Building Community & Car Seat Safety: Charlene Freestone of Primary Children’s Hospital (Lehi Campus)

Full Conversation Transcript

0:00

welcome to roots and branches of Lehi the podcast where we get to know the faces stories and lives that make up our

0:05

community I'm Ryan Hardin and I started this podcast as a way for us all to connect with the people we live

0:11

alongside growing up in a small town I learned that connections go beyond blood they're built through shared experiences

0:17

friendships and the moments we celebrate together each week we'll sit down with someone new from Lehi to share their

0:24

unique story their passions and what they love most about living here so whether you've been here for years or

0:31

just arrived join us as we deepen Our Roots and reach out to our branches one

0:36

story at a time welcome uh Charlene Freestone so at you get to be here on the podcast Lehigh roots and branches so

Meet Charlene Freestone

0:43

excited to have you excited and good yes you know our little Community podcast here so you wear several hats one of

0:51

which is is has to do with Primary Children's Hospital right tell us well tell us a little bit about yourself and

0:57

I mean in your role there and and give us a little intro C I guess I work at The Inter Mountain Primary Children's

Charlene's Journey to Lehi

1:02

Hospital Larry H Miller and Gail Miller Family Campus that's located in Lehi y

1:07

so it's been a fantastic opportunity for me but it is one of several things that

1:12

I do I've lived in Lehi with my husband Greg Freestone since I graduated BYU

1:20

in 2009 okay I am not from Utah County I

1:25

grew up in a combination of Denver and California but with the recession at the time of my graduation it became pretty

1:32

apparent that we were going to be here and we were just going to kind of scrape

1:38

up what limited opportunities there were that year I had some opportunities that I'd hop to have after graduation just

1:45

completely dissolve with the recession and so I went from studying business

1:50

management always knowing that I wanted to pursue teaching adults corporate

1:56

training was something I did for the university in their food services department and I knew that that was

2:02

something I wanted to keep doing but it's something that's a very limited opportunity and that I would have to kind of find where that spot was so it

2:11

was something that I kind of had to wait for and it's been worth waiting for so I I have three children they are 14 12 and

2:18

8 we're a big adventure family we love the outdoors traveling we love doing all

2:24

the things in Utah winter summer and I yeah I do wear lots of hats

Building Community in Lehi

2:30

one of the things that I would say kind of started my where I'm at now yeah working at Primary Children's Hospital

2:38

is that I very quickly in having my children moving to Lehi from an

2:44

apartment complex when I was in my house I very quickly was like wow this is so lonely with this little human and I

2:51

complained to my mother and she very distinctly was like oh like you need to

2:56

make your own Community yeah she's like it's not going to find you yeah she's like you have to make it and I really

3:03

it's good advice she's a good lady inspired me to kind of create different communities and so I started with like a

3:09

mom's play group I started with just setting up events on Facebook like I wanted to meet up with other moms and I

3:15

ended up teaching them different things that I was good at or worked at and one of them was teaching people how to actually use baby carriers so I taught

3:22

people how to use baby carriers and we ended up starting a formal nonprofit chapter of an international organization

3:29

W for baby wearing and so I ran that with a couple friends for a few years we ended up we have since passed it off

3:36

with 2020 Co and all those changes to actually the wick and different so we we

3:43

dissolved our lending library of baby carriers and distributed them to the community but that was the thing that

3:49

kind of kickstarted that I was going to be growing a community here in Lehigh and that it would it would always

3:56

circulate around parents but as my babies got bigger I kind of had this like where was like oh I it's not going

4:03

to be babies like how could I keep doing this yeah but when it was babies I started out my first kind of little

The Natural Parenting Boutique

4:09

formal business venture in Lehi was we started a natural parenting Boutique on

4:15

Lehigh mainster actually in the old Lehi hotel right by the train tracks nice and we rented from the Midwife that I think

4:21

is still there now in some other businesses I mean where else can you have a baby buy stuff gems and I think

4:28

at one time you could rent wedding dresses is in the same building it was pretty impressive and so we started our

4:33

shop there and we sold cloth diapers baby carriers but our biggest Focus was on parent education classes and trying

4:39

to be a community meeting space we pretty quickly outgrew the space we had they needed it for some other purposes

4:45

so we did move up to Sandy sadly it was going to be the best commute ever 3 minutes yeah that would have yes it was

4:50

going to be so good that's my commute right now that's your commute right now I'm so jealous but I was lucky I got to move my shop boot Baby Boutique up to

4:59

San where it was up until April of 2020 So Co for a lot of

Transition to Primary Children's Hospital

5:05

people I think reset their career for me the day of the Utah earthquake I had the

5:11

realization that no one is ever going to bring their like small children to stores anymore like I was just very

5:16

aware that this if I kept this going I was just going to lose money sure and I

5:22

folded super quickly I sold my share to my co-owners I was like I have no faith

5:27

in this going forward sure luck so some of them have kept it going in different capacities but that was my Just moment

5:34

where I realized that we were going to have to redo how we're building Community with Co and so that's when my

5:41

nonprofit kind of fizzled out that's when I stopped working with my Boutique

5:46

and so I ended up working at the my children's school and got really involved with as a teacher's aid there

5:53

and got to see how how everyone kind of banded together to keep everything going during Co and that was really neat to be

5:59

a part of and so I got to work in education so I did a little bit of retail did a little bit of education and

