BabyDrive: Everything You Wanted To Know About Kids In Cars In One Handy Place
If you’re about to become a parent for the first time – or if you’re revisiting parenthood after a long break (it happens) – then you might be wondering what sort of car is right for your new family. It’s not a stupid question. Once upon a time, it might have been all right to sling the carry cot across the back seat and make the older siblings share a seatbelt and/or ride in the boot, but you’d get in major trouble if you tried that today. They’re serious about car seats for children these days and the law says that children under the age of seven can’t wear an adult seatbelt – and even then, this depends on their size and height and some children may need a booster seat until they’re 12 or so. (As an aside, I’m kind of glad that they didn’t specify a particular height or weight for using a booster seat – some petite adult women, such as my 18-year-old daughter, may not meet these and who wants to sit their license while sitting in a booster seat?).
Anyway, if you’re a parent-to-be, you mind may be buzzing with questions about what sort of car you need to get. And if it isn’t, it should be! A lot of first-time parents fall into the trap of putting a lot of thought and care into the birth plan and how they want the birth of their new baby to go. While this is all very well, what they don’t tell you (and what I wish I had known all those years ago) is that labour and birth only last (at most) one day. All the other bits about parenthood and life with a small child go on for months – years! So if you haven’t started thinking about what sort of car you need as a new parent, it’s time to give it some thought.
There are a lot of things to consider and it’s easy to make a mistake. Let’s just say that there’s a possibility that you may have to put that little sporty roadster on hold for a bit and buy something more family-friendly. Been there, done that. We said goodbye to our old Morris (which would be an absolute classic and worth a mint today if we’d hung onto it) because the pushchair wouldn’t fit in the boot and got a Toyota sedan – which was then traded in when Child #2 came along because there was no way that anybody could sit in the front seat when there were two car seats in the back – and no room between said seats either! I’ve been watching my brother and his wife start to go through the same series of problems.
Imagine that you could find someone who could give you all the advice you need – kind of like a motor-savvy big sister who can answer all those very practical questions even better than we can here at Private Fleet (although we try our best!). For example, if you’re expecting Child #3 and the eldest is still of an age to need a booster seat, or if you’ve got twins or triplets on the way, are there any cars out there that can fit three car seats across the back? Which cars provide enough leg room in the rear seats so that bored toddlers don’t try whiling away the time stuck in traffic kicking the driver in the kidneys? How do you know if the stroller will fit in the boot?
Well, this sort of big sisterly advice is exactly what you’ll get from a great new site that’s linked with Private Fleet called BabyDrive (yes, this is a shameless plug for the site but no, I did not write it, although I wish I had, and I wish Tace the reviewer lived a bit closer than Queensland because she’d probably be my new BFF). This is a great site that has all the answers you need to do with choosing a new vehicle that will suit your new family – yes, it even tells you which vehicles can fit five car seats comfortably and which MPVs have the easiest access to the third row of seats. It’s the sort of thing I wish that I had on hand when I was a new parent – and I’d certainly recommend it to any parent-to-be looking for a new family vehicle. Like we do, BabyDrive reviews vehicles, but unlike us, they do it all from a parenting perspective. You won’t find the hot little roadsters reviewed here and the car reviews don’t cover torque or fuel economy stats much. However, each car is rated for driver comfort (you’ve got to love a review that tells you whether the headrest position works well with the typical ponytail hairstyle adopted by mums on the go!), carseat capacity, storage, safety and noise. The reviews include some descriptions of driving as a new mother that will give you a rueful chuckle or two – even if you, like me, have your baby days well behind you. It’s the sort of review that we couldn’t do here on Private Fleet unless I kidnapped my baby nephew. We’ll tell you the other bits and pieces – as well as helping you score a great deal on pricing (another thing that’s appreciated by not just new parents!). The reviews feature a video segment as well as a written review – great for those who are more visually oriented.
The noise review is particularly useful, especially given the tendency these days for cars to produce all kinds of beeps as warnings. If you don’t know about the old parenting trick of going for a wee drive to help soothe a fretful child off to sleep, you know it now! However, all the good soothing work of a nicely purring motor and the gentle motion of a car on the go can be undone by some wretched lane departure warning shrieking or a parking sensor bleeping, waking your baby up just as you get home.
And yes, you will find some hatchbacks reviewed on BabyDrive! Of course, the big SUVs, MPVs and 4x4s feature heavily (and, as an extra piece of advice from a more experienced parent, these will stand you in good stead once your kids hit the school and teen years, and you have to take your turn doing the carpool run, or if you are ferrying a posse of teens to the movies or a sports match). However, if it’s not a “BabyDrive” (i.e. something suitable for small children), then it won’t feature!
Check it out yourself at BabyDrive.com.au.
Level 2, 9 Help Street