First Time father advice

[ermax]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

Boohoo, snowflake.

Wait what? Being a man about life makes you a snowflake now?

[ermax]

No question there are easier cars to get a kid in and out of. It all depends on your priorities. Having a fun car and sucking up the inconvenience or driving a truck and hating life. Some people may be able to tolerate a truck, I can’t. Hahaha

[Summerwolf]

Originally Posted by ermax

No question there are easier cars to get a kid in and out of. It all depends on your priorities. Having a fun car and sucking up the inconvenience or driving a truck and hating life. Some people may be able to tolerate a truck, I can’t. Hahaha

I love having a truck, lol. The brz is boring to commute in and I'm paranoid about people not seeing it in the early morning. The truck is easier for the kids, therefore it kind of became my priority. It's actually the most convenient vehicle we have. Honestly, I'd rather dump 5-6k into an lt4 blower and make around 500 whp and have a super reliable do everything vehicle than put 7k in to the brz and have a 300 whp single purpose vehicle. Dont get me wrong I love the brz, but it would be a better car for me if I were younger with no kids.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by ermax

Wait what? Being a man about life makes you a snowflake now?

Getting all huffy about manliness is a central snowflake attribute.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Summerwolf

I love having a truck, lol. The brz is boring to commute in and I'm paranoid about people not seeing it in the early morning. The truck is easier for the kids, therefore it kind of became my priority. It's actually the most convenient vehicle we have. Honestly, I'd rather dump 5-6k into an lt4 blower and make around 500 whp and have a super reliable do everything vehicle than put 7k in to the brz and have a 300 whp single purpose vehicle. Dont get me wrong I love the brz, but it would be a better car for me if I were younger with no kids.

I'm selling my truck. It sucks on a twisty road.

[Summerwolf]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I'm selling my truck. It sucks on a twisty road.

Really good at holding kids and home improvement projects though..... which becomes a priority with children.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Summerwolf

Really good at holding kids and home improvement projects though..... which becomes a priority with children.

Yes, but I don't use it enough as a truck. And I have a trailer a car can pull. I thought we'd get a camper trailer, but we never did and don't want to anymore.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by Summerwolf

I love having a truck, lol. The brz is boring to commute in and I'm paranoid about people not seeing it in the early morning. The truck is easier for the kids, therefore it kind of became my priority. It's actually the most convenient vehicle we have. Honestly, I'd rather dump 5-6k into an lt4 blower and make around 500 whp and have a super reliable do everything vehicle than put 7k in to the brz and have a 300 whp single purpose vehicle. Dont get me wrong I love the brz, but it would be a better car for me if I were younger with no kids.

Me and my 2 sisters grew up cramming in the back seat of sports cars. The only memories that stick with me are “man your mom has a cool car”. I don’t have memories of it being inconvenient. I personally have 5 kids ranging from 17 to 2. I’ve always owned one SUV and one sports car and/or sports sedan. With 5 kids it’s not an option to only have a sports car and it is nice to have something for Home Depot runs. We are beach nuts so it’s nice to be able to all pile in and still have a ton of room left in the back and put a surfboard on the roof. But boring is not something I ever think of when driving the Twin. That includes stop and go traffic with a MT. For me driving enjoyment is all about turns and controlling the car and not about how fast I can accelerate in a straight line or how easy/convenient it is to drive. Our Suburban could have 600HP and I still wouldn’t consider it fun. Convenient yes, fun, no. So like I said it’s all about priorities. If you can drive a truck without being bored to death and aren’t completely addicted to driving, manual transmissions etc then having a Twin with kids probably isn’t going to work.

