Car seats have a purpose.
I love my mother in law, I do. But some of the things she does just... UGHHHH. She does things half-assed a lot of the time, and I hear "Oh it'll be fine." from her a lot. But this latest thing is not something I can just ignore.
My fiance had the car yesterday and I had some stuff to do at my school, so she picked up Seth from daycare then she picked me up right after. I get in the car, I turn around to say hi to him and he smiles, but I notice something looks off. The second time I turned around to look at him, I notice it: he's completely slouched and only half way buckled into his car seat. Not even half way. The chest part is snapped, but the shoulder straps aren't even ON his shoulders, they're kind of falling off to the side. And the crotch part isn't even buckled!!!!!!
This is probably the third time I've had issues with her and car seats. First, she wanted me to use this ugly, OLD, flimsy car seat she had in the garage. It had been in there for a long time in the 100 degree heat and the expiration date was in 2000. Then one time, she had him strapped in perfectly, but didn't even bother to tighten the belt to ensure the seat was properly installed in the car.
Anyway, back to my story...
So I see him practically sliding out of the seat, and I think to myself: "Um... ooookay. WTF?"
I turn around, I unbuckle my seatbelt and I climb in the back calmly and casually to get him strapped in properly.
She asks what's wrong and I tell her "Oh, uh, he's sliding out of his seat."
One of my biggest fears is getting into a car crash - seriously, I am so paranoid about driving and depending on who I'm in the car with, I can be VERY nervous. I hate driving and avoid it if I can, and she has him basically just sitting freely in his seat that could save his life if some jackass accidentally hits us.
I didn't say anything, but I probably should have. I think I didn't because I was mostly in disbelief that she'd just overlook something so important. Next time I'm going to tell her to PLEASE make sure he's strapped in properly.
What would you have done?
Am I being paranoid/overreacting?