So my husband and I have shared a small car for 3 years. It's been great -- gas hikes haven't crimped our budget too bad, we hardly ever have parking problems, and we're never the party car since there's only 2 seats. It's just the right arrangement for a couple living downtown who occassionally makes trips with dogs -- with us, the two hairy beasts, and two suitcases, it's tight, but workable.
And despite the fact that we'd been having unprotected (and barely calendar-charted) sex for the past two years, we thought this transportation system would get us by just fine for the rest of our lives.
So imagine our surprise when we both realized, here at 5 months, that it is actually not going to get us by at all. In fact, car seats are massive things that actually require back seats, and babies don't mix well with car-trip-exuberant big dogs.
It was like one minute we were standing around with all the simple-living folks, bashing Starbucks and shaking our heads in dissappointment over all the W stickers, and the next minute we were suddenly having real discussions about station wagon safety features and whether or not accepting my mom's beat-up SUV, which she was offering for free, made us bad people or not. (I mean, where would I put my "tree hugger" bumper sticker on a Jeep Cherokee?)
This is all so new to me. And it feels like the manifestation of everything that's going to change in my life because of this baby. Is anyone else having mixed feelings about the inevitable entering of the land of the family car?
(No offense to those already happily residing there -- it does seem I'll be joining you soon enough. I may just be the merest bit homesick...)
And despite the fact that we'd been having unprotected (and barely calendar-charted) sex for the past two years, we thought this transportation system would get us by just fine for the rest of our lives.
So imagine our surprise when we both realized, here at 5 months, that it is actually not going to get us by at all. In fact, car seats are massive things that actually require back seats, and babies don't mix well with car-trip-exuberant big dogs.
It was like one minute we were standing around with all the simple-living folks, bashing Starbucks and shaking our heads in dissappointment over all the W stickers, and the next minute we were suddenly having real discussions about station wagon safety features and whether or not accepting my mom's beat-up SUV, which she was offering for free, made us bad people or not. (I mean, where would I put my "tree hugger" bumper sticker on a Jeep Cherokee?)
This is all so new to me. And it feels like the manifestation of everything that's going to change in my life because of this baby. Is anyone else having mixed feelings about the inevitable entering of the land of the family car?
(No offense to those already happily residing there -- it does seem I'll be joining you soon enough. I may just be the merest bit homesick...)
We're moving up to a 7 seater- our little Nissan Micra, which handles two children, a springer spaniel and up to a week's luggage quite nicely, doesn't have enough seatbelts and I'm too fat non-pregnant to squish in the back with the boys. So, it's going to be a used, probably 8-9 year old, Renault Espace unless we win the lottery in the next few months. Whilst I love the idea of something funky and old, like a Landrover, it's just not justifiable.
) Thanks for posting this... I need to go back to the Honda dealership....
But it turned out that only the top of the line ones come in black & that was out of our price range, so we went with the Toyota Sienna. Ours is dark gray, it's totally a big gray whale which is what I call it all the time.
