Minivans Rock

So we got a minivan. There really isn’t a better way to put it, nothing can really jazz it up, we are minivan drivers now. I have to admit that when we first found out that a owning a minivan was imminent I had a bit of what I am going to refer to as a “mid 20’s crisis”. I wondered what in the heck (yeah I think I am going to start using that sweet phrase) I was going to with a minivan, I mean I am in my mid 20’s (for a bit longer) and have 1 child, a minivan seemed… well ridiculous. But the circumstances were right, the previous owners were great and we knew it had been taken care of (trust me, we knew the owners well), so we decided to buy the van, and let’s just say there was no reason for panic, a minivan is great.

Our sweet blue minivan

I grew up with a minivan, well to be fair for a bit we had an old VW bus (think the 80’s edition not the classic 60’s and 70’s versions) but then we had a blue minivan. So I grew up thinking that everyone’s family had a minivan or a suburban if you had enough kids. At some point I learned that wasn’t true, and that people drove cars, not just kid mobiles. I had, well have, a little white car. It’s great, a cheap little car but great, and until Michael came around I loved it (yes even with the manual locks and roll down windows), but then we had Michael, and things were… well tight. To be fair the car is really tiny to begin with, while it has 4 doors, sitting in the backseat isn’t the most comfortable thing, but a baby, well that was tougher. The seats had to be pushed up so the carseat could fit properly, and forget hauling something in addition to the stroller, yes grocery shopping did take some planning. So it was doable but less enjoyable than before we added Michael. Plus there was the locking issue, holding a wiggly kid, or that awful baby carrier while trying to mess with the locks was crummy, the untinted windows were a bit inconvenient at times for Mikey, and the AC (which is needed in TX) is super wimpy so he was a little warmer than he wanted. All those problems were solved with the minivan. Lots of room, way bigger engine than my gocart car (no really, you can get up hills in this one, thank goodness for the little car that we live in Texas),powerful AC, yes Michael even has his own vent, which he loves (really he does love it), and the best part… a clicker to unlock the door from a distance. Oh and in the off chance you want to go somewhere with someone else that has kids, totally doable, because you have extra seats, can you say sweet! To say I am over my hesitation about the minivan would be an understatement, I love the minivan- it is right up there with chapstick, the West Wing, and sanitizing wipes (you know the Lysol or Clorox kind) for me- really love it.

So my advice to all those people holding on to their “cool” card for one moment longer, give it up, embrace the minivan and all it’s dorky glory. If you are in a position where you are even discussing purchasing a minivan you aren’t cool anymore, cool people don’t think about driving minivans. Cool people don’t have weekend plans that would be easier if a minivan were parked in their driveway, that being said lot’s of cool people live in apartments and don’t have driveways to begin with. Cool people don’t have kids, kid stuff, and groceries to haul at the same time. Cool people don’t dream about diapers, spit up, 3^rd grade plays, and the mountains of laundry waiting to be folded- cool people send their laundry “out”. Your kids will thank you, really they will, because to them a minivan isn’t a goober mobile, it’s just another car, and if you get a snazzy one with automatic doors, and TVs you will have the coolest car in the elementary school pickup line (we don’t have that awesome of a minivan). Embrace the minivan, and hey if it is rough realize that once you are inside you cant see yourself driving it, and remember one final thing, the windows are probably tinted at least a bit so no one will be able to see you anyway.