I never thought I would be a minivan-driving soccer mom. I thought I would be more of an SUV-driving volleyball mom. No sliding doors for this lady. Fast forward to myself two kids later and I drive a minivan named Blanche and my daughter has soccer on Monday nights. Soccer was added to my life because I need a way to wear out my very active four-year-old. My minivan was added to my life because, people, they are fabulous.
Before I had my daughter, I was all set up with my “mom SUV.” I had a tan Ford Edge affectionately named JLo. She was going to be my mommy car. In my infinite parenting wisdom, which I had none of with zero kids at age 23, I was sure this would be the perfect car to drive around my sweet littles when they came along one day. And, it was a great car for the first three years of my daughter’s life. It had a lift gate, fit all her stuff and more. Things were working out according to plan.
Then, I had my son. Two kids is a lot. Two kids have a lot of stuff. Two car seats take up the entire backseat of my Ford Edge. There was no room for anything else. Plus, my husband had a small four door pick-up that I couldn’t fit two car seats in. It was time. It was time to consider a minivan. *cue dark, sinister music*
Love at First Sight
I dove deep into minivan research. My father-in-law found us a great Chrysler Town and Country that I named Blanche. It was love at first sight for Blanche and I. He sent us a couple of van options and we had the choice between auto doors and liftgate or no auto doors and liftgate. Let me tell you something, you don’t know the joy of automatic doors and an automatic lift gate until you have them. I thought “oh, that will be nice to have doors that open, but I’ll still have to press a button to open and close everything.” When you have 10 grocery bags hanging off one arm because you insist on making only one trip and a toddler hanging off the other one like a monkey, pressing a button saves your life and potentially the small, monkey-child’s life. Also, sliding doors save the doors of your car and the doors of cars around you. The sliding doors prevent your kid swinging open their car door and banging it right into the car next to yours. It also gives you more room to get the kids in and out of the car. The door isn’t in the way and believe me, after two kids’ worth of baby weight, I need the extra space. When it’s raining really hard, I can even climb in the back of the van to buckle the kids, instead of getting drenched while they insist on buckling themselves.
Accepting Reality: Minivans Are Awesome
There is SO much room in the back of a minivan. For some reason, once you have two car seats in a vehicle, it is like you parked the state of Texas inside there. Car seats are huge. I’m glad that these monstrosities exist to keep my babies safe, but nonetheless, they are HUGE. In a minivan, you have room for at least THREE of those things. That’s a lot of room. I was helping my mom move some furniture recently, so I put down all of the seats in the back of my van. First of all, Stow N Go is a gift from heaven because all the seats fold beautifully down into the floor. Secondly, I could fit a dining room table and six chairs in the van with room to spare! Plus, all the stuff back there is shielded from the elements. I don’t have to worry about rain or snow getting on my stuff or covering everything with a tarp.
So, stop fighting it and just get the minivan. When I stopped fighting it, it was one of the best days of my life. Now I have all the space and pleasant dreams of the ultimate minivan, the new Chrysler Pacifica with a built-in vacuum. It exists, people, built right into the van.