6:05

then I have now found my way back with working at Inter Mountain Primary

6:12

Children's Hospital specifically as a child passenger safety technician okay

6:18

okay and so well so okay that's perfect so that gives us a little bit of background of maybe you know kind of how

6:24

you got into that I guess yeah I skipped the final jump with my shop we were going to sell car seats okay and so you

6:31

needed someone that was certified in that capacity to legally sell car seats

6:37

with some of the higher-end companies sure it's not a requirement like Target or Walmart but some of the higher end companies want that education to be

6:43

given as part of the purchase so I volunteered his tribute and I just absolutely loved the community of those

6:51

community health workers gotcha and and you may have already answered this I guess but maybe with your mom but but

6:57

how did you get involved in a career focusing on children and families and stuff like that especially with Primary

7:02

Children's what what what got you you know where's the motivation come from I

7:08

guess I think they found me because I was very set on that I was going to be a

7:13

corporate businesswoman I was just going to be with other adults and I do I do actually still do that I work as a

7:19

private contractor doing project management work for big tech companies and so I I'm still involved in that work

7:26

but in the small opportunities I was given from just people needing help

7:31

feeling so overwhelmed in those moments of early parenting that they've they it

7:38

just fell on me and it kept being a thing that was made clear that I needed

7:43

to be a part of so and and how did you get so so tell me tell me exactly what you do then with Primary Children's tell

Role at Primary Children's Hospital

7:49

me what what is your role there I guess then right now yes so I am a as a child

7:54

passenger safety technician in a general capacity they might particip ipate in

8:01

the biggest thing that you would say they're like primary job is is that you're going to provide one-on-one

8:07

parent education for how the parent is going to install the car seat in the

8:13

vehicle and with that in hospital capacity we have a more diverse component because daytoday a child

8:21

passenger safety technician if they work at like the health department or if they work at a fire station or I have a

8:28

friend that works for the highway safety Department doing this they are just checking people's car seats they already

8:33

own or providing like seats that were purchased with grants to parents that need them whereas at the hospital we do

8:40

absolutely do that okay and that's one of my favorite things I do there but additionally there is children that

8:48

cannot be transported safely with the car seats that are just available

8:54

commercially sure and so if you think of some of the surgeries that like they may

8:59

perform there if a child is getting a a cast like if they're having both hips operated on they are going to have

9:05

a cast that is from their armpits with maybe a bar between their legs and they're just not going to fit yeah or we

9:12

might have children that have spine abido where they have open incisions on their back and they may even need to be

9:17

transported laying down face down actually like wow in just seats that you may have never seen that look like a

9:24

giant basket that's attached to the card so that's a special certification in addition to being a child passenger

9:30

safety technician I'm actually doing the formal trading for it Friday W so everyone at the Lehi location of Primary

9:37

Children's will then have that certification to work with families with special medical needs and transportation

9:44

needs to help transport either kids home from procedures and then the third thing

9:49

we do there is work with parents that have kids that may have um behavioral

9:54

issues with transporting okay so if they have different challenges that make it so they can't sit still or might try to

10:02

escape we would also work with those children as well now is this the dream job G Jan Marie had told me that you you

10:09

landed your dream job is this is this it tell me or tell me that story I guess with you know with Landing the dream job

10:16

it is one of those that I would say it is absolutely in like a dream capacity

10:21

okay for a hot I mean it's me I always love to be a little bit more in charge and so at Primary Children's Hospital in

10:28

Lehigh right now I'm working as an on call child passenger safety technician so I'm working doing the things I love

10:35

with people I love fantastic management so I would say it's the dream job if I got to do it all the time that would be

10:41

that would be the true dream but it's fantastic to be with the crew that I work there they I had said that I was

10:47

going to work in my same capacity actually quite a few years ago up at the

10:53

Salt Lake Campus and at the primary children Salt Lake Campus I had applied

10:58

for a position and actually is one of the only jobs I've ever applied to to this day that I got I didn't get they

11:05

came back to me and said after I interviewed we didn't realize your outside the how far away you can be to

11:11

work on call oh shoot and so they were like yeah we we can't have you but like

11:17

if we ever open a second location you should apply again girl yes okay and so

11:22

I had it in the back of my head and this this hospital has been announced for years yeah it's been something that I've

11:31

really just wanted and wished and waited for to come down here it's a tangent but

11:37

I have a child that was born with needs that required surgeries okay and at the

11:44

time that would have only been done the time the child was born it was only done up in Salt Lake and they were actually

11:50

over capacity in 2011 because it was the post recession baby boom that they actually

11:56

had to move surgeons down to Utah Valley Hospital to do my son surgery there so

12:02

they couldn't they couldn't even fit him at the hospital and back then one of the

12:07

nurses that helped my son we went to take him home and he one of the things I do day-to-day at the hospital is if a

12:15

child with Like Oxygen issues is needing to be discharged the niku nurses will

12:21

oversee a car seat test where they install them in their car seat they check their oxygen but if it's looking

12:26

like they may not pass they'll bring us in to support them and troubleshoot things that might be affecting that and

12:33

so my son actually needed to have that happen and we were really lucky that his

12:39

nurse that he'd had was a child passenger safety technician okay so she had that additional training and that

12:45

was long before my store or before I even knew it was a job and I did think it I thought it was something you had to

12:51

be maybe a nurse for at the time sure and I thought but that's not the case yeah and it is not the case it is a

12:57

certification that you can get just on your anyone that is passionate about working with uh parents children

