Car seats have a purpose.

[moonskulled]

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.

Comments

[okp]

All of my kids' grandparents have had trouble with the five point harnasses - I think they are just so different than the ones they were used to. I would bring it up the next time you are with her and say that some friends had been talking about how confusing the carseats can be to someone who doesn't use them every day. Then ask if you can show her the easiest way to buckle your kid in and make sure the straps are tightened. You can even say that you're probably paranoid, but car accidents are one of your biggest fears. But that you appreciate her making sure he's strapped in snugly.

[rainbowshine]

I agree with OKP. My first reaction would have been to say something fairly strong and to the point about safety but maybe she doesn't know how to do the seat up properly. So maybe you need to go back a bit and next time you see her just casually check she knows how to do the seat up and tighten it (maybe when you are near the car) and reinforce how critical it is that a child is in a car seat.
She could genuinely have forgotten or also if the seat doesn't click properly (easy for it not to if you aren't used to doing one up) then it could have worked loose either. But I would definitely say something when you can.

[livefairytale]

This!

[outerspacerobot]

We had a similar-ish problem this fall. My in-laws had received a hand me down car seat with wheels, go-go kidz I think, and since we we're travel from CA to NYC to Amsterdam I thought it'd be nice to use

[outerspacerobot]

This shows the front facing position in a car crash maybe if she sees how hard the baby is flung around she'd work harder to secure the seat?

http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/html_seiten/kisitest/videos/tests_2001/frontcrash/Roemer_Duo07.mpg