Husband in sport car with au-pair. You in minivan with 3 kids.

Minivan.

70s van with a waterbed

I love the harder lines on the Nissan Quest.

When you car shop[, bring a car seat with you and put it in the 3rd row. It typically can not go in the middle because there is no latch AND the seatbelt for the middle is a different style - you will see for yourself.

I 2nd the recommendation to check out the Kia.

We have three in car seats and will have an au pair later this summer. We are likely waiting for the ascent. We have rented minivans in the past and don’t find them that much more convenient. I also prefer having the ability to put all three in the middle row for safety reasons, only using the third row when absolutely necessary. The ascent is supposed to have more distance between the third row and the back, so hopefully safer.

Anonymous wrote:You could get rid of the au pair... more options then

Ha! Sadly, then I would have to get rid of my job and I couldn’t afford a new car!

My sister has the Kia Sedona minivan fully loaded and she loves it. I think it only cost them around $35K, too. Great warranty, they use it for lots of roadtrips. It has all sorts of crazy tech in it that you find on much more expensive luxury vehicles.

We are DINKs and would never own one, but that car impresses the hell out of me.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the replies. It sounds like the minivan is the way to go and there are only three options, so we will test drive those.

A related question - when loading three kids in a minivan, does it make the most sense to put the baby and the rear-facing two year-old in captains chairs in the second row and have the 4 year-old in the middle in the third row because he can climb in himself? If all three car sets are in the second row, can you even get to the third row?

Yes, I had my two little ones rear facing in the second row and my older guy uses a booster seat in the third row. #2 is now front facing in row 2.

You could get rid of the au pair... more options then

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the replies. It sounds like the minivan is the way to go and there are only three options, so we will test drive those.

A related question - when loading three kids in a minivan, does it make the most sense to put the baby and the rear-facing two year-old in captains chairs in the second row and have the 4 year-old in the middle in the third row because he can climb in himself? If all three car sets are in the second row, can you even get to the third row?

I think your first scenario sounds like the best option if oldest DC can buckle and unbuckle him/herself. In our Sienna, you can scoot a captain's chair forward and tilt it to climb in the back if you have a low-backed booster in it and maybe you could with a high back booster that has "give" to lean forward (isn't securely latched or tethered -- only seat belt use). I don't think you could do it if you had a high back booster or a RF/FF 5-point seat in the captain's seat that was securely fixed. In that case, you could scoot the seat forward and back but you couldn't tilt it. That might give a 4 year old enough room to climb in behind it, but not a lot of adults. If it's not enough room, you can remove the 2nd row middle seat and have DC climb in by walking down the aisle and let the captain's chairs stay still all the time.

OP here. Thanks for all the replies. It sounds like the minivan is the way to go and there are only three options, so we will test drive those.

A related question - when loading three kids in a minivan, does it make the most sense to put the baby and the rear-facing two year-old in captains chairs in the second row and have the 4 year-old in the middle in the third row because he can climb in himself? If all three car sets are in the second row, can you even get to the third row?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd go with a minivan. Getting kids in and out of a 3 row minivan, especially with car seats) is much easier than in a 3 row SUV. Parking is much easier as well. I've had both and the minivan won out big time. Once we grew out of the minivan I went back to an SUV (Subaru Forester) which I love.

When my baby #3 was on the way my parents encouraged me to get a minivan for all the reasons above but I wanted a 3 row SUV because I didn't want to me a minivan mom. On a recent vacation we had to rent a minivan and my parents were right. It is so much easier with the sliding doors, lower height etc. etc. It was so much easier to drive and park. I have not yet told my parents that they were right.

I live across the street from an elementary school and every day at 2:45pm the road is clogged with SUV's. So every mom drives an SUV for the same reason pp does. Maybe it's the super bright moms who are driving minivans because they put function over form.

3 kids is minivan territory. With car seats even more so. Just go for it and you’ll be happier.

Anonymous wrote:If you can parallel park in general, you can parallel park the Sienna no problem. I don't pp that often but did it like a pro in front of a side-street Georgetown restaurant the first day we had ours.

Also, I second the sliding doors. Not only for parking lot safety and loading and unloading your kids, but it also eliminates dinging up the doors of all the cars you park next to when your kids (or you) let a regular door open too far.

I am one of the "I'm not a minivan" people who became devout converts. I love mine.