Money Matters
hoffse
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
CRV vs. Pilot
Hi everybody,
H and I are probably going to trade in my car at the end of the year. I currently drive a Honda CRV and love it. I'm inclined to just trade it in for another one, but all the parents I know say that it's not nearly enough space for kids and all of their stuff. H and I will be TTC at the end of the year, and while you never know how that's going to go... we are hoping that it will be successful, so we will buy a car with this in mind.
The Pilots seem huge to me. I like driving more compact cars because I work in a downtown city area where parallel parking, construction, tight spots, etc. is a reality. I would also like to be somewhat minimal when it comes to all the kid gear.
That said, I know I'm not a parent, so I do realize that "the plan" in my head and what might actually happen could be two totally different things.
It seems to me that a CRV + trailer could solve most of the large issues we would face with cargo room. I would like a trailer for my next car anyway, because we use my car to haul garden/lawn stuff, and even with tarps it sometimes gets dirty. We have space in our garage to store a small trailer so that it's not an eyesore, and there are plenty of options that would work for us that cost less than $1,000 new (I would look for used options too). I figure that once we put a hitch on the car then there are lots of options to extend cargo space externally for longer trips and such. That said, this probably isn't a realistic solution for day-to-day errands, so we would need enough internal cargo room for strollers, bags, groceries, and whatever other stuff people haul around for kids.
Also, we have no dogs, just two cats. We don't road trip with them very often because they hate it, and we hate it.
The difference between the two cars is about $10K.
So are all the parents I know right in that you really need a full-sized SUV to be comfortable? Or are they just being excessive with how much crap they haul around all the time? What am I missing here?
Re: CRV vs. Pilot
Personally, I think they're being obsessive with how much stuff they haul around. You don't need a full sized SUV. My wife and I make do with a Chevy Impala and a Honda Accord. I've seen my neighbors CRV and it looks to have more space than we have.
We also have a 19yr old and all his stuff....but we're normally only taking a diaper bag or two and a stroller.
IMHO I would avoid any vehicle with a Takata airbag. Here is the list: http://blog.caranddriver.com/massive-takata-airbag-recall-everything-you-need-to-know-including-full-list-of-affected-vehicles/
We have a Cadillac SRX. While we don't have child, I do have a MIL with a walker. I love that car and has enough room for the three of us and a small dog. If we needed to fit a car seat in there, we could make it work. It's not crazy big or expensive like the Escalades (Plus, some of those that the bad airbags). It was actually the cheaper option between the Cadillac and the Buick Encore.
For most trips around town, we just take a backpack that we use as a diaper bag and we take the stroller just in case. The diaper backpack goes either in the front seat with me or in the back seat next to the kid. The stroller hangs out in each of our cars.
When "traveling" right now, all his stuff fits in our suitcase along with our stuff. But it does mean we usually take one size up from whatever we normally take.
It also helps that we don't live in our cars. When we get home, everything comes out (except the strollers). I know some people who leave their kids sports bags for soccer/football/whatever in the car 24/7 even when they're not headed there.
We never had one. I think they are silly but that's just me. I know others that loved them. Same with bottle warmers. I exclusively pumped early on. I tried to pump and feed so there was no need to warm a bottle. When I used frozen milk, I popped the frozen milk storage bag in a bowl with warm water. Took less than a minute because I froze my milk "flat" - very quick to thaw. And babies don't need milk/formula to be warmed forever.
In my opinion, a lot of baby stuff is personal preference / lifestyle dependent.
We have an umbrella stroller that was given to us (not on a registry) and neither of us tend to use it. Kid loves it, but we're both on the tall side and the umbrella stroller just isn't tall enough. Not sure if it is just that particular one or if they're all like that.
We do also have a larger Chico travel system stroller. Loved that thing when it came to being able to drop the bucket seat into it right from the car. Even now that he's older, I'd say we still use it enough to make it worth having, but he is at that point where about half the time we end up carrying him.
Also, remember the stores encourage you to register for everything under the sun because they want you and your friends and family to spend money. Some things I think one should wait until the kid gets to the point of using them to look at.
We never registered for a pack and play, but my wife's uncle got us one anyway. We've rarely used it. Our son never liked being in it. We also have one of those vibrating rocker things. Used it some, but again, never really used it.