Toddlers...
 

where's the best palce to get furniture and general safety stuff for an inquisitive toddler... basically is there an equivalent to mothercare in canada?

also, are car seats for kids compulsory and where's the best place to get one? Should i get one here and lug it over, or get it in canada?

All of these stores have big toddler/infant sections, with Toys R Us being my personal favourite!

Toys R Us
Sears
The Bay
Zellers
Ikea

Re: Toddlers...
 

Car seats are compulsory, the cops around here often have random checks to check installation etc, last time 90% were not well installed!

It is mandatory throughout Canada that child car seats meet Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. A European restraint or a restraint bearing a U.S. Statement of Compliance label should not be used in Canada unless the label indicates that it also meets the applicable Canadian safety standards. (This was lifted from the CAA website)

We get nearly all our (new) stuff from Zellers, clothes, safety stuff, car seat etc, just cos we dont like to support the evil WalMart, and Zellers is Canadain owned and cheap. Sears is OK too, but more expensive. For some stuff there are a lot of good second hand stores too, but for safety new is the only way to go.

I am not sure if the modern anchoring systems in Europe are the same as in NAmerica, the most common system in new cars here (apart from using the seatbelt to anchor the seat) is called LATCH or UAS

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/childsafety/menu.htm
http://www.caa.ca/e/news-issues/chil...ctsheets.shtml

FWIW we got the Cosco Alpha-Omega seat from Zellers for ~$160 (plus taxes of course), and are extremely happy, its convertable from rear to front facing to booster, and it is easily adjustable as the kid grows (no rerouting straps, just slide the bar up to change the shoulder height). Should be the only seat we have to buy, so worth the extra $$ IMO.

Good Luck

Iain

Re: Toddlers...
 

Cheers Iain, all that's been really helpful. Wan't sure if they (errr Canada) were more lax with car seats... glad they're not.

BTW, how about taxis? do we need to provide a car seat to use a taxi with our child? are taxis saloon-based cars or are there taxis like the london black cab... where you can stick a stroller-with-your-child in.

Re: Toddlers...
 

Most taxis here are big saloons, like the Ford Crown Vic, or the old Chev Caprice , Dont know how it works with kid seats though, never tried it.

Iain

On our wedding night, we needed a way to get our daughter home - thinking that the taxi would be fine.

How wrong were we! The poor man in the hotel phoned every taxi company in the city, and none of them had car seats. We were furious, but fortunately, somebody else who brought a kid to the reception managed to ferry us back eventually!

so a taxi will not take you if you have a child and no car seat?! is this right?

Re: Toddlers...
 

Buy your car seat here!! The seat belts are different! (unless it is a booster seat, that should be fine)

Taxi with a car seat - I've never come across that in England either!

Have you considered buying from consignment stores? (Nearly new stores) they are all over the place in Vancouver.

Clare

Re: Toddlers...
 

Law in UK requires a child/toddler to be properly secured by use of a car seat... although this is blatantly not always done... no spot checks here, but most people seem to grasp the basic concept that a car seat is a good idea!

Taxis should refuse you passage if you have a child and no car seat although we have gotten a taxi and they provided a car seat for us... highly irregular!! Taxis in general do not do this! :lecture:

Thanks for the seatbelt tip... didn't think there would be any difference, how little i knew! was planning to get one once over there, but didn't know the ease or decency of them in Canada... seems to be better than here.

Re: Toddlers...
 

don't know about the "better" bit.

It is one of my rants - some people seem to be completely dim about kids and cars. Eg lots of young children in the front seat of a car (so flaming vulnerable) child and baby seats in the front (and they don't think about the passenger air bags).

My 5 year old went on a fair few school trips this year (which were car convoys not school buses!!) and every note that I sent in when gibving permission said he had to be in his car seat (some parents didn't bother :( :( ) and he was not to sit in the front of the car. I am amazed that both needed to be spelled out.


So, rant over.

When you buy a car make sure it has "anchor" points in the back that you can clip the seat into (they have an extra security strap - a good idea really). We bought an 8 year old car, and it didn't have these ppoints (sigh!) and no garage wanted to put them in (fear of ligitation apparently). In the end the garage we bought the car from installed two points, under extreme duress!!!

Clare

Re: Toddlers...
 

Canada is not better than the UK with regard to child safety in vehicles (five point harnesses are relatively new here, I had to special order mine when I had my third in 1998) and the carseats are of poor quality compared to the UK. Get a Britax car seat and bring it over - they are the best in the world. You can also buy them here in Toronto. Taxi's will take kids with no car seats, they do not care, it's your responsibility as far as they are concerned. In BC at least, unless it is a small infant carrier, they will often charge you $2 to simply plonk [the equivalent of ] stage 2 seats on the back seat. :mad:

Re: Toddlers...
 

We're hoping to buy a new (or newish second hand) 4x4 drive car... of european or japanese make. Not overly keen on the north american car! so will base our decison on car seats on the car we buy.

thanks for all the responses!

BTW, on a separate note, are snow chains for cars needed in winter? is it that bad?

Re: Toddlers...
 

No, not in Ontario anyway. Some folks fit snow tires, most dont. I have a subaru, with decent all season tires, and have never got stuck (Yet). Just remember 4x4 or AWD wont help you stop any faster. It seems to me that only my British aquantainces drive 4x4s, all the canadians drive regular front drive cars.

Re: Toddlers...
 

so would you think AWD cars are safer to drive in canada's winter or not overly necessary, unless you really are driving off-road? (which is definitely doubtful for us!).

So if all the locals are driving your standard saloon car... the gritters and snow clearers must be doing a good job, is this correct?

Re: Toddlers...
 

