DH's car

[luvsviola]

For the mamas of many who work full time and have DH's that work full time...

Can your DH fit all the kids in his car if he needed to? We are contemplating #4, and DH drives an 04 Accord that is paid for. We have 3 seats in it now. DD is only 5, so putting her in the front is not an option I am willing to do. Plus, there is no top tether.

I maintain he needs to get a Pilot/Odyssey or something that can fit all 4 kids. We are Honda people. He likes not having a payment.

Daycare generally comes to our house, but sometimes DH needs to pick them up from her house. We could trade cars, but am afraid we might get screwed up if something comes up.

Just wondering what others do.

[HeatherlovesCDs]

I'm a SAHM, so probably not the perspective you want, but I'm going to give it anyway.

We have only 1 vehicle that fits all of our children. Honestly, I find it a bit unnerving. It is very hard for us to drop it off at the shop if we need to. We can't leave any of the kids at home and we don't have anyway to get everyone home if we drop that vehicle off. I also wonder what would happen if I broke down. I'd have to call hubby and someone else to come get us. I know it isn't necessarily realistic to have 2 vehicles that seat 8 people including 6 carseats (soon), but I wish we had a back up.

ETA - I wanted to say, we do make it work and as of yet haven't had any real issues. I just wish we had 2 that seated us all.

[Blue5055]

I'm also a SAHM. DH is military, so we move a lot. We almost always keep my car (I always have the newer one as it's the "family" car), and usually sell DH's before a move, buying him a new one (new to us, anyway, that we pay cash for) at our new duty station.

DH picks whatever cars appeal to him at that time, but I have 1 requirement I will not bend on: it has to be able to fit our entire family. Car accidents, time in the shop, whatever because things happen; there have been multiple times where my, the "family" car, has been unavailable and we've had to rely only on DH's car.

We would have had to rent a car if DH's car couldn't fit the whole family. DH would rather get a car we can all fit in if we have to instead of having to pay even more for a rental.

We're only a family of 4 though, so really, DH just has to get a car with a back seat. But when he's in the mood for a sports car, that's actually something I have to constantly remind of him. *sigh LOL

Anyway, even not working, it's extremely important to me that both our vehicles can fit the entire family.

[Nerissa]

DH and I both work full time. It is very important to me that he can fit all kids in his car in appropriate car seats if the need arrrises. We work on different sides of the city and I work early morning-afternoon, he works late morning to late night. I do not want to have to mess with switching vehicles. While okay once in awhile, it would be a huge PITB to do every day. Plus I drive a lot for work and since we lease DH's car we can put that many miles on it. He does daycare drop off, I pick up.

My rule, so to speak, about the vehicle DH drives is that it has to fit everyone and be within a certian payment amount. After that I don't care what he drives. I rarely drive it and we always take the van on trips.

Here is our situation
He does daycare drop off Tuesday -Friday (he is home Mondays with them). He drives a toyota camry. I drive a van. Currently we have 2 graco nautalis seats in his car. DS1 will go to kindergarden next year and will ride the bus and DH will take the other two to daycare. He still needs to be able to fit all three in his car in the back seat in appropriate seats since there will be days that DS1 will not have school and I still have to work. (I work for a different school district). Eventhough I can get both nautalis seats and the infant seat in the back of his car I will be getting a bumble seat for DS1 for the very few times he will be in the car.