I don't think I can be friends with moms who drive huge SUVs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to the suburbs, and they are everywhere. Some of the kids are in travel lacrosse and soccer and they are in FIRST grade. They all have the same exact huge white SUV. It was hilarious the other day because a few of them ran into each other at the grocery store and were talking obnoxiously about their vacations while standing in line at Aldi. Anyway, once I got to the parking lot, they were all talking and loading their groceries. They all have the exact type of car a HUGE white SUV. My first car in high school was a Prius. Dh wants an SUV but I am adamant about having a sedan. We have two kids, and it's fine. Do these people not care about global warming? We had an earthquake a week ago, killing thousands of people. Driving these huge cars is such a waste and global warming contributes to more earthquakes. I went from living in an apartment to this. It's such a big change.

Cool story. They’ll think you’re insufferable too, so you won’t exactly be fending off invitations. Should work our well for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hahahahahahahahaha!

enjoy being alone you self-righteous twit!

Why not use less energy and pollute less?

Why not virtue signal less?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:19:59. Also, OP:

Do you bring your own bags to Aldi? Keep a stash in your car at all times?

Of course, you buy all your clothes second hand, like I do. I shop at thrift stores and I’m very choosy: today I wore a long cashmere cardigan likely from Bloomingdale’s that retails for $800. Bought it for $20. I donate weekly - one in, one out. Been a thrift store hobbyist since before it was trendy - over 30 years.

Guess what my hobbies are? Upcycling paper ephemera (from thrift store finds bought for mere pennies and sometimes giveaways) into greeting cards. I also clean up creek beds and have amassed jars of creek glass that I make into mosaics like stepping stones.

Never judge a woman by the car she drives.

Serious question - how do you prevent getting bed bugs from so much thrift store clothing? What's your method of handling the clothing when getting it from the store to your closet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at all of the defensive giant SUV drivers! Really touched a nerve. Not sure why discussing the fact that wasteful lifestyles are wasteful is such a personal slight to so many of you.

Look at this hilariously predictable post!

No, sweetie, you didn’t “touch a nerve.” We are laughing at you and your faux superiority.

-owns a small sedan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to the suburbs, and they are everywhere. Some of the kids are in travel lacrosse and soccer and they are in FIRST grade. They all have the same exact huge white SUV. It was hilarious the other day because a few of them ran into each other at the grocery store and were talking obnoxiously about their vacations while standing in line at Aldi. Anyway, once I got to the parking lot, they were all talking and loading their groceries. They all have the exact type of car a HUGE white SUV. My first car in high school was a Prius. Dh wants an SUV but I am adamant about having a sedan. We have two kids, and it's fine. Do these people not care about global warming? We had an earthquake a week ago, killing thousands of people. Driving these huge cars is such a waste and global warming contributes to more earthquakes. I went from living in an apartment to this. It's such a big change.

I drove an SUV a for a long time and I felt safe in it especially when it snows which is rare this year but in years past a few storms a year in DC. Plus traveling it is more comfortable and giving rides to kids friends need more space.

Have downsized now and can only fit 3 kids total in my fancy sedan. SUVs for a family are practical. Kids, suitcases, etc… also we drove more than we fly. How much gas are you using flying all over? Op don’t be so judgmental. You will isolate yourself.

So why not a mini-van? Why the giant SUV?

The OP is a troll. This is not serious. Just very obnoxious.

And the same troll who started the anti-car thread. They’ll deny it, because they’re terrible at masking their overly verbose word-vomit writing style and word and syntax choices, but they are. Some bored, lonely troll begging for attention on the internet. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously the OP hit a raw nerve. Feeling a little white suburban guilt aren't we?

Hi OP! And no, again, no nerve hit. Just laughing at OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice is to stop being so judgmental. Your kids will pick up that attitude and you’re going to start to wonder fast why they have no friends.

Second, here are a few tips. 1) “travel” sports only means that coaches are getting paid, instead of parent volunteers for “rec” sports. People getting paid for their expert knowledge and labor is a good thing. 2) people live in the suburbs for many reasons and an obvious one is the need for more space. Usually people need more space because they have more than one kid.

