Oh! I get it!
In the burbs women can be divided into two broad categories: minivan drivers and SUV drivers.
I don't think there is a stronger more polarizing symbol that a minivan. Most of the women I know have very strong feelings about it. To me it means you have fully given up on being anything other than a full-on suburban mom. It means carpooling lots of screaming children. It means you've given up style and fun for the practical. As you can imagine, I am not a minivan driver. In fact, when my husband rented a minivan for me once I just broke down and cried like the world had come to an end.
However, the other afternoon it finally dawned on me why minivans make so much sense in the burbs.
Last Tuesday afternoon I took my 6 year old to guitar lesson with his sister and brother in tow. While he was having his guitar lesson my 9 year old was doing his homework amidst the sounds of a drum lesson mixed in with the sounds of a piano lesson, mixed in with the sounds of a clarinet lesson, not exactly an ideal homework setting. Meanwhile my three year old was busy taking down all of the music sheet from the store's racks.
When we walked out I saw a mom in her minivan and this is what I saw.
She's seating in the front seat doing cross-stich, her toddler is watching a movie, her older daughter is seating with small table in front of her doing her homework and presumably child #3 is having a music lesson. She looked so calm and relaxed. That's when it dawned on me that her minivan is like a mobile living room...it's an extension of her house. When you spend so much time schlepping kids around every afternoon it makes perfect sense.
Of course not enough for me to go to other side but now it makes a little more sense.
I don't think there is a stronger more polarizing symbol that a minivan. Most of the women I know have very strong feelings about it. To me it means you have fully given up on being anything other than a full-on suburban mom. It means carpooling lots of screaming children. It means you've given up style and fun for the practical. As you can imagine, I am not a minivan driver. In fact, when my husband rented a minivan for me once I just broke down and cried like the world had come to an end.
However, the other afternoon it finally dawned on me why minivans make so much sense in the burbs.
Last Tuesday afternoon I took my 6 year old to guitar lesson with his sister and brother in tow. While he was having his guitar lesson my 9 year old was doing his homework amidst the sounds of a drum lesson mixed in with the sounds of a piano lesson, mixed in with the sounds of a clarinet lesson, not exactly an ideal homework setting. Meanwhile my three year old was busy taking down all of the music sheet from the store's racks.
When we walked out I saw a mom in her minivan and this is what I saw.
Of course not enough for me to go to other side but now it makes a little more sense.
Comments
Post a Comment