A friend and I were planning on taking our kids on a trip to the city and I called her the night before to confirm plans. “My car or yours?” I asked.

“Yours,” she replied, knowing my smaller Mazda wasn’t as hard on gas as her SUV. “I’ll meet you at your place, park the van, and we’ll leave from there.”

“Great. Don’t forget a booster seat for Sarah,” I reminded her. “I only have one for my daughter.”

“Sarah? No, we don’t use a booster seat,” my friend replied, truly puzzled. “She’s too old for that now. We stopped using a booster seat for her a long time ago.”

That night I realized that many, many parents aren’t aware of proper booster seat safety and car safety for kids. We live in a society inundated with free information on nearly any subject under the sun, and yet there are still well educated people out there who haven’t been told basic car safety guidelines and how to protect their children as best they can in case of an accident.

I thought a booster seat for a five-year-old was a given. I thought everyone knew that.

I was wrong.

Worse, I began to doubt what I thought was right.

I had been pretty confident that my 50-pound child belonged in a booster seat up until that night. I was pretty sure that she hadn’t yet reached the suggested weight and height to ride without a booster seat. But my friend’s dismissal of a booster seat for her daughter - the same age and approximate weight as mine - had planted a seed of doubt in my mind.

Had the car seat safety guidelines changed? Was the information I had out of date? I needed to find out - fast.

Booster Seat Guidelines for Preschoolers

Luckily, I was doing the right thing. My child was strapped into the perfect seat for her size. I found out that U.S. and Canadian government agencies recommend a booster seat for children weighing more than 40 pounds until a child:

• turns nine years old
• weighs 36 kg or 80 lbs
• is taller than 145 cm or 4 feet 9 inches

In fact, in some places, using a booster seat until your child reaches one of these markers is the law.

I felt better after having refreshed myself on which children should be safely strapped into a booster seat. I had been doing the right thing for my child, and I also emailed my friend to update her as well.

Now both our kids travel safely in booster seats, whether it’s a long trip to the city or just a short run around the block.