MiniVans

A year or so after my beautiful bride and I had our first child, the economies of scale required that we down size the motor pool from a pickup and two-door car (both were less than kid friendly) to a four door family sedan. About a year before our third child was born, the time came to upgrade to a larger vehicle. Of course I figured we should investigate your typical SUV. It was larger, four doors, and offer more cargo capacity than our four door family sedan. However the beautiful bride had her mind set on a minivan. So as in all good marriages, we compromised, and she got her minivan.

Recently I took said minivan into the shop for some warranty work, and received a four door family sedan as a loaner. The evening following receiving the loaner, we gathered our clan of five and headed out for a brief dinner outing. So we have three children in the backseat (one in a car seat), and almost immediately I realized why my beautiful bride prefers her minivan. In less than the five minute drive between our house and a local restaurant, there were complaints from the backseat. These complaints centered around "touching", "closeness", and general "annoyance". The revelation I received is that the one thing the minivan has over your average SUV is that of personal space. With three children, each can have their own seat that isn't necessarily directly adjacent to the other. This means that the arm span of a two year old isn't likely to come into direct contact with physical space of five or eight year old. With an SUV, obviously I'm talking about those without the third seat feature, these characteristics aren't available.

We have been rejoined with our minivan today, and it was never soon enough. I'm curious how my own parents managed my own set of siblings that numbered three for eight years. I can remember family vacations where we were sequestered in the backseat for hours with entertainment consisting only of reading, listening to our headphones, and of course doing those things which annoy each other. How we didn't kill each other or our parents tie us to the roof (yes it was threatened on more than one occasion) is beyond me. Yet we survived with minimal scaring. I'm not sure if this makes me smarter than my parents or less tolerant? Maybe there is truth in both statements.