13:04

oftentimes underprivileged communities it's a certification that you can pay for on your own it's a 4-day training

13:10

they host it about twice a year and it's a cool opportunity for anybody and it's a very welcoming Community they always

13:17

want more volunteers to come and work at different events or checkpoints and so it's something that even if you

13:24

necessarily couldn't find paid work in if you're passionate about working with parents and children they they'd love to

13:30

have more so it's not something you need to start just because of a career init sure and so I actually did my first day

13:38

with Inner Mountain exactly 12 years later and at Utah Valley Hospital okay

13:45

to the day my son had been discharged from that first car seat test oh wow nice so I was looking at my inner

13:52

Mountain badge yeah and I remember like looking up at out of the building be

13:58

like I'm back but this time I'm helping people here that's awesome and I thought that when I was there there was a lady

14:04

that did parent volunteer coordination and I was like her job is

14:11

so cool I want to do that someday and I've even run into this woman at the grocery store randomly really like

14:17

different city a couple years later and I was like are you still doing that job and she's like yeah I haven't retired yet and I was like okay so I can't take

14:23

your job yet she's like you may not not yet nope but but I've asked her yeah well that's that's good followed up on

14:30

it well tell me so tell me tell me what some of the common challenges that parents face I guess with with new kids

Challenges and Memorable Experiences

14:36

that that you guys kind of help you know facilitate or solve I guess for them

14:41

yeah so we typically at primary Children Hospital in Lehi don't get the like

14:48

newborn discharge as much because babies are not necessarily like born there they're transported there so we might do

14:54

discharges with those parents but one of the issues I think any parent parent being discharged with like your baby and

15:00

your newborn is that a lot of parents don't know that every nurse that helps you with a car seat like when you've had

15:06

a newborn has that extra training so you may ask them I think I've asked questions when I had some my other kids

15:13

and they actually legally can only pair it kind of like their little script so

15:19

they may actually not know how car seats work Beyond how that newborn should look

15:24

that very first time and so there is a lot of education that those parents may

15:30

still need yeah but in their minds they're like oh the nurse told me it looks good I'm done but children's

15:35

safety unfortunately is not a oneandone thing yeah and so it's parents it's very

15:42

important to know that there is more resources out there for them car seat checks at our hospital and at the

15:49

different Health departments all over Utah are free okay and they love when you call they love when you make an

15:54

appointment they are not there to judge how your child arrived we always have our Mantra is that safe that they leave

16:03

safer than they arrived like we we may not be able to do things perfectly we know everyone's circumstance and

16:09

situation is different but we always want them safer so how does how does that look so somebody calls you know

16:14

their new their their kids now two three years old right you know so obviously you know they they're a little bigger

16:21

than they were when they were newborn right you know hey am I still doing this right what's so they just call and kind of walk us through that process what

16:26

does that look like yeah so the hospital or the different Health departments if you call them you can be directed to a

16:33

child passenger safety technician car seats like say I want to have someone do a car seat check that's kind of the big

16:39

term that that parent is looking for and then they'll ask you a couple questions they'll ask you the height weight

16:45

ballpark sure for your child and their age they may ask you what seat they're riding in currently just so they're

16:51

getting a mental picture they'll ask you what kind of car it is maybe what year just so that they can do a little bit of

16:56

background information to make sure that they know what kind of situation not every car as lots of parents may have

17:03

learned is easy to pop a car seat into no no some are very difficult right yeah yeah some you might be fighting for your

17:10

life yes yes out there I actually did my car seat training when it was the like

17:17

second week of June in 2018 and it was like 104 and you learn outside yeah some is in a classroom so

17:24

we are installing car seats in cars when it's like 103 so I feel feel I feel for

17:30

parents that are always fighting the good fight trying to make sure that everything looks appropriate well so any

17:37

any particular experiences stand out to you any memorable I mean you've been doing this for a little while any like oh hey you know I don't know any

17:43

experiences from this you know that you want to share so I actually it goes back to the question like how I ended up at

17:49

primaries I was working at an event in I want to say it was 20 the fall of 2021

17:58

where we do a child safety week in September and so there might be different checks around the different valleys it's just an it's a national

18:05

like Child Safety Week sure so the different pass child passenger safety technicians will do different

18:11

checkpoints where people can just come and have their car seats checked out oft times they will have car seats that have

18:17

been purchased by grants that are not income based so sometimes at those checks I do one in July as well that if

18:23

you just come and like and need a new seat like we just give them away wow and

18:29

so I think sometimes people get caught in that gap of like I don't necessarily qualify for maybe a government program

18:35

that I get something from but there are lots of resources that we still want to make people aware of and so I was at that

18:40

checkpoint and a family came that actually had the same minivan that I had

18:47

had when I was doing an inhome daycare and I'd had to transport five kids that were all under eight oh wow I were

18:53

taking my son to swim lessons and I'd be moving car seats around and I'd be like this is rough sure but I it was such a

19:00

hard car seat check because normally they try to keep one they call they also call a cpst it's probably a good acronym

19:06

to start using the they they assigned two of us to the same car because it was

19:12

just such they had six children in this seven seater minivan yeah and I think

19:19

they arrived with five car seats okay and so they had two technicians working on it and actually five car seats is a

19:26

bit of a stretch one of the children was on a wooden box that I think that had

19:33

been secured to the vehicle if I distinctly remember and I do chuckle at it a bit but I also can at the same time

