Dec 28, 2023
And from that point, everything is pretty-much a blur because, you know, you don’t want to dilly-dally when you’re in your thirties and trying for your first child.
So what I’m saying is… we did not PREPARE for a baby.
We had two big dogs and just sort of hoped they would be cool with babies. And I had a newish Honda Civic. I kept them. The Civic as well as the dogs.
There have been moments when I wished I had gotten a van. Mostly when I was trying to buckle toddlers and infants into car seats without hitting the car in the next space with my door. I pined for the sliding door and the extra space for strollers.
Later, the pandemic helped me realize I could just skip the car and order everything on instacart and amazon. But when I got back to toting kids to school and activities, I thought, “Well, now that the kids are big, maybe I don’t need a van. Maybe all I need is some extra legroom in the back seat.”
Yes, I was ready to turn my Civic in for an Accord.
This felt huge.
Remember those Accords in the 80s with the flip-up lights and velvety upholstery? I got to ride in one once in high school. It even had a “car phone.” (That is, in fact, how old I am. This is what happens when you have babies in your late thirties. You are truly, noticeably from a different generation than all the other moms.)
Yeah, so it turns out that Accords don’t look like that any more.
It has been a long time since I bought a car.
So I did what any reasonable person with a reasonable amount of reasonableness would do: I researched “sedans with the most leg room in the back seat.”
And then I texted my brother (who is in the car insurance business and surely would know something about reliability and safety–and maybe even leg room): “I’m thinking of the Accord or maybe the Lexus SE 350.”
He texted me back: “Just go test drive the Rivian.” Only he must have been using talk-to-text because it came out, “just go test drive the Arabian,” and–after I realized he was not talking about a horse–I was like, “You know I can’t even park Darren’s pick-up, right?”
The Rivian has 8 seats and looks like a spaceship. We are a family of 4. Even if each kid brings a friend AND we take all of our pets AND luggage for a month, we don’t need eight seats.
The Rivian is an electric SUV. I’m telling you this in case you didn’t know. Although you probably did know. I did not. (I was still picturing a horse.)
For the price of the Rivian, I could buy the Lexus AND the Accord. Not to mention, I could fit all my stuff in one or the other, AND park it. In one parking space. Without going over the line. On the first attempt.
“But,” my brother said, “Matt Damon and Ben Affleck like the Rivian.” (Um…?)
Yes, well, they could buy the Rivian, the Accord, AND the Lexus–and have a place to keep them all with room to spare. My neighborhood was built in the 60s when people did not super-size their cars. The driveways are so short that our neighbors with Outbacks just barely fit their vehicles in their driveways.
All of which led me to the great conclusion that (drumroll) the Civic has a few more miles in it.
