Me talking about myself
Be Seated was born in the early months of 2019 from a place of enthusiasm, passion, and also admittedly a little desperation. Not only had I found myself a solo parent to my daughter Addi (4), I had just welcomed my second daughter Remi into the world and was navigating my new life with two children. It was chaotic to say the least, but my desperation wasn’t just with my own situation, it was with what I was watching happen in the cars on the roads around me.
I’d always had a keen interest in anything with a motor growing up, if my stepdad was in the garage I was there hovering over his shoulder, watching and learning. Though with cars and bikes, came a responsibility to safety, and this was always drilled into me by those around me. So, when I became a mum, it seemed only natural to learn as much as I could about child car safety and how to do it right. Never did a realise how confusing and daunting of a task that could have been.
I’ve often joked you need to learn a few extra languages to decipher car restraint manuals, except its not much of a joke when you think about it. When we are taught to drive, we’re taught that we are in control of a “weapon”, we’re required to spend hours practising and then pass tests in order to be in control of that car on our own. Yet somehow when we have a baby there’s nothing. No tests, no age limits, no one standing over our shoulder to ensure we’ve put the car restraint in correctly, and the baby too! Nope, we just walk out of hospital after doing our best at that “everyday parenting task” that ended in 7 arguments, a call to your friends, a few swear words bellowed from the garage, and away we go! It’s actually terrifying!