but the pandemic was such a moment, right? It was like, I think it did so much, it it caused so much pain and so much struggle, but it also I think like gave us this whole new lens to look at motherhood through. And I think we finally started talking about all these issues that we were just never talking about, like the need for flexibility and like the need to, you know, have women be able to do their own thing and start their own businesses. And, you know, Sam and I are both, we work for ourselves now. And I I think I can speak for you too, Sam, and say that we are much, much happier than we were. God, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:30

Yeah. Yeah. Like my worst days now were like my baseline before. Yeah. Which is, I mean, wasn't it ha Zarya? You probably know the stats on this more than I do, but wasn't it like half a million women left their jobs last month or in September? Or wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 27:44

Yeah, I don't remember the exact number, but it was a huge, huge number. And it's, you know, I think that there's like so much nuance there because I do think that it is a system issue. And I do think that there is a lot that needs to be done to change that. But I also think that there are probably a lot of women who left out of choice and they're going to start these incredible businesses that give them not just financial independence, but flexibility and control over their schedule in a way that they maybe didn't have before. So yeah, yeah, I think it's a really complicated issue, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 28:17

I do think came what came out of it too was sort of to what you speak of. We saw opportunity in a different way, right? If you would have told me, you know, I grew up, you go to school, you get A's, you play your sports, you do your things, you do it to the best of your ability, then you go to college and then you get a job. And that's what I did. But if but then when I had kids, it I could have done that, as I said, but it was like, I can't do this in the same way I did it without kids, especially based on the specific needs of my kids and the ages of them and my life circumstances. So I think it opened us up to possibility. And now, certainly in you know, 2025, we can see all the different ways that you can find your path, whether you are going down that path for financial freedom or flexibility or all of the above. There's a lot of ways to make money now. There's a lot of ways to serve and to leave a legacy or to be a part of a community or whatever it is that is most important to you. And that's also been really important to me to show my kids that everyone doesn't have to go the same direction to be quote, successful. There's a lot of different paths and they're all good paths.

SPEAKER_01: 29:24

And it might take some trial and error too, for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 29:28

And like, how do you define success? Because I think that's another thing. Some people define it as purely money in the bank. Oh, yeah. Or, you know, some people happiness, you know, like, and some people it's a a combination. So I think that is also important. You're showing them kind of a holistic uh speaking of side hustles that I've seen women start, have you seen? I'm sure, Michelle, you have the car seat cleaning. Oh, we've seen it. We have seen that. I I have safety questions about that because I like I was like, well, I could do that. And then I was like, I'm not touching anyone's car seat. Like, no way liability. I don't even clean my own car seat. But you know, you see these things online, you're like, oh, that looks fine. What are your thoughts on those businesses?

SPEAKER_00: 30:08

I mean, my first thought is I hate to say anything negative about female entrepreneurship. Like it's very hard for me to just come in and say hard no on things when people are finding their side hustles or full hustles or whatever it may be. However, this is one where we have to balance it with the safety of. The seats. And I'm not saying there are not people out there that exist that follow every individual manual to a T when they're cleaning a seat. Listen, to get a seat looking pristine, I also was not a car seat cleaner upper frequently. Okay. I just I'm like my daughter used to pee in her car seat on purpose. At a certain point, I was like, you know what? We're just gonna live in this world because I'm not gonna continue cleaning this thing, lady. Um, thankfully she's not enough stuff a very long time ago. But if you want a car seat to look pristine again, you typically are using things that are harsh chemicals to make it look like it just came out of the box. Sure, there may be other remedies if you have a lot, a lot of patience to go back at it with a mild soap for three hours every day for a week, maybe. But I think a lot of times if it's too good to be true, it likely is too good to be true. So if you're if someone's gonna use that service, if someone's gonna start that service, then you gotta read every single manual individually for exactly what that car seat allows for use. Because what happens when we're using these products that are not approved? I didn't even think about this. That's why. And that's what I try to do all the time. Let's break it down to why does it matter? Not just because we're being asses and are saying, no, please don't use this because we just don't want you to. No, it's about flammability standards. So when we're starting to use these harsh chemicals, we're breaking down the flammability, which means car seats could catch on fire more easily.