19:40

hold space for that they were doing the best they can sure they they thought they were boosting him up like I appreciate that they were trying yeah

19:47

they also were trying to fit three car seats in the back row so close together minivan third rows are suspiciously tiny

19:53

I agreed and they had Daisy chained

19:59

the lap extender belts that should only be used in a medical situation where you cannot fit your seat belt and it is like

20:06

approved and it's just a very small window of who needs them they had Daisy chained them through the outer car seats

20:12

in towards the center one and then back out and buckled so there was a lot of Ingenuity that I could really appreciate

20:18

sure they were doing their best with what they had my other the other technician I worked painstakingly to get

20:26

this family new seats get them all organized in the car we worked with the parent we got everyone in as best of a

20:32

seat as we could we're about to shake hands send her on her away give her some education materials and she goes but

20:38

where should I put the newborn baby I'm pregnant with and we just stared at each other the other technician I went what

20:43

do you mean she's like well I need to be able to transport this child in this car as well and in that kind of situation

20:50

you are going to start needing to move maybe a child that was younger than that 13 to the front seat yeah in a situation

20:57

where you're going to do the best you can so we moved a kid up scooted the seat back away from the airbag and

21:03

proceeded to have to rearrange every single child in the car there was no car seat in this minivan that sadly worked

21:12

just anywhere or fit the kid situation so we had to like redo the seat reg everything start completely from scratch

21:18

we were at least like an hour and 20 minutes into this installing car seats like physical labor with this woman sure

21:24

and totally had to start over and the woman I was working with was like wow

21:29

you really know your stuff yeah and I was like unfortunately because I own this vehicle so you know exactly where

21:36

like you can give me credit as in my job Cy for sure and she said no don't sell yourself short you were problem solving

21:42

and really working to empower this parent I would love to have you work with me up at the Primary Children's

21:49

Hospital in Salt Lake and I was like oh I applied for that they didn't want me and she's like I don't think that's true

21:55

she goes I'm in charge now such and such lady retired and and now we want you we would love to have you and I was like no

22:01

I'm still physically too far away so I can't work with you right now she goes well we're going to have that Lehi one when we have Lehigh it was always this

22:07

carrot dangled yeah yeah so even years in advance she was like you should you really need to work with me yeah up at

22:14

the hospital and so this Christmas my Christmas card from her

22:21

said here's to more years working with Dodge Caravans together I'm so glad she said

22:27

yes it's awesome so little little did you know you were doing a job interview at that time J and she got to see me in

22:35

action there and it has been a funny joke that that exact year car layout weird situation has popped up when I am

22:42

working more than anyone else and so I'm I'm just where I need to be fighting the good fight in a in a car that isn't laid

22:49

out as perfectly as I would have loved for car seats who knew a minivan minivans some of them are super easy for

22:55

car seats and others are sometimes the hardest vehicle I working yeah wow well so so you mentioned a couple

Resources for Parents

23:02

resources already you know the the how people sometimes can get free car seats do car seat checks different things like

23:08

that tell me what other resources are available for for new parents that that we haven't talked about yet I guess that

23:13

you know things that they would want to know any other resources available for not just new parents but I think all

23:20

parents wanting to really verse themsel in safety in Mountain's website is a

23:26

great resource we do have the car seat safety and they have resources on videos of like what seat might be a good seat

23:32

for your child okay and so I I mentioned I have to do my list in my head I know I

23:37

mentioned the so we have you health departments are great y we have I did

23:43

say fire stations but I think I would like to use the moment to just remind everyone historically that was something

23:51

that people would talk to Firefighters about I don't actually know how it got started but very few fire stations in

23:58

our state actually employ a child passenger safety technician I do however

24:03

work with some fantastic firefighters that do have that certification but but the V majority not so much just because

24:09

a firefighter looked at your child's car seat means absolutely nothing for okay

24:14

and the same with police officers I work with some fantastic ones some really should not be commenting on something

24:20

outside their wheelhouse sure sure and have I have heard them give terrible advice sure so again so the so the the

24:27

advice then is hey go to the hospital right you know go go to especially now Primary Children's here in Utah County

24:33

it's a great place to go and all of the health departments in Utah County okay all the he Department all of the health departments in Utah County have either

24:41

they have a child passenger safety technician or have the resources to send you one okay so I've gone down and worked doing events with Pac I've done

24:49

them in Provo and so if you're not even just right here in Lehi yeah there's great options in the in multiple areas

24:59

and then of course at the Salt Lake Primary Children's Hospital there's resources there 9 to Monday through

25:06

Friday Lehi is just 11: to 4 Monday through Friday but we those are the biggest safety resources for sure in the

25:13

general the general area and the cool thing is both Hospitals now can do virtual car seat checks oh really so I

25:20

think that's a resource that's really underrated and so that's still a free check good they we all have our

25:26

smartphones they set it up and and I think that's actually a really good way sometimes to do it because it forces you

25:33

as the parent to be like it's literally me yeah I have to touch this like yeah

25:38

so they're hear but they're hearing with someone that's helping them troubleshoot because you can pick up a manual for a

25:45

car seat yeah of course and be like I is I mean I as someone who specializes it have looked at certain brands of

25:50

labeling and been like what on Earth are they trying to say I know my my like what what on Earth do they want me to do

25:57

with this information some it sounds outright like conflicting yeah my wife is talking about she would like to

26:03

rewrite basically instruction manuals for not just car seats but pretty much everything where she's like who writes