They often have 2 kids and live as it they have half a dozen.

Travel sports means they are staying in hotel mores, eating take out, flying. It's not necessary. A 6 year old doesn't need to drive to Ohio so they can play soccer with another 6-year-old. They can do that locally.

That’s not for you to decide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you moved into the neighborhood only to look down your nose at all of the people who live there?

Yeah, your life is going to be so much fun.

It is entirely possible to live in the suburbs and reduce the amount of resources you are using. It is a perfectly reasonable and desirable thing for a family to try to acheive,

Somehow you'd still find a way to feel superior to them, I BET. You're just an unpleasant person.

The funny thing is she actually feels INFERIOR to them and is overcompensating. She has arrested development from middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please tell me OP you live in a new build and the perfectly good 2000 sq ft original build is sitting in a land fill. Tell me it's true. And the potential buyer will now consider a new shiny townhouse in a new concrete jungle because it's the only affordable housing left where green space used to be

I live in a townhouse that is less than 2000 Square feet. No house was torn down. This was a field. We couldn't get an existing house. Tried for 11 months. My work is five minutes away. Half of the community is south asian. We are an international family Turkish/ Asian. The community I live in is friendly and not flashy. I have noticed these other mom's at the birthday parties. Thanks for mentioning that travel sports doesn't mean they fly every weekend. I had no idea.

Did you immigrate just so you could tell Americans everything they are doing wrong?

Your field was a farm. There are never just fields. Fields are pastures for livestock or fallow between crops. And yes as people like you move into BRAND new construction, it probably looks like a field because the farmers have had to move on. I used to ride horses in several places in Northern Virginia that are now suburbs. One was right in the middle of Vienna. You judge others but obviously wouldn’t deign to live in existing homes even though doing so is far more environmentally conscious than new construction of any kind. You have zero moral high ground about the environment.

Yes, nothing like transplants who come to the DC area, plop concrete and big structures on grass, flush their Tide or other cheap chemical laundry detergent and personal soaps into the Potomac River that I have to drink, and then walk up to a podium of environmental moral superiority.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/soil-water-conservation/where-does-water-go-wastewater-treatment-fairfax-county

https://www.fairfaxwater.org/water-supply

[Anonymous]

^^ and because of whom trees were removed too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about the SUV’s specifically but yes these types of people are why I don’t really have good friends. I can’t relate to them at all - we are friendly acquaintances and that’s it.

I feel the same about the ski trips out west, home remodels, country clubs, private schools, etc. It’s just never ending for many of these families and I feel like an alien visiting a foreign land I don’t understand. And I’ve been here 15 years.

This, I don't get any of it. It's a values system I wasn't raised with and don't understand.

The thing in the OP I most relate to is that feeling when you notice that a bunch of the people around you all have the exact same thing, like there was a memo that went out. It reminds me of this one woman on my neighborhood listserv who sometimes posts things like, "Ok y'all, what shoes are we all buying for the littles now? Are Natives still in or have people found something better?" It is always extremely jarring to me because she's not asking for a recommendation, she wants to know what "everyone" is doing so that she can do it too. This is such a strange way to go through life, it would not occur to me. When I see her posts, I always click on them so I can read them and the responses, it's like being Jane Goodall or something. Fascinating, but something I observe from a distance.

PP and yes this exactly. It’s a whole mindset, not just the SUV. I feel like such an imposter and so out of place. I think “my people” are probably somewhere in rural New England but I hate the cold and winter so no idea where I will go when my kids finish HS. Thank goodness my DH gets it and gets me. If not I would be totally lost.

Meh, I feel like the shoe example sounds like something I would say to my friends. Not bc I want to be the same, but bc I know they have probably done some research to figure out what the best shoes are for kids and I want to reap the benefits of that

Nah, that's still "wanting to be the same" but just subconscious. You are outsourcing your decision making to other people because you assume they know better, or because you don't want to put in the effort yourself. You might tell yourself, "this isn't about my kids having the same shoes, or us driving the same car, or going on the same vacations as everyone we know -- it's just smart outsourcing." But the thing you are outsourcing is not "research" it's "thinking". And people outsource thinking so they don't have to think for themselves.