SPEAKER_02: 32:04

So oh my gosh, I literally never thought of that. Could it also degrade the act of materials? Yes, it degrades the materials.

SPEAKER_00: 32:10

And so furnace traps, for example, even in the manuals, most of the time it tells you not to do anything with them because that's exactly right. The harness traps are holding your child in the seat so their body doesn't move and they don't fly out. If we, you know, make those weaker, that doesn't seem like a very good situation for anyone involved. So I would, if I were starting a car seat cleaning business, which first of all I would never do because I don't like to clean car seats, I would have a real strong liability policy because that is taking on uh to me, that's taking on a lot of risk. And if you're gonna use a service like that, you need to ask a lot of questions before you do, very specific questions. Um, provide your user manual, give a copy. They're all online as well, of exactly what can be used and can't be used, but you're still taking a risk by passing it to someone else.

SPEAKER_02: 32:59

Wait, okay, you probably know this because I know one of your favorite car seats or a staff pick is my car seat that I have. I've put it in the washing machine, like the the the cover, is that okay?

SPEAKER_00: 33:08

I use like a lot of them allow, yes, a lot of them allow you to machine wash or cover, which is you know something that people like as a convenience factor. So there's a lot of seats that do allow it, but as always, you've got to wash. Some are hand washed, some are machine wash, some are machine wash and hang dry, some are machine wash and wash.

SPEAKER_02: 33:26

But then who knows if they change too. I think that's the other thing is like if they change.

SPEAKER_00: 33:30

As long as you're using the manual for your manufacture year, okay, then you're good. You follow whatever that rule is for that seat manufactured at that time, and that's your Bible for the whole existence of the of the car seat, unless they come out with a recall of some sort and we gotta adjust something.

SPEAKER_02: 33:47

Oh man, you just opened my eyes to something. What about those expiration dates? Because yeah, I know Target is it Target and Walmart doesn't do it anymore where they have the trade-in. Um and it's Target, yeah, twice a year, maybe it's September and June or something like that. Yep. Are the expirations usually April, September? Okay. What do they do with those afterwards? They do they just take them apart and go to recycle? Like what?

SPEAKER_00: 34:13

So I get the privilege of working with Target behind the scenes some on the recycling event. Oh, and it's incredible what they do. So I think the first thing people wonder is like, do they really recycle these seeds? Yeah. Is that really what's happening? Because of course, I asked the same questions, which is why I got involved. 100% the seeds are recycled. Um, so yeah, they take it, they have a whole waste management facility that handles the recycling of the seeds. They break down all of the plastic parts and they are then repurposed into a lot of the part products you see at Target that follow their like basic line. So you know they're like crates um and stuff like that, which that just reminds me of a really good thing, you know, you take videos and you never remember to post them. I have one about that. Yeah, and they they repurpose them into some of those like Target line products that um like crates or like little baskets and stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 35:05

That's so cool. I had no idea. I because I was curious. I'm like, A, I don't believe in pl I sound crazy, but I don't believe in plastic recycling. They don't do it, you know. Like we're seeing 98% of plastic is not actually recycled, but this is really good to hear.

SPEAKER_00: 35:19

Yeah. I mean, I've seen, you know, I this year I'm hoping to get to the actual facility, but I've seen a lot of video footage of the facility. Um, I've hand-seen the products that they are using to make it. So at least to the, and I'm on the on the back end of Target, not just on the front marketing side. So I feel pretty darn confident that it's better than it going to a landfill. Like that's what I think about. Okay, so even if they're not they're not recycling the covers. Yeah. I don't know if they are or not. I will put that on my notes to find out. But let's say they're not. Well, it's better than it going to a landfill. They're disposing of things properly. They're getting the rest of the plastic shell of that car seat that's going to be reused for something else. Yeah, big fan. And some cities have recycling programs for car seats. So that might be an option if you don't have a target or if April or you know, September are just too long to wait. Uh, but I'm I'm a big fan of the program.