[Summerwolf]

Originally Posted by ermax

Me and my 2 sisters grew up cramming in the back seat of sports cars. The only memories that stick with me are “man your mom has a cool car”. I don’t have memories of it being inconvenient. I personally have 5 kids ranging from 17 to 2. I’ve always owned one SUV and one sports car and/or sports sedan. With 5 kids it’s not an option to only have a sports car and it is nice to have something for Home Depot runs. We are beach nuts so it’s nice to be able to all pile in and still have a ton of room left in the back and put a surfboard on the roof. But boring is not something I ever think of when driving the Twin. That includes stop and go traffic with a MT. For me driving enjoyment is all about turns and controlling the car and not about how fast I can accelerate in a straight line or how easy/convenient it is to drive. Our Suburban could have 600HP and I still wouldn’t consider it fun. Convenient yes, fun, no. So like I said it’s all about priorities. If you can drive a truck without being bored to death and aren’t completely addicted to driving, manual transmissions etc then having a Twin with kids probably isn’t going to work.

If you can get in to something with 600 hp and not consider it fun you're probably not as addicted to driving as you claim.

You're right, a lot of driving enjoyment with the twins is related to corners. On my commute, there is one corner, and all highway, that's why I said my personal commute can be boring. Either way with two kids in car seats the twin doesnt work for daily commuting. I'm glad my kids will get to have multiple vehicles to experience and grow up with.

[Jordanwolf]

Originally Posted by used2likeit

I did the kid duty in my FR-S. It's doable.

• Only enough room behind the passenger seat, one kid. If there's an adult passenger in front of the kid, they better have short legs.
• Front facing only, so your other car will be doing 100% infant duty until kid is old/big enough for a front-facing seat
• Make sure the seat is not too high-base, or you will be bumping your kid's head into the ceiling each time. Our peg-perego seat was too high-up, but an evenflo that looked very wide was actually a great fit. The peg-perego went into the wife's hatchback.
• There is a trick to getting the kid loaded. You have to tilt the passenger seat and slide it forward. Then, step in with your right foot to hold the seat in place. Then holding the kid flat and head-forward-and-up, bend over and load him into the seat. Your back should hit the ceiling. Practice this maneuver when your kid is calm and happy, I kid you not.
• The above maneuver is awkward when there's snow and ice on the ground. Be careful.
• It's actually a nice car for a kid since it's got a five-star safety rating, and the kid is close to the driver for any attention or soothing needs.

I ended up trading it in for a pickup truck anyway, but that was a combo of kid duty needs and wanting to pursue different driving.

My only point here would be in a rear end accident, I got to see first hand that if you have tint on that rear window, it's going to be holding the window together and it will be coming down on whoever is in the back head first. Rather dangerous IMO.

Otherwise, the cabin is quite the lock box in the event of an accident.

[soundman98]

speaking as an uncle there's a few things i know about children/nephews.

• don't drop them on their head. but if you do, laugh really loud and they don't cry so hard
• with enough finagling, diaper changes can be avoided/passed off to the women of the family. i still haven't changed one.
• boys are easier than girls, but all of them most love climbing around on you like monkeys
• the amount any kid wants any toy is directly inverse of how much their parents don't want them to have it because it's loud/obnoxious
• the desire any toy is also directly inverse of their cost. my nephews favorite first toy was a (clean) oven box from an appliance store we cut a door and a window into. this last trip, we all went to the covered bridge festival, and with hundreds and hundreds of booths with all sorts of toys, the toy he WANTED was a $2 silicone finger tongs. it kept him occupied picking up rocks the entire weekend.
  

[Sapphireho]

I still have dried breast milk from my youngest son's bottle on the passenger side door of my '77 911. Twin has tons of room, and child seat mounts. How easy.

And child birthing classes are a complete waste of time and money.

[conehead]

With multiple kids, nothing beats a minivan. I didn't even understand it until I got one as a rental. The huge sliding doors make it easy to get kids in and out of car seats, even in tight parking spaces. Older kids can easily get to the back row without having to move car seats, and they don't smash the doors into things when they open them. Even with a full load there is tons of cargo room, and floor space for the dog. You can actually stand in the back and get to kids in the third row. With the seats folded flat, it fits more 4x8 sheets than a truck and keeps them dry, or makes a flat floor for camping. The whole crossover trend is just moms in denial that they need a minivan.

[ELLSSUU]

-no advice on the car but...


-Prioritize your time with the child and enjoy it. Before you know it the child will be 18 and moving off to college
-Speaking of college, begin saving now. How much you think you need to save-----well it's not enough, save more.