Love or Hate?: Car Seat Mirrors

I recently made a 8 hour drive (not counting stops) to Pennsylvania to visit my family with all three babies in tow. Before I left on my trip, I rigged up a mirror on each of the back seat head rests so that I could see what was going on with our rear facing twins. One one head rest I used a Eddie Bauer Mirror that I already had (not as nice as the one pictured above) and then I engineered another with the mirror from a baby gym and a removable strap from my pumping bra… (weird, I know).

My husband, who would be flying up later in the week to join us at my parents house, was less than thrilled with my set up. His description was, “fun house” and “unsafe”. I was pretty offended after I had just spent 30 minutes trying to get the perfect configuration and balance of the mirrors so I could see their faces and determined that since I was the one making the 8 hour drive, I would get to decide.

I thought it would be helpful for my copilot and I to be able to see if a baby was crying because they needed a paci or if it was more than that. If they just needed a pacifier, my sister (who rode shot gun, but mostly in the back seat) could climb back and put it back in without us having to stop. However, if they were crying with pacifiers in, it would require an official stop along the way. I do understand where my husband was coming from with the unsafe opinion, because I personally feel that I don’t need another distraction.

Ultimately I left them up on the way there, but because of the distortion on the low quality mirrors, it looked like a fun house exaggeration and I wasn’t really able to see them like I wanted to anyway.

So what do you all think, do you LOVE or HATE car seat mirrors?

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About Jamie

Jamie is a creative-techie mom, raising three boys under three (twins!) with her husband in Pennsylvania. Jamie now writes at The Red Robinson, www.theredrobinson.com

Comments

  1. Michelle says:

    LOVE them for infants! I like knowing if they are sleeping or to see their face if they make a funny noise to make sure they are ok!

  2. Amy Greer says:

    I, personally, am addicted to the mirrors. I had one in every car. And now that Ramey is facing forward (don’t kill me Krista!), I keep my visor mirror down at all times so I can see her and don’t have to re-adjust my rear-view mirror. I think if you bought an actual mirror for the car, you would be more pleased. I had one like in the picture and loved it. I remember making a trip one time without the mirrors when she was rear-facing and I stopped every time she cried. Needless to say, the trip doubled in time. So, I am a big fan and think you should give it another shot. Although Ramey is almost two, we still always have a mirror on her. She knows she can talk to me through it and likes to make faces at me – probably a distraction, but it keeps me looking forward instead of turning around though! :)

  3. Lynsie says:

    I also love them! I travel around a lot without a co-pilot and I see it as much safer and a lot less of a distraction than if I was trying to drive and actually look back there. There have been numerious times with my kiddos it has just been a toy in their face or they needed their paci, or (in my daugher’s case) her headband had fallen over her eyes. No real need to stop and I didn’t have to try to drive and and try to figure it out, I saw the problem and it was a quick fix.

    I love them!

  4. I love ours. While it is awesome to be able to see baby when she is fussing and see what she might need, it gets used most for her to watch the van’s DVD player! The older kids will often put in a movie to watch on long trips, and it’s hard for her to be able to hear it and not see. So the kids change the angle of the mirror, and POOF! she can watch the movie right along with them. Yay!

    With that said — when we went through the car seat inspection a while back, the inspector said that she was looking the other way about them, but should know that it was not recommended to have foreign objects on the head rest.

  5. Loved them! Used them until youngest was 6-7 yo. I’m probably weird using them as long as I did but I liked being able to make eye contact when talking to them.

  6. Ashley says:

    Love! They are a must. Especially when driving alone:)

  7. I know I’m going to be in the minority here, but I hate them. I want to love them, but I can’t. They didn’t work for us when Miles was younger and I gave up. We haven’t found ourselves wishing that we had a car seat mirror. And I say that as a mom with two kids rear-facing, one of them almost 3 years old and one who is 14 months. I have never been able to get it to attach correctly and show me what I would want to see and they can be projectiles in a crash if not secured properly. I think they’re more hassle than they are worth! I only say “Hate” because there is no middle ground here, the options are “Love” or “Hate”! :)

  8. I’m gonna have to go with Krista and say “hate” because there isn’t really a middle ground. I don’t really hate them, i just feel they are unnecessary for me. For the most part, if one of our kids is crying, THERES A REASON why they’re crying, and it necessitates a stop. Our kids rarely cry over the little things, its usually pee/poop/or hungry.

    However, on a long road trip like Jamie’s, with a copilot who can climb back to take care of the situation I could see them as being useful.

    I also like Crysta’s use of the youngest being able to watch the DVD player. I may have to try that when the twins get a little older :) I’ll just have to dig our headrest mirrors out of the attic.

    I do see them as being a distraction for the driver (they were for me anyway) when trying to look at baby to see whats going on, instead of looking at the road. I wouldn’t worry so much about the projectile thing if they are secured properly.

  9. Monica says:

    I’m no mommy, but with my nephew, I loved having one. It helped me see what he was doing…sometimes quiet may mean more than sleeping. (I’m paranoid and worry about him choking on air, lol) It was also super sweet the first time he figured out he could see me through it too. Now granted, life all changed when he became forward facing and he could SEE where he was going… but for a baby, I’m gonna go with *love*. ;)

  10. Kendall says:

    I love them as well. I am also fearful of Jonah picking up something and choking on it and I like to know when and if he has fallen asleep. I’ve had a hard time getting in the righ position, but overall I love them and will use them with our next babe.

    Krista, will you do a post about why you still have Miles rear facing? I know there is a new recommendation and would like to know why you have decided to keep him that way for so long? Thanks :)

  11. Sure! Actually I might try to get a guest poster from someone with more knowledge about it, like a Child Passenger Safety Tech. Basically he’s still rear-facing because it’s safer!

  12. We have one in the van, but don’t have one in the car and whenever I drive the car I truly do miss it.
    My mommy friend recommended the mirror when we were registering, but gave me the great advice to only register for a really good, high quality one. If the mirror is too small it is nearly impossible to adjust correctly or you have to keep adjusting it (especially b/c what you can see changes when you move the driver’s seat to accomodate Mommy instead of Daddy); and she told me to make sure the mirror itself was good quality because of the exact thing Jamie mentioned, poor reflection quality is almost worse than no mirror.

    We got a great one and we love it! (It’s by Fisher Price from Wal-Mart, though I’m sure you can get it many other places, and it plays music controlled by a remote that looks like a colorful garage door opener.)

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