26:08

these things you know so so I'm with you I I hear that that's I think that's why it would be nice to have somebody help

26:14

walk him through and I think the other part of that that's important is because I know sometimes asking for help especially on things where a parent

26:21

could quote unquote get in trouble that's why I like that you started with saying hey you know we're not judging you this isn't like a like Hey we're

26:27

here to help you you don't it's not like uh I mean sure you could be doing it wrong but you don't get in trouble for

26:32

it I guess and I think that's important cuz sometimes people are afraid to ask for help cuz they don't want to draw attention to the fact that they're using

26:38

a wooden box you know to do it and you're like hey you know that's fine I get what you're doing let's try this or let's try that and so I like that you

Navigating Parenting Advice

26:46

point that out because I think sometimes people fear those things because they don't want to get in trouble right

26:52

absolutely they I as a parent yeah you just don't want to be called out of and

26:57

that's a hard thing even amongst your friends you may see that someone is doing something maybe incorrect or safe

27:04

with their children you know it's not your place it's kind of a hard thing to be like oh you're doing it wrong but a

27:09

better option could be hey did you know about this resource I had them check my

27:15

car seat it was super cool not like hey yours is wrong just like I did this cool thing and it was so nice they showed me

27:22

how to put it in easier faster it was great you should totally go too that way you're not the bad guy right I'll be the

27:27

bad guy you can you can point that's I love that advice that's great advice that way you can still maintain friendship so I have only one

Car Seat Safety Tips

27:35

time very much just had the impression that I should say something to someone out in public I was next to a mom at a

27:42

gym where we go to the same class together I did not know her personally and I looked over and this is a really

27:49

common mistake that I see is people will switch their kid from rear facing when they're younger and they'll go to take

27:55

that same convertible car seat and they'll flip it so the child can forward but when you do that in any car seat you

28:01

have to move how the seat is attached to the vehicle okay and so just because it

28:06

was seat belted or using those lower anchors through one belt path to be rear facing they on every single car seat

28:12

have to be switched which way they're attached to be forward facing and so unless they're the new super cool

28:18

rotating ones but that's a tangent but I wasn't that fancy back in the day but the she had it installed with the rear

28:25

facing lower anchors through the lower facing like through the like lower belt path but had the seat forward facing so

28:34

I kind of could look at it from very far away and be like oh that's not that's not quite right and the concern about

28:39

how that is installed is that in a car accident that would cause a lot of

28:45

forces to flip the seat forward because if it's not being held back against the seat like you think about your backside

28:51

pressing against into your chair it can't get any of that force it would just flip forward okay and and I knew

28:58

that she was pretty chill and cool fre in class and I was like hey I just noticed like your this part is like buckled into the

29:05

wrong spot I'd love to help you with it if you just if you didn't know I know sometimes when you're switching stuff around that can happen and she was like

29:12

oh my gosh I had no idea thank you for telling me and she was so great about it

29:17

and we got it switched done correctly and the first thing she did in the class was she told her other friend and was

29:23

like I had my kid in wrong like it was super unsafe and she totally helped me

29:29

fix it was super chill and cool about it and so I love that she recognized my

29:34

heart on it and she passed along the good word of like hey it's so easy to

29:40

make a simple mistake when you're doing things quickly someone trying to call

29:45

you out on it is not trying to judge you your parenting they they just might see an opportunity to help yeah yeah CU

29:51

that's good with so many things that that's and and that yes that's exactly it that's good advice for probably

29:57

everything we could all be a little more humble you know in some of those things which it's hard I mean it's you know cuz we all want to be nobody wants to be

30:03

called out you know so that is harder and so but good job it sounds like you handled that that situation perfectly it

30:09

sounds like she did too actually as far as you know she did great yeah that's awesome she did great and it's something

30:15

that we very much want to make sure our profession like I said that we are we are not here to judge and it was a situation where it was appropriate for

30:21

me to talk to her being a general acquaintance with the the seats and

30:26

making those mistakes the the biggest thing I see people do

30:32

day-to-day is that they'll move car seats from car to car and it seems like something like oh caregiver has it

30:38

grandma has them this the more times we're moving a car seat or that we're doing anything in a hurry in life really

30:46

the more mistakes we make just from our like brain not being all the way there and so if it's at all possible I always

30:53

want to like if people are financially able to do so I love to recommend people that one of the best things they can do

30:59

is own a seat for more than one vehicle it's such a benefit to have one in each

31:07

caregiver's car sometimes the Temptation I think is to buy your kid the most

31:13

expensive or the fanciest thing sure you want to have all the bells and whistles but often times it may be a better

31:18

option to maybe have a variety and all car seats in the United States are

31:26

required to pass the same game safety testing and so I've had people be like

31:32

oh well I didn't want to get my kid one of those car seats sure and so I really want to always spread the word to people

31:37

that the right car seat for your kid is the one that fits your child your vehicle and that you can install

31:43

correctly every time and if it doesn't meet those three things then I don't

31:48

care if it's $450 I think I saw one recently was like 650 actually yeah wow or

31:54

$60 I don't cuz they all St they going to you might and like we know with

32:00

our clothing too like you might have different features We Love sometimes different features and if those features make you use it correctly we love that

32:07

sure and the although when I do say that all the seats pass the United States car

32:14

seats that have passed the same testing that is seats that are sold by a authorized retailer so if they're being