Snow clearance is nothing short of fantastic, especially after the dismal efforts in the UK, where of course we are not geared up to deal with it. Even in major storms most major routes are OK, some snow on top at first, but that is gone pretty soon after the storm, and progress is Ok if everyone is sensible. Usually by the time I leave work my route home has been cleared, even the back roads. Just my driveway to deal with:)

If I was born and bred in Canada and spent my whole life driving in these conditions I would probably abandon AWD, especially with all the traction control systems available in new cars today, but i do really like my Subey, even in the dry, so i dont know! Its reasuring to know I have the extra grip in the winter, but you have to remember not to abuse it. Usually the back end will step out of line to remind you:eek::cool:

Bare in mind there is a big difference in the way full time AWD and parttime 4x4 works. When I had a 4x4 Jeep I never knew whether to run in 4x4 mode in marginal condition, if the wheels cant slip, you will trash the transmission, so in heavy rain I kept it in 2WD, but this is where the AWD system excels.

Iain

Re: Toddlers...
 

cheers for that... glad to hear that in winter, all is as good as can be. Will, i guess, base our judgement on a car when we get there.

Seem to remember that one of the big tyre/ exhaust fitting companies (Kwikfit) did an excellent deal where they fitted baby car seats which you could return when the child outgrew it.

A number of european car manufacturers also have an option of a child car seat either built into the seats, or they provide one ,( for a figure of course!)

Just wonder if these options are available in Canada.

Thats interesting, some of the minivans here have built in booster seats (Pontiac Montana for one), but I've never seen a car or service company provide actual child seats. If I had to guess its probably a case of the company lawyers being scared of getting sued if the instalation was incorrect.

Iain

Snow clearance... lol. In our neighbourhood, Bridgeland, the roads were covered in snow nearly all winter. They don't clear them around here - no matter how often the residents complain. Snow clearance issues have been in the local rag plenty of times, so its not just me having a moan.

It's also quite amusing that we're expected to clear our paths (fair enough), but go outside a school or city property and it will be slippery with ice or snow.

I guess this could be one of the joys of living in the low tax conservative west over the tax happy liberal east / center???

Iain

right, does this mean the snow clearance is confined to the cities where traffic is at its greatest (makes sense), or just occurs in certain districts?

Does anyone know how quebec fares?:confused:

I wouldn't worry too much about snow clearance. It doesn't take too long to get packed down, and then its easy to drive on.

The first day of snowfall is always the bad one - 200 accidents recorded within the first couple of hours when we had the first major snowfall in 2003! Amazing how quickly people forget how to drive in snow - and they still tailgate like madmen.

I think that the company do a check on anchorage points etc, to ensure that the seat is safely fixed.
Found the following website that might be some help to Drivers in Canada.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/childsafety/menu.htm
;)

Thats the same link I posted yesterday! :p

whoops!!!:rolleyes: sorry!;)

Getting back to the toddler theme... at present we go weekly to Gymboree here in the UK, we've seen its also found in toronto and vancouver, but not montreal (unless someone can correct me here?!)... is there an equivalent of this playgroup in Montreal? Otherwise can anyone recommend somewhere.

Also on a similar note, for playgroups, daycare or nurseries, what is the system? so you need to book a place well in advance, we're talking a year plus?! is it based on location, ie where we live in relation to the nursery? Does anyone know relative costs?

Thanks in advance

Two great publications for everything kid related in Montreal are:

1) Montreal Families, a freebie that is published monthly and can be found in libraries, shopping malls, kids places. Lists events and has articles and adverts for all sorts of kid-related stuff.

2) A book called 'THe lobster Kid's guide to exploring Montreal' by John Symon (http://traveltonorthamerica.com/sear...By-Author.html)

I bought this in the 1st week we were here and it was really useful in terms of where to go, although it doesn't help with playgroups etc.

We go to Wimgym which is like Tumble Tots but it is on West Island, the library for storytime, a co-op playgroup, swimming and other stuff.

A lot of activities have to be signed up for in advance and for the course, you can't just drop in occasionally.

I know the Y have lots of things on for kids including pre-school and swimming.

I'm afraid I have no experience of day care/nurseries but you always see adverts for them, there are the private pre-school style ones or childminder in her home sort.

You might want to look at these previous posts where I answered another family's questions about moving here with kids:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=203970

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=203965

HTH

Penny

Thanks again Penny,

all that info is really helpful... Wimgym sounds like something we're definitely interested in if its like Tumble tots, though need to find one nearer to where we would like to live. You don't by chance know if there are other branches in Montreal?

Will need to hunt down that book... seems like a godsend for those trying to keep a toddler preoccuppied!

thanks again

Unfortunately Wimgym is a one-off and is run in a proper gym which has older kids going on worldwide competitions etc. but I am sure similar things must exist around Montreal, it's just finding them!

The book really is good. It contains stuff that could probably all be found on the internet but only with a lot of searching and some luck so it's good to have it all in one place.

The Montreal Families is excellent too, not only for the adverts and articles on all things kid-related but they always have a listing of 'what's on' for the month which includes a wide range of stuff across Montreal.

Every saturday in the Gazette newspaper they list 'what's on' and that includes museums, kids stuff, special events etc so is handy too. Also garage sales, open houses (for if and when you want to buy a house) and places to rent.

Penny :)

Shame about Wimgym but as you say, i'm sure there's others out there!

Is Montreal Families available online? have search with google and found it linked to http://www.calgaryschild.com/ which in itself seems like a good site... others as a magazine, (when i get there) where would i pick it up? local news place?... need to subscribe? where?

Anyway, thanks again Penny... some very useful hints

See my previous post for where to find it.