With Baby Miller now the size of an orange and growing, we need to make room for the little gal/guy. Specifically, we will need to free up personal time (working with HR now to see what that looks like) and personal space (our home is cozy and about to get even cozier).
Baby-proofing will come later but we've already begun taking a 10,000 foot view of our situation to see what big decisions we can take care of before sleep deprivation begins to cloud our judgement. One such decision is how we will transport Baby Miller.
It occurred to me one day that I rarely, if ever, see a parent folding up the driver seat in their two-door car to reach into the back to pull out a child. Combined with the fact that Laine is not comfortable driving a manual, it seemed my Scion TC's days were numbered.
As you probably know, I often live in extremes. I approach many decisions with a "go big or go home" mentality. So, after realizing that I would need to trade in my two-door for a more "practical" automobile, my first instinct was to go with a minivan. Maybe like the one pictured to the right.
I'm unclear on why minivans are judged so harshly by young parents. I've heard peers equate buying a minivan to "selling out." I reject this notion for two reasons. One, there's never an explanation about what "selling out" really means. Isn't becoming a parent "selling out" single life broadly? Second, no one can argue with the practicality of a minivan. If asked to identify what features you'd like in a vehicle, you'd undoubtedly end up pulling back to the curtain to find a minivan.
And the poor minivan designers are unable to address this concern. Look at that picture above - taken on an angle, that Mazda looks like it is "zooming" around that tight corner. And yet, the minivan's fate seems to be sealed. The minivan will always be the fanny-pack of the automotive industry. We'd all rather stuff our pockets.
If you didn't realize, there are approximately a million different cars for sale and it's a real task to know where to begin. We chose to rule out sedans and anything smaller, leaving us with SUVs and other cars that strive for minivan features without actually being a minivan.
We put the pedal to the floor on the car search and test drove a number of cars in just a few days. Most of the salesmen were pleasant and seemed to be interested in helping us. "King" James and his manager at the Mazda dealership were the one exception. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. I half wonder if we left before the camera crew could jump out and tell us that we were on some prank television show.
After a few days of consistent shopping, online searching, and dreaming of cars, we finally decided to pull the trigger on a lightly used 2010 Mazda CX-7 from Extreme Kia. It was the one care that both Laine and I felt really good about as soon as we sat down inside and, after looking at a few more cars, it was the car we both felt was right.
Now, all we need is a baby seat, "baby on board" window sign, and Baby Miller.
