I’m Now a Soccer Mom!

Are you excited, Brian asked?! Um, not really.  How do you get excited about a minivan purchase?  Isn’t that the epitome of the stage of life we as mothers dread?  I’ve had to eat my words in a lot of areas of motherhood.  “I will never let my kids wear character clothing while my child sports her Spiderman light up shoes everywhere we go.”  “I will not let my kids leave the house having dressed themselves!”  More times than I can count have they come downstairs in something totally mismatched still with bed head at 4pm and I’m like sure, that will do! But nothing dies harder than “I will NEVER drive a minivan!!!!”

Having a 4th kid on the way, it was inevitable the purchase was in our midst.  I couldn’t deny it any longer.  A minivan just made the most sense for our phase of life and the number of children we were going to have.  Damn you automatic sliding doors!!  I put it off as long as possible.  I literally drove a 2004 Durango that had a crunched in bumper, more rust than paint, a key fab that sent off the panic button, knobs that had broken off back in 2012, air conditioning that was quickly waning and would only work at the two highest settings, a DVD player that has the same movie stuck in it for about 10 years and a drivers door that got pulled so bad by the wind, when you drove on the interstate on a windy day you might as well just have had your windows down.  That’s how badly I didn’t want a minivan and a car payment again!

When the air started going out in the Durango, I told Brian I would NOT go all summer being pregnant with no air.  I’m hot just sitting in an office at 68, let alone a car in 90 degrees.  So we took the plunge and called Bruce Spencer at Sam Leman Chrysler here in Bloomington.  We’ve been buying cars from Bruce since I was 16 and he has always made the buying process hassle free, which I love.  After being in the car business for 12 years, I know how to handle myself in the F&I manager’s office so I don’t end up with window etching or rust proofing, but still prefer having a non-haggling form of car buying experience. 

I told Bruce it wouldn’t take much to impress me.  I was literally just excited about the sliding doors. It didn’t take long to realize what I had been missing out on.  From touch screens, to sunroofs, window shades, dual DVD screens, Bluetooth, vented seats, satellite radio and SPACE. SO MUCH MORE SPACE!!!  I went into it thinking, just get a basic van.  I don’t care about all the frills and ended up walking out with the top trim package they sell!  Guess I care a little more than I thought I did. Ha ha

The biggest blessing that the minivan purchase granted me is peace!  The kids were stuffed three across the backseat constantly touching, hitting, pulling hair, or any reason to antagonize each other.  For months, car rides were miserable.  I spent most of the drive yelling to the backseat, “just keep your hands to yourselves!”  That first drive with the van there was nothing by silence.  In the words of Phoebe, “have I gone deaf?!” Now they want to just take drives so they can watch movies.  So it’s safe to say that being a soccer mom isn’t so bad after all! 😊