"I don't want you driving around in a car you built yourself." "You can sit there complaining, or you can knit me some seat belts."
Okay, so I’ve moved the aquarium out of Abbie’s bedroom, creating the necessary space to set up three cribs while leaving enough space to navigate the room as long as you don’t make yourself too big by holding something like a laundry basket or a baby. The other area where we’ll need more room is my vehicle. My beloved 1993 Oldsmobile 88 just won’t cut it with three screaming children.
It’s a big car, about as big as sedan gets, with plenty of passenger space for three car seats across the back assuming that I can keep our little angels strapped in tight enough to prevent them from poking each other. Where I run into problems is the cargo space since by the time I fill the back seat with car seats and diaper bags, and throw a double stroller in the trunk, I don’t have much room for hauling our Vital Supplies. What good is a Grocery Getter if it doesn’t have room to get groceries? As for trips to see the grandparents, we can barely cram everything we need into the car now; if we add two more infants to the car we’ll have to tie things and people to the roof Beverly Hillbillies style.
Accepting that I need a new car is part of the battle, the easy part. Choosing a new vehicle type was the other, more difficult part. If I need a vehicle with more space, then logically I need a bigger vehicle. The problem is I hate large vehicles, much more than I hate snakes, spiders, and wolverines combined. I hate the way they handle like a pig ready for market. I hate that massive amounts of steel block the view to the sides and rear preventing you from accurately seeing anything important like a child, another vehicle, or a board with a nail in it before changing lanes or backing up. I hate they way that they burn through about a diaper’s worth of fuel every mile.*
That immediately rules out an SUV, a large vehicle that epitomizes everything I hate about large vehicles. The other obvious option is a minivan, the choice of parents everywhere who aren’t ready to dive into an SUV and don’t mind looking lame driving a minivan. I wasn’t very enthused about driving a minivan, but didn’t see much choice so we looked into buying one.
The big problem we found with minivans, besides the fact that they look like minivans, is that most models have two bucket seats in the second row, or at least a short bench seat, while we’ll have three car seats to deposit children into. That means that in order to strap all three children into their seats, someone (i.e. me) will have to climb into the third row of seats, at least until Abbie is old enough to climb into the back row by herself, which if she learns that task as quickly as she’s learning to talk, will happen some time around her 16th birthday. We discovered that the long third row bench seat can be moved to the second row in some models, but then we’d have to store the second row seats somewhere, and I mentioned we have a tiny house on this blog before?
We thought about a station wagon, but who makes station wagons anymore? Turns out Subaru does. A week ago I found a used one in the paper at a price I was willing to pay. I test drove it and found things acceptable. It had glass everywhere that let me see my surroundings, it handled like a large car, and its gas mileage was similar to that of a large inefficient car. The big test was when I tried installing all three car seats across the back seat simultaneously. They all fit provided I had the front seats pushed forward a little. The seats all touched each other and the doors, but it still counts. As a bonus, the car had many useful options, like a CD/cassette player and remote entry, in addition to the standard features found on all Subarus (Subarues? Subari?) like all-wheel drive, disc breaks, and a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker.**
I bought it, and now have a Subaru sitting in my parking space ready to haul my children until they grow big enough to poke each other to the point that they refuse to sit three across. At that point perhaps science will have devised a way to fit three children and all their stuff into a vehicle with the essense of a car. I’m not holding my breath. By the way, would you like to buy a 1993 Oldsmobile 88?
* I plan to measure the cost of practically everything in diapers over the next three years.
** This Subaru did not have a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker. The previous owner must have done a good job peeling his off.
It’s a big car, about as big as sedan gets, with plenty of passenger space for three car seats across the back assuming that I can keep our little angels strapped in tight enough to prevent them from poking each other. Where I run into problems is the cargo space since by the time I fill the back seat with car seats and diaper bags, and throw a double stroller in the trunk, I don’t have much room for hauling our Vital Supplies. What good is a Grocery Getter if it doesn’t have room to get groceries? As for trips to see the grandparents, we can barely cram everything we need into the car now; if we add two more infants to the car we’ll have to tie things and people to the roof Beverly Hillbillies style.
Accepting that I need a new car is part of the battle, the easy part. Choosing a new vehicle type was the other, more difficult part. If I need a vehicle with more space, then logically I need a bigger vehicle. The problem is I hate large vehicles, much more than I hate snakes, spiders, and wolverines combined. I hate the way they handle like a pig ready for market. I hate that massive amounts of steel block the view to the sides and rear preventing you from accurately seeing anything important like a child, another vehicle, or a board with a nail in it before changing lanes or backing up. I hate they way that they burn through about a diaper’s worth of fuel every mile.*
That immediately rules out an SUV, a large vehicle that epitomizes everything I hate about large vehicles. The other obvious option is a minivan, the choice of parents everywhere who aren’t ready to dive into an SUV and don’t mind looking lame driving a minivan. I wasn’t very enthused about driving a minivan, but didn’t see much choice so we looked into buying one.
The big problem we found with minivans, besides the fact that they look like minivans, is that most models have two bucket seats in the second row, or at least a short bench seat, while we’ll have three car seats to deposit children into. That means that in order to strap all three children into their seats, someone (i.e. me) will have to climb into the third row of seats, at least until Abbie is old enough to climb into the back row by herself, which if she learns that task as quickly as she’s learning to talk, will happen some time around her 16th birthday. We discovered that the long third row bench seat can be moved to the second row in some models, but then we’d have to store the second row seats somewhere, and I mentioned we have a tiny house on this blog before?
We thought about a station wagon, but who makes station wagons anymore? Turns out Subaru does. A week ago I found a used one in the paper at a price I was willing to pay. I test drove it and found things acceptable. It had glass everywhere that let me see my surroundings, it handled like a large car, and its gas mileage was similar to that of a large inefficient car. The big test was when I tried installing all three car seats across the back seat simultaneously. They all fit provided I had the front seats pushed forward a little. The seats all touched each other and the doors, but it still counts. As a bonus, the car had many useful options, like a CD/cassette player and remote entry, in addition to the standard features found on all Subarus (Subarues? Subari?) like all-wheel drive, disc breaks, and a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker.**
I bought it, and now have a Subaru sitting in my parking space ready to haul my children until they grow big enough to poke each other to the point that they refuse to sit three across. At that point perhaps science will have devised a way to fit three children and all their stuff into a vehicle with the essense of a car. I’m not holding my breath. By the way, would you like to buy a 1993 Oldsmobile 88?
* I plan to measure the cost of practically everything in diapers over the next three years.
** This Subaru did not have a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker. The previous owner must have done a good job peeling his off.
posted by Matt at
9:50 PM
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