Baby crying in car seat
Does anyone else experience becoming severely disregulated when/if their baby gets really upset in the car seat?
My baby is 11 months old. I have always responded to his cries anywhere and found early on that, when in the car specifically, I needed to respond to him for my own sake.
Today, he became upset in his car seat (tired) when we were in route to our destination. He grew more and more upset and I noticed I was starting to feel a bit tested by it I guess you could say? I had the urge to pull over and get him out to calm him down (which is my normal course of action) and comfort him but we were only ~5 minutes away. Well, he got even more upset and was likehysterical and so sad. It broke my heart. I got SO MAD at myself for not just pulling over. By the time I arrived I was just hating myself. I hate seeing my baby like that and it felt like it was my fault.
I feel like something is wrong with me because people act like it’s nothing sometimes to listen to your baby sob hysterically in the car but I just… can’t handle it. Does anyone e else feel this way? Has anyone else experienced this kind of frustration? I’m not mad at my baby - more so mad at myself for allowing my baby to get that upset rather than just pulling over.
I really did try what I knew to do to try to regulate - deep breathing, praying and called my husband in hopes of some distracting conversation.
Edited to add: my baby does great in the car seat 95% of the time. When he’s overtired he usually struggles more and that was for sure the case today:(
Posted Mar 5, 2026, 2:28 AM UTC · edited