Plus there is safety in doing what others do because then if you make a mistake, it's the same mistake everyone made. If it turns out that SUVs are hella dangerous and destroying the environment, oh well, everyone I know did the same shitty thing so no one can get mad at me, personally. If it turns out those rubber shoes are made by enslaved children in Asia, oh well, at least I'm not the only one. And so on. You are hiding in the safety of numbers, which is the exact same thing all these other people are doing.

It's groupthink. You're a sheep. Maybe you are fine with it, but it's what you are.

Every time you call someone a “sheep,” you embarrass yourself. If that’s your goal, by all means, keep going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We do a lot of things for the environment, but we also need to carpool. Our Subaru Outback won’t suffice much longer for the reason that we have 2 kids. We can’t car pool except to bring 1 more kid. There are not a ton of 1 kid families and those families don’t always have space in their cars for our two.

If you want to fit 3-5 kids + sports gear, you will need an SUV or minivan.

So in Europe and the rest of the world why are they able to do this without the need for a HUGE suv?

They dont do travel sports the same way. Cars are really really expensive. Public transport and trains is more developed and they all just have less stuff.

They don't do travel sports because travel sports are stupid, and American invention designed to ensure UMC spend more money by privatizing kids playing soccer (something they could do in rec leagues! which are cheap and convenient). Cars are expensive there because cars are really, really inefficient ways to move people around and those countries actually want to reduce fossil fuels and not just destroy the planet for future generations. And they have more public transport because they use the money from taxes (including high taxes on cars and fuel) to fund high quality and convenient public transportations specifically because it reduces reliance on cars plus it also ensures that people with lower incomes can still get to school and work, thus improving economic inequality.

And having less stuff is good! We should all have less stuff. "Stuff" is killing the planet.

Europe is not just culturally different resulting in fewer SUVs and smaller homes. These are choices they have made through policies and also collective action. Choices intended to make things better for everyone. In the US, we don't believe in making things better for everyone. We only want to make things better for ourselves on an individual basis. And it will kill us in the end.

So if they’re so superior, move there. Bye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We recently moved to the suburbs, and they are everywhere. Some of the kids are in travel lacrosse and soccer and they are in FIRST grade. They all have the same exact huge white SUV. It was hilarious the other day because a few of them ran into each other at the grocery store and were talking obnoxiously about their vacations while standing in line at Aldi. Anyway, once I got to the parking lot, they were all talking and loading their groceries. They all have the exact type of car a HUGE white SUV. My first car in high school was a Prius. Dh wants an SUV but I am adamant about having a sedan. We have two kids, and it's fine. Do these people not care about global warming? We had an earthquake a week ago, killing thousands of people. Driving these huge cars is such a waste and global warming contributes to more earthquakes. I went from living in an apartment to this. It's such a big change.

It sounds to me like this is a “you” problem.

Eavesdropping and getting upset about kids talking about their vacations at a supermarket is not normal behavior. I hope that you understand this.

I wasn't upset, nor was I eavesdropping. We were all in line and they were loud and I used my eyes in the parking lot.

TIs a never ending competition to consume the most. They are likely raising up some more good little consumers. No one is born thinking they should drive a gigantic SUV. Learned behavior.

Yep. And these same kids are going around asking what iphone other kids have and what kind of leggings they wear. Just wait to the teen years OP, it only gets worse. And the same defensive parents will be defending all the money they waste on their kids then too.

Kids are better off without iPhones and social media.

Without them, kids might have to actually, you know, talk with each other?

As it is now, the moment any kid-conversation pauses, the phones come out. And the conversation is over.

Phones and social lead to shorter and shorter attention spans. Not a good thing!

Stop deflecting and stay on topic.

[Anonymous]

I hope you don’t fly OP. #climatechange.

Signed, a Takoma park, one car Prius family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you people are the worst

Yes, OP and her sycophants (well, any who aren’t obvious sock puppets) are the worst. Agreed.