Buying a Car with a Baby

As the first birthday of our daughter quickly approaches, I can’t help but look back at the past 12 months and laugh at some of the more interesting moments of parenthood.  As much as I tried to be prepared by reading books, listening to other parents’ stories and asking for advice, nothing truly prepares you for this new job.  The best training comes when your little bundle of joy is handed over and you have nothing left to do but survive the best way you can.  Many moments that brought on some laughable memories were never covered in baby books and Mommy-how-to’s. 

One of these moments was experienced by our family when we decided to buy a new family car.  My maternity leave was coming to an end, and we decided that it was time to get a car that was big enough to fit our entire family in it.  Our little compact cars were far from the size we needed to be able to fit two adults, a newborn with lots of newborn accessories, and a large dog (who takes up the most space of all). 

Off we went one morning to the car dealership, with a one month old baby in tow.  Not having family living in town, or available to babysit, made finding daycare impossible for the day.  Plus, Anderson was such a chill baby we were sure she would just sleep through the whole car buying process.  Of course, our assumption was wrong. 

JC went browsing through the car lot while I tried to entertain, feed and snuggle our infant in a car dealership waiting area.  Let’s just say, car dealerships don’t make the waiting areas, nor the restrooms family friendly.  It was my first experience “making do” with what we had on hand.

The guys at the dealership were very nice (no surprise since we were buying a new vehicle), always checking to make sure we were doing okay while JC test drove the vehicle and started going through the car buying process.  They even smiled and were patient with Anderson’s unusually fussy mood.

In all of the new motherhood drama that summed up our experience buying a car with an infant there were two very positive things that came out of the experience.  We learned car buying is ideal in the morning.  Very few people were out looking for cars mid-morning during the middle of the week.  Besides the rush of wanting to get our baby home, there was no pressure to hurry up and make a decision so they could wait on other customers.  Finally, having a baby in tow may have worked to our advantage when it came down to the paperwork and money talk.  I imagine they were so ready to get us out of there they settled on a lower price than what they normally would have.  Thank you Anderson for that!

Buy old car, hello Mom wagon.

Three months later, after being stranded on the side of the road in my 10 year old car from high school, we decided to make another trip to the car dealership.  This time Anderson did not join us for the excursion.  Parenthood is all about learning.