My soon-to-be 17-year-old scored a high school parking pass for the remainder of this year and all of next year. This is a very exciting development! He can now drive himself and next year will be driving his little brother too. We drove over last night so he could confirm where his parking spot was and how to follow the traffic pattern to access it.
However…this means I now don’t have a car during the day. I put time on the schedule this weekend for my husband and I to go look at a few models as the plan is for my (2011) car to be the “kid” car.
And…I just couldn’t make myself do it. I have such a block on this. Partly I was just feeling a bit like I’d already asked a lot of myself on Friday with getting an MRI (looking at my lower back). I do not like small enclosed spaces (or medical things in general!) but I counted myself through it. So my supply of willpower was somewhat tapped out.
I guess I’ll figure this out eventually! As I’m thinking about it, this is only an acute issue for the next few weeks as my son won’t need a car daily over the summer that I am aware of — he’ll be away at an academic program for several weeks, and he’s volunteering at a program where my little kids will be too, so presumably someone would already be driving them. Hmm…
In the meantime, the weekend went pretty well. Post MRI I went to an all-district middle school jazz band competition where my middle two kids were performing. Their band sounded really good. Like not just hey, my kids are playing, but like legitimately enjoyable jazz music. I know the ensemble has been working really hard so it is cool to see this come together.
On Saturday morning I took my eldest to go take the SAT. He had taken it in March but thought he could do better so he registered for the May date as well. I have my fingers crossed that he will be happy with his score.
Despite the Saturday weather being only about 65 degrees and rainy, my husband took the three younger kids in our pool, which is newly opened for the season. I personally will be waiting for a day that is 80 degrees and sunny to experience this, but hey. My husband also ran the Broad Street 10-miler in 50 degree weather with a bit of a drizzle. I did not run due to my back issues but I was not that sad about not running in the cold rain…
On Sunday I spent an hour working in Starbucks while my 9-year-old was at a birthday party. I got a lot done! Then my husband and I went out for dinner at a local restaurant we had driven past a hundred times but I’d never been to. It was fine, but it was also good to chat through some upcoming family logistics.
Unfortunately, last night was bad again. The 4-year-old got up twice. The second time he had a nightmare — which apparently involved his 9-year-old brother not letting him play in his “castle.” He told me he was so, so sad about this and now couldn’t sleep. Eventually he did but it took a solid 30 minutes…
I hope the car buying experience isn’t too bad. It seems like the used car market has normalized a little bit from what I’ve read. We shouldn’t have to buy another car for 10 years or so barring something happening to one of our cars. It took us over 2 years to buy our SUV since we were holding out in hopes we could get a plug in hybrid and the waiting process really sucked. So I don’t want to buy another car anytime soon. I know of people who are always buying cars and I can’t at all relate. But it just goes to show we all get different levels of utility from things like a car. For us, it’s something to get us from point a to b and means nothing beyond that…
Hope the MRI gives you some encouraging answers about your back issues!
@Lisa- thanks! I’m hoping the MRI at least offers some interesting/useful information. And I would really love for a reliable, slightly fun car to appear in my driveway without my having to do anything.
I recently heard of car brokers, who can track down a car that meets your specifications and budget. That’d also take some of the dread of shopping out of it. Maybe something to look into.
We’re coming up on lots of these same things. My oldest is finishing up his freshman year and will turn 16 this July. In WI you can get your learner’s permit at 15, so he’s been driving (with us) for 10 months now. But he’ll get his full blown license when he turns 16 in July (eek). His high school is almost 30 minutes away….then tack on sports practices that end late etc and him having his own car is basically going to be a necessity. Our current plan is for him to take over my husband’s car (he will “buy” it from us, in some capacity- not all out exactly, but we’ll work out some sort of payment plan for him to cover part of it at least), and my husband is going to get a new car. The timing works out that my husband actually wants a new car now anyway, and his current 2016 Honda Accord sedan should make a nice teen driver car.
We also went to a College Prep night last week at school for freshman to start getting the wheels turning on all those types of things… ACT/SAT, college visits, etc. He still has time, but as I’m sure you can attest to, I feel like it will sneak up on us!
@Grateful Kae – kids driving can be quite useful! I’m not transferring ownership to my kid, partly because we are not sure it is going to go with him to college – it might stay and become the next teen’s car once he leaves. It’s been fairly reliable so I imagine it could keep going for a while, and my son is hoping to go somewhere walkable for school…
My 16 yo is hopefully getting his license this month. He won’t be driving to school. It is only a few hundred feet from our door to the school and people park on our block to go to school. But I will not miss driving to and from 8:30-10 p.m. soccer practices. We did buy a new car this weekend, but just to replace the one whose lease was expiring. The new car smell is nice though.
@Gillian – congrats on your new car! What did you get?
We got a BMW i4. My husband has been very curious about fully electric cars and keeping a leased car is part of my employment contract…so we have one car we own (the SUV that we all fit in) and one we lease for me to commute.
@Gillian – that is a fascinating employment stipulation! Hope you like the i4. I have been looking at the x5 (likely 2-3 years old, low mileage if possible). I’m not quite ready to go fully electric as our garage is…old. Not sure it could handle being a charging station without some serious electrical work.
A friend shared with me that she always used buys cars from Avis… I don’t remember all the details, but I do recall being shocked with the deal she got! 🙂
@Camille – I saw a few on Auto Trader that were former rental cars – that could definitely be an option. Probably looking for a low-mileage 2022 or thereabouts SUV…
I highly recommend Carvana for the car situation. We have used it twice now and as someone who finds the car-purchasing experience to be tedious at best, I loved it. You can set up specific parameters, take your time (or not), and they deliver it to your house. Some of them are barely used at all—so you have a range of things to work with. Just a thought!
@Ashley – that does sound appealing!
Agree on Carvana- we have sold three and bought two cars from them. Process has been so easy and well worth it. There is nothing worse than spending Saturdays looking at cars and waiting for someone to go “talk to their manager.”
@Mara – oh, that is the worst. We went through quite a process with buying our van last fall because they were the hot commodity for a while (Toyota didn’t make enough of the AWD version…) and we had to deal with them changing the value of our trade-in last minute and…ugh.
All right, Ms. Laura Vanderkam. I think that I have read through and made sense of what made you not buying the car the last week.
I was going to ask you if you are going to rent a car. Of course, I myself have not rented or bought a car in the past, and I’m not sure if I can discuss with you further on that one.
I’m also glad that you get get an MRI to look at the lower back. Even though it involved small enclosed spaces.
I also assume that the person who is going to take the SAT in a couple of days and the person who scored a high school parking pass are not the same person.
All right, Ms. Laura Vanderkam. I think that I have read through and made sense of what made you not buying the car the last week.
I was going to ask you if you are going to rent a car. Of course, I myself have not rented or bought a car in the past, and I’m not sure if I can discuss with you further on that one.
I’m also glad that you get to get an MRI to look at the lower back. Even though it involved small enclosed spaces.
I also assume that the person who is going to take the SAT in a couple of days and the person who scored a high school parking pass are not the same person.