GB Vaya i-Size Car Seat
As my third and our collective fifth, it would be an understatement to say Cas has been King of Hand-me-downs; if ever there was a kingdom of second-hand garms, spider ravaged garden toys and over-bounced Jumperoos – Casper would reign supreme. So, when it came to his car seat, it was no different – out came the biscuit encrusted throne from the shed, complete with the musty smell of a bygone childhood. Not only was the hand-me-down ethos we’d adopted for our latest bundle of joy friendly on the pennies, but I convinced myself it was saving my sanity – after all, who wants or needs to learn how to install yet another car seat?
Then, the kindly folk over at GB (Good Baby) seemed to take pity on little Cas and offered to send over one of their rather trendy Vaya i-Size car seats from their swanky Platinum Collection. If ever there was an excuse to finally clean out the family car (aka The Dump Truck) a brand new, gorgeous cars seat is it! We opted for the luxe-black, with a Saville Row inspired pin-stripe – if it was just down to how it looked, it gets top marks from me!
With words like ‘i-size’, ‘360-degree rotation’ and ‘Er-tech’ floating around, plus its somewhat larger than what I was used to proportions – I started to get the sweats just anticipating installing this beauty into my car.
I’ll admit to being a bit of a stick in the mud when it comes to embracing new things – so in 2006 when I was first stressing about car seats, I oddly decided that the whole ISOFIX thing was a bit too confusing, my car probably wasn’t compatible and so hadn’t ever got my head round it! In fact, I most likely fell into the third of UK child seats that are fitted incorrectly 1! Little did I know, that pretty much all cars since then have had the ISOFIX anchor points and fitting a car-seat to them is as easy as convincing a toddler to eat ice-cream. It was so bloomin’ easy to fit no sweat was induced and my parental sanity was kept intact!
Then came my second nonsensical theory – Cas won’t want to sit rear-facing! What absolute tosh – not only is it recommended that children travel backwards for as long as possible for optimal safety, but Cas actually prefers it! When I strap him in he gleefully shouts “that way that way!” pointing backwards.
So, thanks to the GB Vaya, not only did I get over my irrational phobia of ISOFIX but Cas is now travelling safer than ever and in luxurious surroundings. We’ve been trialing the Vaya for over 4 months and Cas loves it so much that he climbs in himself and quite often insists (read: throws a tantrum until I give in) on just sitting in the car in it!
Why we love our GB Vaya i-Size Car Seat
- Looks amazing.
- Of the 13 car seats we’ve ever owned, this was by far the easiest to install thanks to the one-click ISOFIX fittings.
- It’s suitable from birth, so this one size really does fit all (well, up to 105cm!).
- The clip is really easy, even for Mr OG’s clunky fingers; and the magnetic clips keep the harness straps at hand.
- 360-degree rotation isn’t just fun to play around with, it helps get Cas in and out, even when he’s doing his best planking!
This post was in collaboration with GB, who kindly gifted our stylish GB Vaya i-Size Car Seat – but as always any anecdotes, self-deprecation, comments and opinions are my own.
- Survey conducted by Sheila’s Wheels on 100 randomly selected cars fitted with child car seats 2016.
