Living in Kuwait comes with many challenges, one of which is the traffic / driving. Road rules are certainly not for everyone here, and it’s not at all unusual to have someone just a couple of feet off of your bumper flashing their {obnoxiously bright} high beams at you as you cruise down the highway at 130 kilometres an hour. Add into that the fact that many people are texting, taking selfies, and watching YouTube videos {not joking – seen it many times} while driving, and the roads are an interesting place. To say the least. That being said, driving in Kuwait is much more sane now than when we first arrived in 2007 {congestion = slower moving traffic}, and for that I’m thankful.
What hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that the majority of people seem to have no regard for child car safety. It kills me. Kids teetering out of sunroofs while parents race through crowded roundabouts, children piled on top of one another in SUV hatchbacks, babies in the arms of nannies as cars weave their way in and out of traffic along the highways – it’s all a daily sight. Very, very rarely do you see non-Western expat kids in carseats. So, when I learned that December was ‘Kid Car Safety’ month at AUK and that students are working to educate people in Kuwait about car safety for kids, I was thoroughly impressed. We stopped by their booth at the Qout Market today and the girls running it were really lovely. They had a colouring station for kids, a pledge wall for those willing to commit to buckling up their kids, and a foam cut-out car for photo ops. They’ve also been spreading the word via the aukause instagram page and the hashtag #BeKauseImLoved, so hopefully word will spread. If you checkout the hashtag, you’ll see that there’s still lots of educating to be done {especially when it comes to the fact that carseat straps need to be done up / pulled tightly, newborns need to be rear-facing, and booster seats are truly only safe for children of a certain size}, but it’s a start and a definite step in the right direction. I’ll take it.
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Well apparently Grae’s new seat gets the seal of approval… We got ready for the day, packed up our things, got everything into the vehicle, and got about 4 minutes up the road before this little lady was out like a light in the back. Her new seat must be comfy!
Up until now, Gracen has happily been in the infant car seat we brought her home from the hospital in. And although she’s still well within the height and weight restrictions of her first seat, the straps are starting to get a little snug over all of the winter layers we’ve been sporting these days. So after some online research, we decided on a new Britax Marathon for our girl. We picked it up this afternoon, tried it out in the living room, and put it by the back door where Grae’s been visiting it every few minutes since.