SPEAKER_02: 36:16

Yeah, we have an old like our infant car seat in the attic because I keep forgetting to take it to that. Because it's like I want to, not just for because they do give you a discount, but not because of that. It's just like I don't want it to go to a landfill. Our city actually got rid of the car seat recycling, and you can only do it at Target because I guess it's really expensive to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:35

My understanding is it, yeah, it's a pretty big that's why I think we've seen some other retailers do it now. Um, Target pretty much is the only one that's doing it.

SPEAKER_02: 36:45

Yeah. So far for you, okay. So you have kids who are a little bit older than Zara and my kid or our kids. What's been your favorite age so far as a mom?

SPEAKER_00: 36:57

The older years are easier for me from a mom perspective. I don't know that anyone's been my favorite over another. It's like you learn these new things, kind of like we were talking about earlier. You don't even know to expect certain things that are coming in the best way as much as like the hardest way. Um, the little, when they were super little, that was probably the harder time for me. The constant dependency, the sensory overload, which was something I didn't even know was gonna be a thing for me until I had kids, the constant touching, like it was a lot. Um, but I also miss those years like a lot. Yeah. And now, now with perspective, I'm kind of like, if I did it, if I went back and did it again, would I feel differently now that I'm on kind of the other side of it? The bigger kid years, I love that I get to see my kids' personalities really come out. They're um, I I really prioritize exposing them to whatever they want to be exposed to, obviously, you know, safety, blah, blah. But like if they have interests and talents and things they want to check out, I um I really try to let them kind of go down that path and see what makes sense for them, what gives them passion or purpose. And I like that part a lot. I like watching their them develop into their little creative souls. Um, and just watch the people that that they're becoming. But bigger kids mean bigger problems. So I'm gonna prepare you guys for that. That's something that you maybe have heard before, but it's like, you know, the toddler problems. If I can't get them out of the bathtub, what am I gonna do? Versus, you know, we're mom, I just heard this at school. What does this mean? You know, different things to bigger kids, bigger, bigger problems.

SPEAKER_01: 38:39

Yeah. We're kind of, I think, in that middle ground right now where we're between the little years and the the bigger problems years, and I'm I'm nervous.

SPEAKER_00: 38:50

It's I I mean, well, we're nervous about all of it, right? Because there's no there's no handbook. Like we don't know what we're doing until we get in it. But I the bigger kids, bigger problems, I look at it as like a personal challenge for myself of like, uh, how am I gonna either prepare myself for this? What resources do I need to have ready to go? Which probably doesn't surprise you just face on what I do. Like I like to be well informed and and I like to think through, I don't like to be caught off guard with anything. Obviously, that happens multiple times a day, but I generally know what they're probably gonna be talking about or facing um as they, you know, as they grow. My 12-year-old teaches me the most as we go, but he's a boy, she's a girl. So already there are different discussions that are happening. Um, but yeah, I kind of keep a couple of core things that I know I want to be. I I know I want them to say, mom did this or mom was like this. Um, those kind of lead a lot of my um my framing of things when I talk to them about it.

SPEAKER_01: 39:54

How do you figure out how to approach these topics? Because I feel like there's a real drop-off in content and resources for parents after you pass the toddler stage. Like there's just not that many articles or, you know, books or expert talks or anything like that that are really geared towards parenting the middle years and teenagers.

