The Mom Van

The Mom Van and I have only been a team for about 6 months but she’s an essential part of our family. The kids even have a theme song for her. (Basically they just scream “Nananananananana MOM VAN!” to the tune of the old Batman theme song.) I didn’t want a Mom Van though. I always thought I’d drive something cooler than that.

You see, before the Mom Van There was my cute little Nissan Versa and before that there was my absolutely adorable Volkswagen Beetle. I had to give up both to make room for my growing family. I decided to give up my cute little Beetle when we arranged for The Boy and Crazy Eyes to come visit and stay for a week. I just couldn’t see myself wrestling two little ones in and out of that backseat. So I waved my silver Bug with flowered hubcaps goodbye and embraced what I considered a family vehicle. When we bought the Versa I assumed that when we had our first child together the older two would be in booster seats or regular seats and we’d make it work until we needed another seat. Then BOOM! Twins! Surprise Versa, you are no longer big enough! I miss that little car all the time. It’s difficult enough to look cool in a Versa. You can only imagine how ridiculous I look in a white Mini Van.

I was really upset about getting the van until the first time we were able to pile into it as a family. It was awesome to see us all in there together. We’d been driving separate cars for a little while because the girls were early and I’d been dragging my feet on it before they were born. In a weird way buying the van seemed like admitting that the life I had before was gone. No more manual transmission for me. No more sporty little car. Now I was riding in what seemed like the soccer mom fleet vehicle and I didn’t feel at all prepared for that. These are not the kinds of changes you think about when you decide to have kids. Or at least it’s not the kind of change I though about. When we started talking about having kids I thought about a lot. Bills increasing, how we wanted to raise our Tiny humans, what my body would look like, breastfeeding, schools, etc. I pictured baby booties and tiny toes and diapers. I didn’t picture a Mom Van.

I’ve adjusted to The Mom Van. Sometimes she seems like an extension of myself because we’re together so much. I spend at least two hours on the road every day. I have embraced the convenience of each and every well thought out design feature. I still miss my manual transmission but I remind myself that one day I’ll be able to drive a fun car again. In the meantime you can usually find me and the Mom Van sitting in traffic with my brood of children listening to an audio book or having a dance party. I’ve even realized that the Mom Van is the perfect accessory for adventures with family and friends because you can fit just about anything into it.