I remember playing with my stuffed animals, tucking myself down on the floor of the car and spreading them out over the back seat. I remember getting sleepy and my mom suggesting I lie down on the seat and have a nap.

Yeah – 30 years ago, you could actually do pretty much whatever you wanted in the back seat of a car. I don’t even remember that there were seat belts at all.

These memories came to mind recently when I saw a mom offer to drive some teens home from a soccer game. Her little girl was strapped into her car seat in the back, but the mom had room to take two passengers. The teens climbed in, there was some shifting around…

… and then one teen got out. She looked concerned. With good reason – she’d discovered there wasn’t a seat belt available for her. For some reason, the mom’s seatbelt arrangement to strap in her toddler had taken up two belts, not just one, leaving one person short of that safe strapping.

The situation made me realize a few things:

We’ve come a long way since those days when back-seat seatbelts weren’t used, and today’s kids know that “buckle up” is the rule – and they’ll enforce it themselves, even, refusing to get into a car that doesn’t provide safe traveling.

We’re also not as far along as we’d like to think. There are still plenty of parents out there that don’t know how to properly attach car seats for children or which seat is the right one to use for their child’s size and age.

If you have kids, head on down to your local fire department or police station and ask them to double-check that your child’s car seat is properly installed. They’ll do it, and often free of charge. Ask them whether your child has the right seat to keep her safe, too. You can even go one step further after your car seat arrangement has been given two thumbs up and install extra safety accessories like a Seat Snug clip.

It’s worth it – and you won’t have any children refusing to drive in your car because it isn’t safe.

They want to be able to reach things they can’t normally. They want to see over other peoples’ heads instead of looking up at their stomachs. They want to have some control over their lives and be an authority, not just have to listen to one.

Most kids know they can’t be grownups right away, even if they really wanted that. But they think they can be like the other kids, the bigger kids. After all, those kids are still kids, just… bigger.

Think of a teen sister who doesn’t use a sippy cup anymore, or an older brother who can ride in the front seat. Think of a cousin who doesn’t need a booster seat just to see out the window. Little kids want to have that freedom and to be big and strong, just like those kids.

They don’t want to be little kids. And it’s pretty normal to hear preschoolers try to demonstrate they aren’t so little by protesting they’re not a baby anymore.

Sometimes, though, they don’t have a choice but to stick with “little kid rules”. You can help them feel more grown up by letting them use a mug instead of a sippy cup at suppertime, but that booster seat? Sorry, kiddo - you’re stuck with that.

If you’re like me, you try to find ways to encourage little kids to feel proud about the limitations they have to live with. And for booster seats, there’s a way to do that.

Install a Seat Snug lap cinch on that seatbelt, and tell your preschooler that it’s the same cinch used by race car drivers. Your child is going to feel pretty proud and grown up knowing that he’s sitting in a booster seat and strapped in safely just like those performance car heroes out on the track.

Now that’s cool factor - all for kids.

Those are the words from safety advocate Tom Piggot recently on Fox4 Morning Blend in Cape Coral Florida when SeatSnug CEO Chuck Carter appeared with Piggot on the program to discuss at length the SeatSnug safety device.

Click below to watch the recording on the SeatSnug YouTube channel. We also published this video to the SeatSnug facebook page.

No, not the noise that you wish she’d stop making.

Not the “are we there yet?” when we’re in the middle of nowhere.

Not the “I have to pee!” when there’s no bathroom for at least another hour.

It’s the seatbelt.

My daughter’s booster seat is great, it really is. But my car’s seatbelt seems to have a mind of its own. (Personally I think it’s cursed.)

Sometimes she leans forward and it locks. “MOM! It’s pulling on me again!!” Sometimes she climbs in, I go to strap her into her seat, and the seat belt won’t play out. I try to jerk a few times before realizing it’s stuck and I have to start all over.

Why wouldn’t it play out in the first place? It was caught in the booster seat. It took me nearly five minutes of muttering and fiddling to figure that out.

Then there’s the frustration of getting the seatbelt to be tight enough around my child’s lap. Cars just weren’t built to recognize that, “Hey, this is a kid, here. We need to adjust to that booster seat!” SUVs that had built-in child seats always sounded so appealing to me, if only because I assumed that the manufacturers paid extra attention to making sure children had a safe, comfortable ride in the custom-designed seats.