32:21

sold in person at your target your Walmart your Children's Boutiques okay

Counterfeit Car Seats Warning

32:28

fortunately and this is a big thing I've been involved with recently with the is there are now counterfeit car seats oh

32:33

really and they're being sold very easily because we get thirdparty sellers on Amazon so if you are purchasing

32:39

online it needs to be from that manufacturer or from a manufactur or or

32:45

from an authorized retailer there are retailers that do occasionally sell through Amazon that also maybe have

32:51

their own authorized online boutique or store somewhere else and then are selling on Amazon but if it's not in

32:57

those specific ifications we we should be shopping smart and the so we're

33:03

finding more and more counterfeit car seats at the hospital and at Community

33:08

checks I've seen some out in the community other things to look for is that they have I always tell people when

33:14

something seems too good to be true probably is the prices tend to be cheaper the one that's being

33:21

counterfeited most commonly is a car seat that is $600 oh wow and so people are like oh I got a good deal it was

33:27

only they're paying 300 plus for the counterfeits like it's still wild and

33:33

they don't have the labeling that says they've passed the testing they don't say the height and weight and all the

33:39

specifications the kids should have so we're looking for consistent labeling we want to make sure we purchased it from

33:45

somewhere that's okay we want to make sure that it looks like a United States car seat we want to make sure it has all

33:51

the pieces that a United States car seat should have and so it's so there's

33:56

there's a risk then buying those counterfeits you're saying it it may not work right because it's not actually passing these tests and so which is the

34:03

benefit of these tests is to secure us and you know help us and stuff like that but yeah it was on the news recently

34:10

they showed some of the clips from the crash testing of the counterfeit car seats and a seat will move in a crash we

34:21

expect them to move which is actually really shocking to people you think I God it's so tight it's not going to move they're going to move with crash forces

34:27

but the idea is that it is moving in a way that is limiting injury or reducing

34:33

injury sure and or like softening crash forces all those things these seats

34:39

however are shattering just like plastic exploding

34:45

wow and so I've had I did actually have someone openly tell me that they got

34:50

theirs they're like oh I just think it's a generic and I was like oh generic and counterfeit are not necessarily the same

34:57

thing my Kirkland brand pants are a generic sure this car seat is a safety

35:05

hazard yes and is not going to keep your child safe not just maybe not even keep

35:11

them safe may even cause additional harm and they were like what like but why are

35:16

they allowed to be sold and they're technically not but eBay and Amazon

35:22

cannot ban Sellers as quickly as they just make new yeah new account make new

35:28

accounts I have heard that on other things not necessarily with car seats but I have heard that that's a problem

35:33

with some other things you know some things that at Walmart at Target wouldn't sell but Amazon can or at least

35:39

people on Amazon can right you know that are maybe yeah so that's okay that's important to know so that's a good

35:44

that's important to know yeah there was there was one exception I guess recently to an in-person and it was Walmart did

35:52

get a shipment of some counterfeit booster car seats interesting and

35:58

because it was a shipment that arrived to their store I mean most people that are unpacking stuff would be like oh

36:03

okay I guess it's okay slap it on the shelf so sadly had to really encourage people again to be like we're looking

36:09

for labeling labeling that is consistent with saying that it's meeting the federal motor like highway safety

36:16

standards okay we were wanting to make sure that it says where it was created we want to see what is that street that

36:23

it was produced on we want to see when it was made and all of those things like the model number we we need it to look

36:30

we need it to have all those legit things y y okay well so shifting gears a little bit tell me you know how do you

Future of Child Passenger Safety

36:36

see your role changing in the future any any initiatives or anything you know you know possibly changing in this this area

36:43

you know in the future and stuff like that or how do you see your role changing or will it change I don't know how it would change over the future like

36:50

I said I work as a so the term is PRN but it it's Latin for a term of on call

36:57

yeah so I would love the opportunity to do it more readily I think it would be fantastic if child passenger safety was

37:03

something that was available maybe with longer hours there I would love to I would always love to

37:10

work more at doing what I love so I don't necessarily think that the capacity would change in any way that I

37:18

could foresee but I would always be excited about it becoming something that's sure that's bigger okay any I

Rewards and Challenges of the Job

37:27

mean tell me about some of the biggest you know rewards of your job slash biggest challenges of your job right

37:33

now the biggest rewards of the job is absolutely the final send off with

37:41

parents or caregivers when they thank you for helping them keep that child safe there is nothing better than the

37:48

relief in their eyes to like know that they get that satisfaction like they're do there's so many things as a parent

37:55

that you hope you're doing the right there might be some sort of like Benchmark later on but this is such a

38:02

good one where they can install that seat put that child in it or teach that older child what they're doing have a

38:09

professional watch it happen and say like no you guys are doing a great job yeah look at that this is helping keep

38:15

them safe and just that relief in their eyes of like okay on our little parenting checklist look at this thing

38:21

we're doing right like it like it tell me you know if somebody wanted to follow in your footsteps you know do this same

38:28

kind of thing tell me what advice you would give them yeah I actually had this conversation with a friend the other day

Volunteering in Child Passenger Safety

38:33

she works in the tech industry but formerly worked in education okay and she was telling me how she missed

38:39

working with children and so I actually told her that she should look up the

38:46

Safe Kids website and look for that child passenger safety training course

38:52

because anyone can take it although you can be affiliated with an organization or job you AB absolutely can go pay for

38:58

that training it is not inexpensive but I don't think necessarily it's overly

39:04

expensive for the amount of training you're getting like I think I was even fed all my meals for the 3 days and at