SPEAKER_00: 40:15

Yeah, that's something else I'm like, I'd love to if it did another side. I would like to go research on that and talk about that because I find it fascinating to see what's working and what isn't. And obviously, just based on the needs of my kids, my son, especially, a lot of individualized approaches happen. And I even that, what you can say to one kid, you can't, you have to frame it differently to another. Um, I agree with you. There's not as as many resources for me. Like I said, I kind of go to the values that are the most critical. Like, what are the values that I want them to have? Who do I want them to be as people? What's my role in teaching them to do those things? How do I model it? And then when they're coming to me with the tough stuff, my biggest thing that, and I am a reactor. You can see my emotions on my face. So when they come to me with something, like my number one thing is just to receive it as information and not something to judge or react to, but literally it's like I'm reading a sentence in a book or it, you know, it's like, mom, I heard this today. And instead of my face getting out of control or me being like, holy crap, who said that to you? You can't talk about mom. Never again. I'm going there, mom. I'm going to school. It's like, that's interesting. You know, how did that make you feel? And I, because it gives me a couple minutes to like calm myself down and hear what they're thinking about it. Cause so often I think with bigger kids too, we go to what we as adults know about that issue, right? Yeah. They don't have the context. So a lot of times they're asking you questions about something and they don't sexualize it, for example.

SPEAKER_02: 41:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 41:49

But we know that that's ultimately what it means. They don't know that.

SPEAKER_02: 41:54

So yeah, they don't even know what sexualized means. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 41:57

They have no idea. So they'll say something like, you know, oh, my friend was humping his bat the other day, like being funny, and he was dancing around and they dared him. No one even knows that that is a context outside of I'm being, you know, silly with this thing. They don't think of it. So I think a big part of it is like not reacting at all at first, which is a challenge of the century, right? But I I get if they start talking first, it helps me to figure out how am I gonna handle this versus me talking first.

SPEAKER_01: 42:33

Yeah, and I think in some ways it's almost a little bit freeing that there aren't as many resources because I almost feel like the the gentle parenting stuff that came out a few years ago was like it got so in my head, and I felt like I had to have a script for every situation. I think it's kind of nice that you don't really have that when your kids are a little bit older and you sort of have to tap into how you engage with them as individuals.

SPEAKER_00: 42:59

Yep. And your own intuition and what's important to you and your family. And yeah, I mean, I agree. I think, you know, as somebody that provides educational content along with many others, I still it's overwhelming. You know, it's how do I know you there has to be some parent intuition. Now, child passenger safety, a little bit different because it's based on science, it's based on data. But when it comes to some of these other things, we have to also bring in our own personal perspective, our own kids. Um, honestly, I used to get uh I had to unfollow a lot of people when I had um when I was raising my my kids when they were younger because they didn't fit the mold of what was being said. And it made me feel like a terrible mom a lot of the time. Because like, why won't this work for me? Why doesn't my child respond to this? I've said this script 800 times and they're still doing it. Like, what what am I supposed to do? Or if I yelled, or if I, you know, then I'm like, I'm the only one doing this. I'm the only one who's yelled at my kid today. And then you're like, absolutely not. Everyone's yelling at their kids every day.

SPEAKER_02: 44:03

Like, you know, it is really reassuring when you see somebody and you're like, oh God, it's just my kid. I tell him to go right, he'll only go left, tell him to walk fast, he'll only go slow. Like whatever that whatever you're saying, it's only the opposite. And then you see other parents and it's like, oh, this is just who they are. Well, that's still fucking annoying, but it makes it feel less about you and like your kid having some sort of deficiency. Cause I'm like, what is what is your deal? You're so mean.

SPEAKER_00: 44:30

Right. Yeah. What's wrong with you? Right? That's what comes into our head as much as we don't want to say it. And then it's like, what's wrong with me? Well, maybe I'm not parenting you well, or maybe I need to do this differently. And it's like, no one kid, that that's why some of the things that are out there, when they're kind of a one size fits all, are not my not my favorite um when it comes to like parenting and behaviors and all that kind of stuff, because it's just not in my experience with my kids, um, that's not that's not a bit effective.

SPEAKER_01: 44:58

Well, and I'm not just saying this because you're here, but I have followed you for a long time and I've always found you to be very non-judgmental. And I think there's a lot of judgment when it comes to car safety and a lot of shaming. But I think for one thing, as moms, we need to support each other. And for another, I think the message is received so much better. And you're more likely to actually listen and implement it when someone approaches you that way.