(Note: I’m not informed whether these built-in child seats actually are custom-designed and safer than regular booster seats. I’m just assuming they are and could be wrong.)

I’m patient and conscientious about making sure my daughter is well strapped in - I know many, many parents who are just too busy or rushing around too much and they don’t pay as much attention as I do. They put their kids at risk every day, thinking they won’t have an accident because those parents are safe drivers.

Well, you don’t really plan to have accidents. That’s why they’re called “accidents” and not “intentional”.

So if you’re like me, if you want to make sure that your child has a safe ride in the car in her booster seat, take two extra minutes to make sure she’s strapped in properly. You may also want to consider booster seat adjusters like the Seat Snug to have some extra peace of mind.

Because on those long drives, we parents need all the peace we can get!

“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 usage 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.

So why do kids need booster seats?

Not Made for Small

Car manufacturers put a lot of time and research into safety and seat belt design. But seat belts are made to fit adults and people at least 4 feet 9 inches tall -toddlers fall well short of that mark.

In fact, putting your child in a seat belt with no booster seat puts him at great risk for injury if there’s ever an accident, like injury to the spine or internal organs.

Boosting Into Position

A booster seat lifts a child’s body and places it at the proper position so that the seat belt fits - and protects your child in case of an accident. Your child needs to use a booster seat while traveling in the car until he or she is around 9 years old or reaches 4 feet 9 inches height.

Many parents go from combo car seats with plenty of straps to booster seats that use the seat belt, and suddenly they feel like their child doesn’t have enough straps or harness to provide the proper protection. Don’t worry; it is.

Booster seats don’t use harnesses - in fact, harnesses can be dangerous to leave in when you convert your combo car seat to a booster, even if doing so makes you feel more secure.

Those extra straps aren’t needed anymore, and they aren’t secure or safe for your child, so remove them. The seat belt holds both your child and the booster seat in place if you come to a sudden stop or suffer a crash.

Short or Tall?

Booster seats come in different shapes and sizes, and it can be tough for parents to figure out which is the right choice, or even which type of booster is safer than another.

High-back booster seats are best of your car doesn’t have headrests or high seat backs in the back seat of your car. The tall back prevents whiplash in case of a crash. Sometimes high-back booster seats come with seat-belt positioners to guide the seat belt strap in the proper position so that it doesn’t creep up to your child’s neck.

Low-back booster seats are used in cars that have headrests - they protect your child’s head from whiplash, so no extra backing is needed. Low-back booster seats are best for when your child height doesn’t require any help to position the seat belt properly from shoulder to hip.

Always use lap/shoulder seat belts with either type of car seat. Never, ever use lap-only seat belts with booster seats.

This is the second CG-Lock Technology product that has received the Seal.

Layfayette Hill, Pennsylvania—February 9, 2010—Charles Carter CEO, Lap Belt Cinch Incorporated, announced that the company’s Seat-Snug device received The National Parenting Center’s 2010 Seal of Approval as a unique child car safety device that stabilizes children in booster seats to increase child safety and comfort. SeatSnug is designed specifically for children, to provide increased safety and reduce the risk of their injury in auto accidents, thus providing peace of mind to Moms, Dads, Grandmoms and Grandpops, as they drive children around. According to Mr. Carter, “The normal seat belt attachment allows slack or looseness to develop in the lap belt while riding, creating an unsafe condition, so the seat belt does not safely secure a child in a booster seat. With SeatSnug added to a seat belt, slack can be eliminated so a child is safely secured and so performance of the seat belt is optimized in the event of an accident.”

SeatSnug can be easily and quickly clipped onto a vehicle’s existing seat belt. Once a child in a booster seat is buckled up, the lap belt may be lightly tightened around the child’s upper thighs and hips by pulling up on the shoulder strap to more safely secure and stabilize the child, without affecting the normal operation of the shoulder strap. Once tightened, the lap belt cannot loosen so it won’t ride up on the abdomen. However, the child continues to have the comfort of free upper body movement. SeatSnug enhances child safety by preventing dangerous lap belt slack (looseness) while maintaining and enhancing comfort.

Mr Carter explained further; “Formal crash tests at 30 mph using Government standard protocols, demonstrated repeatedly that SeatSnug significantly reduced forces on the chest and at the hips by properly positioning the seat belt for optimum safety. SeatSnug represents a major advance in vehicle safety for children.”