39:11

the time I took it it was around $300 and there is ongoing dues and

39:16

continuing education courses you do take okay but there are also grants and

39:23

different ways to get that paid for for people that may not necessarily be doing it for a job but don't have the money to

39:30

keep funding it so I know people that do it exclusively as a volunteer but they are using grants and different things to

39:37

get those trainings paid for they're losing money kind of thing yeah they're not losing money yes exactly okay um

39:43

because because as far as hours per week I mean you know what's the time commitment on something like this you know if you were doing it just on a

39:50

strictly volunteer basis i' say your your opportunities would probably be on an actually bonly basis okay I typically

39:57

get invited to do community events which are ones that I would have done before I had a job and they usually pop up about

40:04

every other month if I and they're usually restricted to like evenings after people get off work or Saturday

40:11

Okay so very something that you could fit in when you're working around a different N9 to-5 okay so yeah not a

40:19

huge time commitment and going back to your mom's comment helping create your community right you know giving you you

40:24

know a little Outlet maybe if you're you know stay at home mom and you want to have something else to do I guess right

40:30

you know or anybody really but I guess you know just given more outlets right more more opportunities to to volunteer

40:35

and do stuff or work or do you know yeah actually the the one of the co-workers I

40:42

have that I work with he only does it one day a week okay and I asked him how

40:47

he got into it and he was a stay-at-home dad that was getting lonely was a stay-at home dad his wife actually works

40:54

in the hospital Hospital management and so he was staying home with their two

41:00

kids and so he was lacking a community and so she actually recommended it to him and he has been phenomenal okay

41:07

that's awesome and so I have a brother that's actually interested as well because at his 9 to5 he he's doing one

41:14

job but he's also always had a passion for teaching and working with children and so he's looking into it because he

41:20

wants that additional community and that opportunity but so it's a way to kind of add something maybe you don't get in

41:26

your other your I sometimes call like my grown-up job or my other job I have yeah my non-p passion job well I like that

41:32

you mentioned that because yeah it so so obviously it's not just for one gender you're saying hey this this is for every

41:37

anybody that really wants to do this right I like that absolutely we one of the most influential people we have got

41:44

involved in his 50s after losing his daughter in a car accident oh wow sure

41:50

he was really grieving and he was trying to figure out a way that he could use

41:55

that grief constructively and so so he started working as a volunteer for Zero

42:01

fatalities a nonprofit organization to help adults be safe in the car as well and he now is a child passenger safety

42:09

technician and so yeah any stage of life too yeah we absolutely welcome that

42:15

diverse experience because I think too when you're working with helping other people it's nice to have that additional

42:21

way that you could maybe be able to relate to them and with him especially we love I think he's trilingual so it's

42:27

just an absolute asset for to have that additional communication I say that the

42:33

hardest part of my job and where I fail the most is I am not bilingual and I

42:39

desperately wish I was because I think every time I work with a translator I know that I'm losing part of that

42:46

interaction of course you are yeah yeah that makes sense tell me you know in

Personal Parenting Insights

42:51

what ways has working at Primary Children's helped your your own parenting I guess you know some of the

42:57

things that you've learned from from working with different families helping different people how is that translated into you as a better parent I guess oh I

43:04

don't know if I don't know if it's made me a better parent yet I actually I actually was going to work more at the

43:11

hospital and was struggling to coordinate child care for older kids in the summer yeah it is a huge issue and a

43:20

a really it's something our community needs to work on truly that there is not good opportunities for older children

43:27

that not necess that maybe aged out of daycare but don't necessarily want to be home alone and so I actually had to choose am I going to work there multiple

43:33

days or more limited and I had to ultimately choose that I needed to be more limited so that I could take care

43:39

of them so I don't know if I if it's made me better but it absolutely made me have to evaluate like who or what's

43:47

going to what's going to happen and I work on call now so for me it may be something that when my kids leave for

43:53

school in the morning my daughter asked me oh will you be home after school and I'll be like probably and then maybe not

44:01

maybe I get called to the hospital and I'm and I'm there and so I think it's been a big growth opportunity for them

44:06

they're old enough to be home alone yeah and it's been a good growth opportunity for them to take care of each other and

44:13

communicate with me communicate with other people and neighbors and they've I think truly now they're excited yeah oh

44:19

look mom's gone what do we should we call yeah is it a party or the cool snacks yeah yeah let's get out the stuff

44:26

that she hid yeah I it is also working with especially I guess when I work at

44:32

the hospital with children that have more complex medical needs I think that just always gives you that extra moment

44:39

to be like this is a hard thing I'm doing now yeah but this could also be a lot harder yes yes yeah when I had my

44:47

son years ago he did have his complex medical needs M but we had taken him up

44:52

to Salt Lake for some additional care and just within minute

44:58

of just being in a busier hospital setting up there we went you know we

45:04

could have a lot of additional challenges too yeah it was a very humbling experience to be around such

45:09

complex medical needs and I'm never someone that is going to pity another because that's such a

45:15

disservice to people in the situations they are because no one's no one's a martyr they we are all just taking care

45:22

of the children we have as best as we can and but it does at the same time

45:27

also every time you see someone in a different circumstance you're going to go oh I I appreciate what mine is and so

45:34

I love that it reminds me of just what great privileges I have yeah well I

45:40

think that's one of the benefits of serving in any capacity right is always going to be that right you get to see other families and how they're acting