SPEAKER_00: 45:26

That was that was one of the main reasons that I started safe in the seat is because yes, we need the education, we need the resources, but we need a safe place to go where we can ask these questions or we can share that we've messed it up just like I did. And there's okay, the it's your your kid is still safe today. I mean, the amount of moms that I have to talk to that also, to your point, didn't drive for months and months and months. Oh, there's others. Oh, there's lots of others, many, many, many others. That's probably something I should talk a little bit about. I will talk about that actually. Yes, yes. I mean, I had to, I remember going to one mom's house and we had to do short drives. And I went back every day for about 10 days and helped her get comfortable. Like I was like her driving therapist at that point, just to reassure her that her son was safely buckled in the seat. And that non-judgmental aspect, that we're in it together aspect, um, it veers from where some other creators in the child passenger safety space or just technicians in general kind of like to live. They can do their thing and they have their audience, and I support the work they do in their communities and with the people they serve. We run everything through a filter before we post it. Every single thing, whether it's on our blog, it's a real, it's stories, whatever. If someone can read it, interpret it, see it, and it could invoke a feeling of shame, judgment, anything like that, we don't post it. Even though those things, by the way, get better results. Of course they do. Yeah. But even today, I was a little edgy on something I posted where I said, Am I a bad mom if I don't bring a car seat on the plane? Because that's what people are thinking, right?

SPEAKER_02: 47:09

Wait, wait, what did you just say bring a car seat on the plane? Yeah. What do you mean? Are you supposed to be putting your kid in a car seat on the plane? What?

SPEAKER_00: 47:20

It's it's recommended. What? I know. I have never heard of this before. What? What? Yeah. Car seats on a planar thing. Because the idea is go read the go read the post and the caption today because I tell you my honest feelings about it, where it's possible and where it's not possible. Again, kind of bucking the system a little bit to your point where it's like I know everyone's supposed to do it, but it's not always possible.

SPEAKER_02: 47:48

Wait, how old? Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna look this up. I want to do it while I'm on here, but how old are Zara? Did you do this? Did you know about this?

SPEAKER_01: 47:56

Yeah, we still do it. And my husband is like, you realize you're the only person who does this, right?

SPEAKER_00: 48:00

You're not.

SPEAKER_01: 48:01

Those are husband, those are husband comments. Also, to be fair, my husband is also in charge of like getting them onto the plane and installing them while I just like what? You know, take a step back. But yeah, we still do.

SPEAKER_02: 48:13

Hold on, I'm gonna go on mute real quick and watch this because I am shook right now. I my okay, hold on, I'll be back.

SPEAKER_01: 48:22

We just blew her mind. At that point, what is your take on the I don't know if I should mention the brand that I have, but the kind of travel car seats. Yeah, I'll just tell you, I have a wavy.

SPEAKER_00: 48:33

Yeah, yeah. My take is that they all pass the same federal crash test standards and that when they're used properly, they're gonna protect your kid. I would always rather use a car seat than not when you're traveling. So whatever is your child fits within the limits of and you use properly, and you're able to actually get around with without losing your mind to your point. You walk a lot of places because the car seat travel options are somewhat limited when it comes to like if you're getting in and out of transportation multiple times. Yeah. So yes, I I'm a fan of a car seat that passes the standards, which is every single one that's sold from a reputable retailer on the market.

SPEAKER_02: 49:15

So something you said in your post is if they don't fit in the seat on the plane, what does that mean? How do I know if he fits in the seat?

SPEAKER_00: 49:22

Oh, yes. Well, he he's how much how much does he weigh? 46, 47. Yeah, he's probably good. He's probably good. 40-ish pounds is when we look at it. Like, does the lap belt generally fit where it's supposed to? But guys, the the idea of like securing your kid in a car seat on the plane or making sure the lap belt fits properly is not because if a plane falls out of the sky, like we're we're done if that happens. The idea is that we're saving from like turbulence or take off and landings that can be, you know, dangerous. We've seen some stuff that's happened more and more recently. It's to keep people secured and not flying about the cabin. So if the seatbelt is able to do that based on his body, just like it does for you, then we're then we're good. I would say at 46 pounds and five years old, you're probably good to go.

