Bye-bye Booster

Last week, after years of hearing her griping and other people's incredulity that she was still using it, I finally let the Lone Star Girl ditch the booster seat in the car. In Texas, we only have a law that says kids need to use a carseat/booster until they are 4 (or 40 lbs.), so booster seat use is not nearly as common as it is in states with 6/60 or 8/80 laws. You almost never see school -aged children in boosters at all here, much less ten-year-olds. Even in the group of ultra-conscientious parents that I like to hang out with in the rare moments when I have time for friends, several of whom did extend booster seat use well into the elementary years, I was definitely the last hold-out . Of course, I used to work with someone who was on the child fatality review team locally and had to hear all the stories about the buckled-up eight-year-olds who were flung from their cars and died because seat belts don't work on children that size. According to experts, most kids are around eleven or twelve before they are big enough to pass the five-point test that means they are safe in a regular seat belt. The Lone Star Girl is a bit of an early bloomer and is about that size now, so she has finally passed the test (she is long-bodied rather than long-legged and passes it better than I do - I should probably use a booster!) - so it's bye-bye, booster. She's quite relieved, as you can imagine.