Monday, 19 February 2018

Keeping Your Car Safe When You Have Children


My partner Chris passed his driving test in May 2017 and it was the best thing to happen to us. With two young children, doing shopping could take all day and we rarely had day trips as it could cost a bomb unless it was relatively local.

Having a car has been a huge help and it has been very important to Chris to make sure that it's in top condition. Even nine months after getting the car he religiously checks everything to make sure it's all working, especially as we will be putting our children into the car. The last thing he wants is for something to go wrong when they are strapped in the back. 

The first thing we insist on doing is making sure that both car seats are fitted and secured correctly (it's also important that if it's your first car that your children are in the correct car seat for their age/height), then ensuring that the children are buckled in with no twisted seatbelts. Not wearing winter coats is important as the belts cannot be tightened fully and may not work properly in the case of a crash.

Checking that all the lights work correctly before setting off on a journey is an important one. The last thing you want is to be on a busy road then realise that a light isn't working as you could quite easily cause an accident. Chris is still a restricted driver as he hasn't yet been driving a year so it's still all new to him and does, on occasion, have to refer back to his car manual and test them out by having me stand by the car and tell him if they're working or not. This can be a bit time consuming but definitely worth doing to be on the safe side.

On Christmas Day last year, we had a lot of family to visit and a very short amount of time to get round everyone. We were roughly ten minutes from our house when, bam, flat tyre! This was the first time it had happened and luckily we had a spare in the boot. It took ten minutes for Chris to replace it and get us on our way again but then we had to make sure we purchased a new spare as soon as we possibly could in case it happened again. It's so important to check your tyres regularly for any foreign objects that may be stuck (this is what happened in our case) but also ensuring that the tread and pressure is ideal.

Our car is up for MOT in April and although Chris checks the car as much as he can himself, he is definitely planning on getting it in for a service beforehand. He thinks that this would be beneficial to pay for so that he can be told of any problems and get those sorted, so that his car isn't failing and he isn't wasting money on having to rebook his MOT over and over again. The important thing is finding the perfect servicing station such as Ossett Tyre House which offers all types of car servicing in Wakefield and surrounding areas. Fingers crossed all is good and his "new baby" passes!

(This is a collaborative post.)
Be First to Post Comment !
Post a Comment