Hmmm. I remember doing this sort of thing when I was little. That’s one of the few vague memories that I can recall. I always thought the harness was annoying because it restricted my upperbody movement and I suppose that safety just isn’t a priority for a 2-year-old. In short, they don’t know any better. I’d say that toddlers, who usually have a lot of energy, greatly value their sense of freedom or at least percieved freedom and that physical restraints are the bane of their freedom. I don’t think I have any helpful solutions, but I do recall that my mom was pretty persistant in reminding me to keep my harness in the right position and threatened that she would not buy me ice cream anymore. I was terrified. >_< I also had my fair share of being disciplined. >_< Now that I think about it, maybe toddlers value ice cream over their freedom. Like I said before, they don’t know any better. As a result, their percieved sense of freedom is very limited and you can deceive them fairly easily.

The only thing I can think of is to limit the ability of the buckle to slide down… maybe you can tie a knot in the strap just below where it should rest so it can’t slide down.  I can imagine that being a little uncomfortable though with a big knott in the strap so maybe putting some of those lambskin style things over the knott might make it more comfortable.  Good luck with that one… I’m just thankful that (so far) I haven’t had this issue to deal with but I just discoverd this site so I’m sure you’ll find me back here with my own pleas for advice in no time .

R.L. and HB,
Thanks for the tips. Lately, I’ve allowed my 2-year-old to bring his favorite toy of the moment along for our car trips. This keeps him occupied, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he tries to escape again.

Jennifer,
    Believe me… You’re not the only one that this happens to. It’s happened to me too. My little guy’s grandma also said she’s had it happen to her. Not really sure what to suggest to keep that from happening though. It’s not cool when i look back while on the highway and see him half out of his carseat though.

For us, it was a matter of making the consequences dire enough. First, we would stop the car whenever we saw her doing that (and she usually gave some signs she was going to). If she couldn’t/wouldn’t get the harness back on properly, we would do it for her.

For us, the dire consequence that worked was losing TV privileges for 24 hours. Not that she got a LOT of TV, but getting none, even when she asked for a favorite show, was upsetting to her. After a couple instances of that, all we’d have to do is remind her when we noticed her giggling and started to squirm, and the threat of no TV for a whole day was usually enough to get her to settle down.