SPEAKER_02: 50:11

I'm texting my mom friends right now, and I want to see if any of them did this because I think this is another thing that it points out for safety things. Like if you are type B like me, where it was just like, I know I need a car seat, I know my husband did that kind of stuff. And it's like, okay, great. I remember strapping my son in the first time and I did it wrong, and he was just crying, and I was like, okay, this is wrong. My husband came out and fixed it. But like, how do you even know it? Like, this is so like I'm shook by this because I didn't even know I was doing something wrong. I mean, we didn't really travel with him until he was three, three and a half, um, which he was probably already around the safe like weight and everything. But I'm sure there are lots of moms and dads out there who don't even know this is a thing. Yeah, there are.

SPEAKER_00: 50:54

Yeah, I was one of them for a while. I had no idea. I definitely took my under two kid that climbed underneath three rows in front of us, which was a real treat. Um, I think it's like everything, at least what we say on our account. And I I'm glad the feeling is that you don't feel judged or shamed on the page because that's like really, really, really important to me. We do the best we can with the information that we have at the time. And I believe that wholeheartedly that people's best intent is to keep their kids as safe as possible, that people are not intentionally putting their children at risk. And when they know better, they make more informed choices. And that's ultimately what we could do. How do they get the info? Well, we keep trying to get out there and like scream it from the rooftops and use our community members to pass it and do the same.

SPEAKER_02: 51:44

You guys should partner with like, sorry, unsolicited advice in airlines and like be like if they just had it in an email, like, hey, you've booked a flight with a kid, here's some recommendations. Like, I would have loved to get that as like a parent traveling. Like, here are the approved seat, like, you know, the sleeping things. Here are the approved whatever car seats, and here's how you do it. That would have been so incredible because I remember the first time I was traveling, I was like, what? What do I do?

SPEAKER_00: 52:11

Oh meeting people where they are, right? Giving them information at the places they are. It's a big initiative for us, especially in the years ahead. You know, it's like, why don't we have our information being given to moms when they're expecting where they are at the hospital when they're leaving? Where is the information that we can provide? Where are the new updated videos that you're required to watch where I can teach people how to do it right in five minutes and then you're good? Like, we don't need a 30-minute weird 1970s video.

SPEAKER_01: 52:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 52:42

So I remember the video at the hospital, but it had nothing to do with safety. It was just like, here, like it wasn't even helpful. I remember watching and being like, what is this? And then you're getting so much pressure to be like, no, you need to breastfeed. Here's how you do it. You're doing it wrong. And and but you're not even being, you know, taught about the safety of it. It's like here, I yeah, I don't know. You just open my eyes to a world of things I didn't even know I didn't know.

SPEAKER_00: 53:08

Like I said, everyone when that aha moment happens, your child is perfectly safe. They are perfectly safe, they're doing well and wonderful. You have some more information, and now you go forth and do what makes sense for you to do with it.

SPEAKER_01: 53:20

That's why I remember overnighting car seats before a trip when my kids were like, because we also Sam didn't travel for a long time because of COVID. Yeah. So we didn't fly between like ages one and like three and a half. But I remember before we took our first trip to the Bay Area, I overnighted them and they came the morning of our flight, and yeah, we just like scrambled.

SPEAKER_02: 53:41

Well, now you have baby quip where you can rent stuff, not NAD, but I just use them for the first time because we don't want to travel with our strollers anymore. Also, our son basically grown out of everything. So we just like we went to Disney. Highly don't recommend going to that place. Uh, and we rented a Bob stroller down there, and it was like 75 bucks for four days. I was like, this is incredible. Like, I don't have to do anything, I just leave it outside. Car seats, I get a little nervous about people renting. Strollers, no problem. Okay, so strollers, so yeah, what are your thoughts? I know we're at time, but what are your thoughts on like these rental services for car seats?

