3 Small Children in an SUV with 2Nd Row Captains Chairs

My friend has an SUV with middle captains chairs and a third row bench, and three kids in car seats. She removed the one captains chair, puts the baby on the other, and has her older two on the third row bench seat. This gives her plenty of room to get in and hook the two in the back in.

2 moms found this helpful

My kids are much older so I don't have the car seat issue, but I've always preferred the captain's chairs. With the bench seat they can be too close together and fight. This may not be an issue now, but you might want to think about it for the future if you are going to keep your vehicle for awhile. Maybe your kids won't fight with each other, but mine do! The small space of a vehicle seems to make it worse.

I wouldn't be as concered with having the child in the back row as I would be with climbing in the back to buckle him/her in. We had a Tahoe with a bench and all three kids in a row. The 2 youngest on the outside and myoldest in the middle she she could buckle herself. We now have minivans and my 6yr old and 2yr old ride in the captains chairs and my 12yr old is in the back. Right now my 6yr olds seat is in the back row in my husbands van and we folded his seat down and i HATE climbling in the back to buckle him in and thats easier than a Suburban. We do have a Suburban that we use to pull our travel trailer in the summer and all three kids ride in the middle seat, as we usually take the 3rd row out....

Just think about climbing back there everytime AND dealing with a newborn baby...

Good Luck and look for the great deals.....

We had the same struggle when we expanded for baby #3. I'm SO happy to say we went with the captain's chairs. The children are still within reach of the front seat, and neither I, nor them, are stepping on the 2nd row seat to get to the third row. Wiht winter coming you can justguess what kind of salt and grime is going to be ground into that seat every time they go over it. We also found that it's easier to hand things to the child in the back, plus they can see out the front window which makes for more serene car rides. Good luck!

I had the opposite situation (twins 1 yr younger than brother, with a 6 year old in the mix) and I totally agree, having 3 so young it's pretty much a must to have all 3 in the middle row instead of one or two so far back. We ended up looking for minivans b.c we just didn't want to pay the fuel prices for anything larger. We have a Chevy Venture that is wide enough to have 3 chairs across the 2nd row so its not a bench. You'll find the same thing in Montana's as well (which I think are much more trendy looking than the venture if you care about looks) It did take us awhile to find a vehicle with 3 across the middle instead of two but they are out there and I would highly recommend having them all in the middle row for at least another year...bc then they'll be able to get in each others faces and you'll want them separated as much as possible:) Right now having to heave yourself to the back to due up a car seat or two will be a huge pain in the behind but since your twins are older than my son was when my twins were born than it may be ok for you. They are that much closer to booster seats and self-buckling but you are still a couple of years out for that. K. H.

We just got a Suburban in May with captain seats in the second row... We LOVE it! We put the two big boys in the back and the baby in the 2nd row. It's SO easy to get everyone buckled in. It really has been wonderful. My biggest issue was the size of the vehicle after driving a car for so long but, I love my Suburban... It's worked perfectly for us!

Definitely the captains chairs... it is so much easier for both you and the child to get to the 3rd row.

J. - I have an Acadia w/ 2nd row captain's chairs (which I realize is a smaller vehicle), but the one big plus about having the captains chairs is that other people can still get to the back. if you go w/ a Bench and put 3 carseats in it...you won't be able to fold it down and your 3rd row will be pretty much useless unless you want to make whoever else rides w/ you climb over the 2nd row full of car seats! Just a thought.

I actually have 2 year old twin daughters and a 10 year old son. We have a GMC yukon with captain chairs in the second row and we love it. My girls as babies sat in the captain seats and when they move to a booster seat for awhile too. My son has always been able to get around them and not have to much problems trying to do so. We have put the girls in the 3rd row also. It does work and is not as bad as it seems. Plus it is so much easier getting even more people in the vehicle with us. I think you would like it much better than a bench middle seat because my parents have a yukon with that and we have had to borrow it for a few days at a time and trying to put the girls in the back was horrible in that.

We have a Suburban with a bench 2nd row so I'm adding a few pros/cons that I see. However, we only have one car seat now with a second on the way, so a little different situation.

The reason we went with a bench is there are times when we get together with frinds or family and we do need to get 8 people in a vehicle to go somewhere versus 7 you can get in with captains chairs.

One thing I did notice is that there are only 2 sets of LATCH hooks for car seats in the 2nd row bench in our Suburban, so to put a third one in would require using the seat belt to secure it. (Not sure if this varies at all between models or years, so something to look for.)

If you don't need that 8th spot for someone periodically, in your situation, I'd probably lean towards the captains chairs. If you would have use for getting an 8th person in once in awhile, I'd consider the bench.

Or... if you have a use for the Suburban where it would come in handy to take out the back seat, I'd go with the bench 2nd row. Then you still have room for the 3 kids. When we go camping, we have taken out the back - and that's just with one child. (I don't want to know what the pile of stuff will look like with another one next summer! :)

J. I am in the same situation...2 1/2 year old twins and baby #3 due in January. But we bought our suburban when we started talking about having another one & I LOVE IT!!! It has captian seats for the second row too. My boys get so excited when they get to sit in the third row, when we have others riding with us. So I know they will be great with the move to the back. I think it will be very convinient to have the baby in the second row & be able to fold on of the chairs up for easy access to the third row. Also on long trips I plan on sitting in the second row with the baby & be able to get to the boys easily too.

Congrats on baby #3 coming & good luck with the car shopping.