The Honda Element

Despite the fact that I was born and raised in Austin, Texas and that my mom votes Democrat, that is where my Austin Granola tendencies end...  We grew up in a good ole' SUV family!!  Even though we shook our fists in furry at the gas pump every time we filled up our gas guzzler, it did not deter us from always owning some ginormous SUV.

We have some snobby tendencies in our family... we always looked down our nose at two things... 1) poor house architecture and 2) minivans.   But now that I have a child of my own, those minivans are looking pretty appealing (and I can't believe those words have sneaked their way out of my mouth).

BJ and I have the cool equivalent to the minivan... or at least we thought... in our Honda Element.  From the outside, it looks like a great compromise.  Large back seat area to move around and lock your kids into their car seat.  Big doors that open out opposite each other for a great space to access the back seat.  It seems wonderful.... little did I know the pitfalls...

Let me take you back to last Sunday. 

Last Sunday we decided to take Colton to the nursery for the first time.  Pridefully I thought that since we worked at the church that our son would take to the nursery quite well.  I don't know if it is that our son is still only 2 1/2 months old, or that he just loves his mommy, but he did not last long in the nursery.  After my second page, and one screaming child later, I decided to take him home.

I hung my head in defeat and I held back tears as I walked to the Element.  Unfortunately our church is a little skimpy in the parking space department.  I trudge to the car and saw that there was a mere foot of space in between my car and the two cars on either side.  Now, let me remind you, you cannot access the back seat unless both car doors are FULLY open.  There was absolutely no way I could get into the back seat of my car.  I had to choose the lesser of two evils and went to the driver side (being that it had 6 more inches of space than the passenger side.

I was able to squeeze my body, with my son clutched to my chest, into the front seat on my knees.  I then had to inch slowly, crawling on my knees over the console and into the back seat.  Then, football holding my now ballistic child in one hand and dragging the car seat into position with the other, tried to buckle him in.

Needless to say, I was hysterically crying at this point, cursing the Honda gods.  Misery must love company because Colton stopped crying and fell asleep as soon as I was wailing like a little weenie baby. 

A new plan has formulated in my brain.... park in the farthest spot available in any parking lot and scatter shards of glass and rusty nails in the surrounding spots, to insure enough room to actually get my child into the car.


Lesson Learned: 
Honda Element = Great Car
Honda Element + Car Seat = Headache
Honda Element + Car Seat + Careless Parking Neighbors + Crying Child = Shoot me in the face....