SPEAKER_00: 54:13

I have heard too many horror stories from parents that have rented a car seat. And then, like, I I had one that came in um yesterday when we posted something that she rented a car seat. She has an infant, she got there and it was a booster seat. Cool. I I just think there's I'm a big believer in control the controllable. So I'm obviously a type A. I'm not a type B. I don't like to fly by the seat of my pants. Um, you know, on most things. I did jump out of an airplane. So I like to tell people that I still like to have fun and do things. But when it comes to like traveling all day with my kids and then having them show up somewhere and then what if the car seats don't arrive? And then it's 10 p.m. at night. And what am I like? No, thank you. They're just gonna come with me. I'll deal with the inconvenience of it. When it comes to renting, I think you're taking a risk. Uh, you have to decide what your risk tolerance is, which is a big thing I talk about in general. Do you know what you're going to do? Do you have another adult with you that can run to Target and grab a different seat? Is it 10 p.m. at night? Are you gonna be in a dark parking garage by yourself waiting for that thing to come? I don't know. Just think through the what if it doesn't happen, because oftentimes it doesn't. And you don't know what seat you're getting, you don't know how to use it. It might be missing parts. It could be disgusting. Like they're definitely disgusting. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 55:36

Definitely disgusting. A lot of unknowns. A lot of unknowns. Yeah. That's good to know. Well, we've already taken so much of your time. And I I know I have a lot more questions that I don't even know I have yet, but we always like to wrap up with two questions at the end of every interview. And what is advice that you would give your best friend if she came to you and she was like, I'm expecting a baby, or something you wish somebody would have told you.

SPEAKER_00: 55:59

I think, I mean, I obviously my best advice is like go reach out safe in the seat, like obviously. But what I would say is car seat safety is your responsibility. And I know that seems very trite to kind of say, but I think many of us go into the situation thinking I have to buy the car seat and somebody else is gonna tell me like what to do with it, how to use it. No, so I would rather everyone go into their place of birth or before they bring their baby home for the first time, knowing you are responsible for the first thing that you are ever going to do that is going to put your child in danger. That is your responsibility. Take it seriously. And the great news is there are all the resources you need in one spot to help make that super easy. You can be super confident, you can check it off your list. But don't forget that step. It's it's not like I think we put importance on so much of the registry stuff and all these other things that we need and want. And it's like, cool, you have the the bottle warmer and the you know, the cute nursery blankets and the onesies, but let's let's make sure we got this aspect really nailed down and it's not hard to do. Once you know what to do, it's not hard to do. Yeah, once you have the resources, that's great advice.

SPEAKER_01: 57:20

What's the part of parenthood that has brought you unexpected joy?

SPEAKER_00: 57:24

I I shared a little bit before about just watching my kids like grow into who they're gonna be, but I love watching my kids with their friends. I love when I get to drive them around and I can hear their conversations or what they're giggling about or what their latest topic is and just how that communication is just different than what it than it is with us, and just the laughter and the joy that they have from those interactions. I always find myself smiling really big when like playdates are here. Sure, I'm also overwhelmed. Let's be serious. But I love I love watching them interact with um with their friends.

SPEAKER_02: 58:06

Yeah, that's super fun. I agree. That's a fun, fun time. Well, Michelle, thank you so much. We're gonna link this in the show notes, but where can people find you?

SPEAKER_00: 58:16

I would start with safeintheseat.com, especially as we talked earlier. We have a ton of resources, free resources. If for you know, if you're looking for a car seat, we tell you exactly which one to buy based on questions you answer. Like I would start there and then obviously come and follow us on socials. Instagram is where I'm personally most active because some of the other platforms scare me.

SPEAKER_02: 58:36

Let's totally, totally. Well, thank you so much, Michelle. And thank you everyone for listening. Yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00: 58:45

Thank you.