SeatSnug incorporates the unique race track proven, extensively crash tested, and patented CG-Lock® Technology. SeatSnug has been endorsed by moms, including the Safety Mom, Alison Rhodes.

SeatSnug can be purchased at retail outlets nationwide. Visit www.seatsnug.com for where to buy, and for more information, video demonstrations and testimonials. SeatSnug has been endorsed by moms, including the Safety Mom, Alison Rhodes.

About The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval

The National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval is an independent testing procedure conducted to judge a variety of products introduced and marketed to the parent/child consumer market. The Seal approval program, created in 1990 as an adjunct to TNPC’s support services, identifies the finest products and services being marketed to this audience. From educational and entertainment products to travel destinations the consumer oriented testing process solicits evaluations from parents and their children. This award signifies to other parents that their peers have acknowledged a product’s quality and desirability based on a wide variety of determining factors (http://www.tnpc.com/about.htm)

In a recent survey, 68% of mothers reported that they pay attentions to awards and seals and most moms (56%) say that these increase their likelihood of purchasing such a product.

Contact: Bruce Mather
President and Chief Technology Officer
302-324-8114

Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania - December 10, 2008 - DiMora Motorcar announced today that Lap Belt Cinch, Inc. has become its latest Technology Partner and will provide CG-Lock® technology in every Natalia SLS 2 sport luxury sedan.

The patented CG-Lock technology is incorporated into every Natalia seatbelt. The CG-Lock allows the lap belt portion of the seatbelt to be tightened from gentle to extreme–similar to commercial aircraft seatbelts–providing around 80 percent of the control benefit of a racecar harness. The shoulder belt is unaffected. Although originally developed to give sports-car drivers better control and feedback, the technology has also been proven to provide much greater safety than a standard seatbelt, while enhancing comfort for daily driving.

The CG-Lock has been available as an aftermarket (add on) product since 2004 and has an estimated 100+ million street miles driven, with rave reviews from customers, the press, and professional drivers.

Most importantly, formal crash testing and real world experience have demonstrated that use of the CG-Lock reduces the potential for injury in frontal, lateral, and rollover events.

The addition of CG-Locks to the state-of-the-art Natalia SLS 2 is a natural fit due to the “quadruple advantages” of improved driver control without the need for harnesses, greater driver and passenger comfort, improved driver and passenger safety, and a proven track record of user satisfaction.

“We are pleased that DiMora Motorcar is setting the standard by becoming the first automotive manufacturer to provide CG-Lock Technology on every vehicle,” said Charles M. Carter, CEO of Lap Belt Systems. “When other manufacturers do the same, thousands of lives will be saved every year. We will also provide each Natalia SLS 2 with SeatSnug®–our child safety product with CG-Lock Technology inside–to enhance the comfort and safety of children riding in booster seats.”

“We are committed to making the Natalia SLS 2 the safest automobile on the road,” noted Alfred DiMora, Founder of DiMora Motorcar. “The CG-Lock may be the most important seatbelt innovation since Preston Tucker initially installed seatbelts in a production automobile.”

“Most people just assume that their standard seatbelts are adequate,” continued DiMora. “The Lap Belt Cinch engineers delved deeper into how a better seatbelt could improve vehicle control for the driver and comfort and safety for everybody in the car. The insights they gained led them to invent the CG-Lock. This is the kind of thoughtful innovation we find all across America, and we are pleased to be the first OEM to integrate many of these systems into the Natalia SLS 2.”

About Lap Belt Cinch
Based in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, Lap Belt Cinch, Inc. has established several market applications for its CG-Lock Technology to enhance seatbelt performance by providing added control, comfort, and safety. Currently marketed products include the CG-Lock for high-performance driving, recreational off-road, police and first responders, the mobility-impaired, and military uses; and SeatSnug for booster seats. Future applications include vehicle aftermarket and original equipment for enhanced safety and comfort, child car seats, light civilian aircraft, older children, the elderly/frail, commercial off-road, commuter comfort and safety, acute and chronic low back pain, truckers, and OSHA/heavy equipment applications. For more information, please visit www.lapbeltcinch.com, www.cg-lock.com, or www.seatsnug.com.