caring for the family car: a home away from home

 

Why don't we treat our cars with the same care as our homes?

During “home” month at The Happiest Mom, we’ve talked about offices, pantries, and all kinds of areas inside the house. But what about those places we spend time living in but that aren’t indoors? Like a lot of moms, I spend time daily in my car-more accurately, my ten-year-old minivan. We are a road-tripping family and travel a lot on the weekends, plus I make at least one short outing a day, whether to the pick up groceries or drop one of the boys off at a friend’s. So in a way, my minivan is like a little home away from home.

But I have to admit, I don’t treat it that way.

Last weekend I had an opportunity to go on a weekend women’s retreat in Sag Harbor, NY, hosted by OnStar, a sort of hybrid safety and security, communication, navigation and maintenance system (think of it as Auto Club 2.0.) We got to test the system out by driving around the Hamptons in a variety of vehicles. My favorite was the GMC Acadia, a crossover with the profile of a small SUV (so you don’t feel like you’re driving a yacht down the highway) but the passenger space of a minivan (so I could actually fit all five of my children inside.)

When I slid onto the car, all I could think of was how different an experience it was from riding in my minivan. Not just because the Acadia was brand new, but also because it didn’t smell bad, there were no sticky substances on the arm rests, and no papers rustling or dried-out crusts crumbling at my feet. In short, the Acadia looked and felt cared-for. Riding in it was a pleasant experience, not something to be endured until the earliest opportunity to get out.

When I returned home and had to drive the smelly, musty, cast-off-homework-filled minivan, I was forced to face a hard truth: my vehicle just doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. The kids tend to treat the far back seat like a trash heap. The front seat is only moderately better-I don’t actively litter, but I don’t always take the time to keep it neat and clean, either. And I very rarely venture into the way-back to see exactly what’s going on back there. It’s not until one of the kids loses a library book in the pile of debris or a particularly bad smell begins to waft to the front seat that I investigate back there.

People, it’s not pretty.

Sure, it’s easier to keep a car clean when it’s not full of small mess-makers, but you could argue the same is true for a house. That doesn’t mean you throw your hands up and admit defeat, though. I wouldn’t give my linen closet so little attention, and I have yet to curl up inside it and listen to NPR. So why do I give our automobile-a little room that I actually spend a good portion of my life living in, traveling in, reading in, listening to music in, talking to my kids and husband in, sight-seeing in, and breathing in-such short shrift?

I grew up in a household where cars were about getting around, not making a statement. We always drove used vehicles; generally nothing flashy. But looking back, I know my parents put a lot of time and thought into keeping our automobiles nice. Our cars were older, but they were clean and meticuluously maintained. Eat a burger and toss the wrapper on the floor? You’ve gotta be kidding.

I, on the other hand, am always trying to eke out a few (thousand) more miles before the next oil change and often forget about basic maintenance like changing tire pressure. And while I don’t actively condone my kids being auto-litterbugs, I do tend to turn up the radio and look the other way. It’s time to change my ways.

A brand-new Acadia with OnStar may not be in the cards for me right now (though of course it would be nice), but I’m ready to treat our trusty minivan with the respect it deserves (which, bonus, will also help it run better and longer and save us money in the end.) Here are some steps I’m going to take:

• Establish a “No eating in the car” rule. We’ve already been cutting out drive-thru fare for health reasons, but on road trips we tend to toss that rule out the window…and we go on a lot of road trips. What if we took the time to pack a cooler of sandwiches instead, and stopped at a park or rest area to have a real break? Michigan has such lovely rest areas, it’s a shame to let them go to waste. During the winter, we would do well to make sure everyone is REALLY full before we take off, and we can always-gasp-actually go in and sit down in a restaurant if it comes to that.
  In a true snack emergency, apples don’t leave behind crumbs and we can pass a bag right away to clean up the mess before those cores become fossils.
• Stop it with the bottled water, already. After reading the book Bottlemania I started to seriously re-think the way our family consumes water (and plastic) via the bottled water industry. It’s expensive, it’s not good for the environment, and all those bottles add up to lots of waste and mess. My kids (and I admit it, myself) have conditioned ourselves to believe we can’t go a half hour without liquid or we’ll die of thirst. Remember when we were little, before the explosion of bottled water? When you were thirsty, you either found a drinking fountain or waited until you got home. And, generally speaking, you lived.
  There’s also the option of buying each child a re-useable (Kleen Kanteen makes a stainless-steel BPA-free one) and then putting each child in charge of his or her own hydration needs. Those bottles aren’t cheap, either, so it’s not likely they’ll get permanently “lost” under the seats like a bottle of Aquafina often does.
• Put car cleaning and maintenance on the calendar, and make it easy on myself. We need to plan for oil changes and tire rotations the same way we schedule grocery shopping and bill paying. It’s simply not optional-not even when money is tight (especially when money’s tight) and being too busy isn’t an excuse, either.During the OnStar weekend the car-care expert suggested keeping all the fluids and other items needed to maintain the car regularly in a milk crate in the trunk. What a simple way to keep the antifreeze, coolant, and various other bottles from rolling around the trunk under the Goodwill donations I keep meaning to drop off!
  Another cool thing about OnStar was the Vehicle Diagnostics feature, which keeps track of your car’s maintenance and performance and actually sends you email to let you know when you need to take it in. OnStar is exclusively available in GM vehicles right now, so when I’m in the market for a new car I’ll definitely be looking at GM brands.

I’ll probably never care how many cylinders a vehicle has (or even exactly what that means) but that doesn’t mean I should look at my car as nothing more than a tin can that gets us from place to place, either. Adding “keeping the car nice and running well” to my regular to-do list means climbing in the minivan will be pleasant, not a chore-and I won’t be embarrassed when it’s my turn to drive carpool. Sounds good to me.

How about you? Is your car clean and pleasant or scary and smelly? Any tips to share for getting your ‘portable home’ up to snuff-or funny and embarrassing nasty-car stories?

*Just in case it wasn’t clear, I was a guest of OnStar during my weekend in the Hamptons and they took care of my travel, accommodations and food. But my opinions are my own-it’s a cool service!

**Speaking of healthy eating and avoiding fast food, I’d love for you to tune in to Life.Style with Christine Koh (of BostonMamas fame) tomorrow, Thursday Oct. 28, from 1:00 – 2:00 EST. I’ll be on the show discussing eating well when organics aren’t available in your area or don’t fit in your budget. And this is a good time to announce that our topic for November is FOOD: simple healthy meals, eating seasonally and locally, time and money-saving menu planning tips, grocery shopping, raising adventurous eaters, expanding your own palate-basically if it’s about food, we’ll be talking about it. I can’t wait.

***And another exciting announcement-tune in early Friday for a very special interview with Amanda Soule, aka Soulemama, author, blogger extraordinaire, and mom of four. She’ll be talking about renovating her 1820 Maine farmhouse and what “home” means to her…a perfect interview to help us wrap up our month about ‘home.’

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