45:47

and and yeah you're grateful for your own problems per se right Charlene this has been great this is great to learn

Final Thoughts and Resources

45:54

about some of the resources that people have available to them here especially now closer for us that live here in

45:59

Lehigh anything we didn't cover anything else that you wanted to to hit on you know I think this has been a good

46:05

comprehensive thing but anything else that we didn't put on I have a super quick soap box that I love to share when

46:10

it comes to child passenger safety we do a disservice to our children when we think

46:17

of car seats or safe travel in the car as just something for newborns infants

46:23

when I was doing some ongoing ongoing training recently they highlighted that currently the group that is at greatest

46:30

risk for injury in a car accident is actually 8 to 12 okay because they are a

46:35

group that in our minds were like oh they're not fitting their harness car seats they must be fine they must be

46:41

good to go and so I always want to stress to people that we need to make sure that like I said with the car seat

46:47

fitting the car in the child we want to make sure that we don't jump to to get

46:53

our kid to the next like kind of Milestone of child safety I think people get excited like oh it's so exciting

47:00

like I can I can forward face them now or I can get them out of this harness and into a booster seat we don't

47:08

necessarily in other capacity celebrate our kids moving to something that like

47:14

oh like we're not going to be so excited like I mean they don't legally have to wear a helmet at this activity now or

47:21

like legally half to on like we we want them to be as safe as they can be and so

47:26

just because your child isn't legally required when they're like that 8 n years old in Utah I believe the law to

47:34

be in a car seat if they don't fit that car correctly to to really kind of

47:40

examine what your hang-up is on why you think that kid can't sit in a booster seat a lot of children will pop in my

47:46

car that are as young as five and they're like oh my parents don't make me sit in a car seat and I'm like I am not

47:52

going to get into it with you about how your parent does things that's you guys work that out out but in my car I need

47:58

to transport people in the way that I know is safe so I've got some options for us and we are going to sit in those

48:04

safe options and so I just always want to encourage people to re-evaluate their idea of when we might necessarily be

48:11

done with car seats I know it's so exciting to Chuck the final one in the

48:16

garbage and just be like we did it sweet we're done but we have an opportunity to

48:22

keep those slightly older kids safe and let's take that opportunity and maybe

48:27

then speak to that just for just for a second here but so you know you said 8 to 12 that's the most so once they're

48:33

you know out of a car seat out of a booster seat or well I guess the question is what what criteria you say

48:40

fit right so tell me tell me what that means I guess tell me like if somebody like how do I know no more booster seat

48:46

no more you know car seat how do I know we do we actually have a test for it and

48:51

it's an easy thing you can Google because every time I'm put on the spot I say I can say all five and then I

48:56

usually like stumble on one of them so you're looking for the five-step test for looking to see if your kid can

49:02

graduate out of a car seat and I mean you and I are sitting in chairs if you

49:08

you're thinking about how you fit in a chair although what's hilarious is I do not fit in this chair so you want to

49:13

make sure that they can have that soft Bend in the knees okay they're not a lot of kids will try to like stick their

49:19

legs out straight to get their butt all the way back and be like look yeah I fit the back and you're like well your feet now don't touch the floor so we need

49:25

their feet on the floor of the car we need to have their knees have an actual natural Bend but at the same time we

49:32

want to make sure that their backside is making full contact with that seat okay and that's we'll get to where they might

49:39

hit one of them but they might be fudging another and then we want to make sure that the belt is off their neck and

49:44

we want to make sure that the lower part of the seat belt is hitting on that your actual pelvis one of the things that

49:51

happens when a kid isn't big enough for a full seat belt is that the belt will go up on their soft tissue of their

49:56

abdomen and just from the basic physics of that that is where you're going to get injuries if you have a belt on their

50:01

neck if you have a belt across their belly you're going to get increased risk of injuries from that and so when a

50:07

child is making that or smaller adult is making that full contact with as much as

50:15

they can that car is going to they are going to be safer in that vehicle I always tell parents there is no 100%

50:24

guarantee of safety in any situation sadly there are absolutely still car accidents that will not be survivable

50:31

but as with all activities that I do with my kids I say we do dangerous things safely we're still going to go do

50:37

those fun things sure we're still going to go snowboarding we're still going to go skiing but we're going to wear helmets we're going to go drive our cars

50:44

which cars are inherently a huge opportunity that we are saying we're not as safe as we could be but we're going

50:50

to put those seat bels on and we're going to follow as many ruls as we can and then we're just going to mitigate

50:55

that risk so we're making sure those kids have mitigated as many risks as we can and even if they may be not the same

51:03

as their friend that doesn't have to yeah yeah no thank you Charlene and I appreciate that I think that's again a

51:09

lot of good information help a lot of parents out there that have kids young kids older kids kind of know what to do

51:15

and and what resour resources are available for them so thank you thanks for coming on awesome thanks for having

51:20

me thank you for joining us on roots and branches of Lehigh I hope today's story helped you feel a little more connected

51:26

to the people who make up our community remember every person here has a unique story and together we're what makes Lehi

51:33

feel like home if you know someone who would be a great fit for this podcast please fill out the form in the show

51:38

notes so we can reach out and schedule an interview we'd love to hear from you a big thank you to our sponsors the work

51:45

Harding Home Mortgage team and play Harding nightly vacation Reynolds for supporting this show and helping us bring our community closer together

51:52

until next time keep growing those roots and reaching out to your branches take care