2 kids, minivan?

[Anonymous]

If you had 2 kids, would you get a minivan? Or something else?

[Anonymous]

No, we happily drive a Civic and Nissan Leaf with two kids (4 and 2). And I live in the suburbs where I could definitely have a bigger car.

You might need more front-to-back room if you or your spouse (or whoever is driving the car) is very tall and the car seats are rear facing.

There is really no need to have a minivan with two kids unless you also have dogs or carry around a lot of equipment that won't fit in the trunk. Or if you have some kind of regular carpool situation. We've actually taken a road trip with luggage in our Honda civic with two kids and it was really totally fine.

[Anonymous]

We're doing okay with our Subaru Forester but are considering a minivan for the next car. Our kids are still in car seats and we do have a good sized dog, so it's getting tight on road trips (we already have a car topper). It would be nice to have for car pooling or ever taking anyone besides our immediate family in the car with us (visiting relative, for example).

[Anonymous]

If we just had two kids, we wouldn't have our van. We got a van once our family expanded to six people. Before that, we only had sedans and wagons, not even an SUV.

[Anonymous]

I probably would because my mom also lives with us and trying to fit two car seats and one adult across in a bench seat sounds fairly uncomfortable.

If we were a family of four I would not.

[Anonymous]

We do, but we use it a lot for road trips, carpools etc. Plus we do have a dog and a sitter who comes on a lot of trips with us. I'd say its certainly not necessary but we've been really happy with it.

[Anonymous]

If you asked me five years ago I would have said no.

However we rented a Honda Odyssey for our recent family road trip with four teenagers (one wasn't our), and it was amazing. Everyone had space and was very comfortable.


Now here I am with two adult kids, one 15 years old and thinking about a damn mini van.

Go for it. They aren't our parents 1990s vans.

[Anonymous]

I have four kids and still refuse to get a minivan. We like cool cars and have committed to driving two cars when the whole family wants to go out (we often do anyway because the toddler gets tired out before the older kids)

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have four kids and still refuse to get a minivan. We like cool cars and have committed to driving two cars when the whole family wants to go out (we often do anyway because the toddler gets tired out before the older kids)

What do you drive instead?

[Anonymous]

We got a minivan with two and really liked having the extra space for carpooling and driving visiting grandparents to dinner with us in the same car etc. With any kind of car seat or booster, it is really tight having an extra person in the back, and with a minivan we could keep an extra booster in the trunk for last minute play dates or rides home from soccer practice or whatever. Totally not necessary, but we needed a new car anyway and had space and could afford it. I am already a middle aged frumpy suburban mom, so I did not care at all about minivans looking lame or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have four kids and still refuse to get a minivan. We like cool cars and have committed to driving two cars when the whole family wants to go out (we often do anyway because the toddler gets tired out before the older kids)

[Anonymous]

My 2020 Odyssey is seriously the best thing ever. It's ju st perfect and I can't imagine ever driving anything else. The doors open when I walk up with my hands full, it holds my 2 kids plus us, plus grandparents for easy trips. On roadtrips we have SO MUCH space to store anything we want. It's wild. Years of being squished in the car on roadtrips are long gone. My inlaws and grandparents both live in places that are difficult to fly to, so we're on the road pretty regularly. The only annoying thing is that my parents are regularly trying to borrow my car to pick up furniture and always hitch a ride with us, so I'm always driving.

It makes life easy, which is the purpose of a car in my opinion. I hate crawling to the back of my friends' 3 row SUVs. Even the Pilot which is the same size/price as the Odyssey is really squished.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 kids and a minivan and it's phenomenal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have four kids and still refuse to get a minivan. We like cool cars and have committed to driving two cars when the whole family wants to go out (we often do anyway because the toddler gets tired out before the older kids)

Yeah driving 2 cars sounds terrible IMO. Way better than driving a non cool minivan