Families with one vehicle?

jenibo

Hi, I'm currently a SAHW, soon to be a SAHM. DH has worked 3rd shift for the past year, and just switched this month to 1st shift. When he worked 3rd we had no problems b/c the car was still here during the day for me to use. Now that he's on 1st I'm already finding it hard to schedule OB appointments, etc. and I can't help but wonder how it's going to affect us after LO gets here.  I keep thinking about how I won't be able to go out and do anything until about 3pm when he gets home everyday. Are there any SAHM's out there in a similar situation? 

TheGregory's07

We only have one car and it works out great, is it possible for you to take him to work if you need to schedule something while he there?

Sawyerplus1

We only have one car and DH needs it for work (he's gone from 7:30-5ish). I find it very tough sometimes. It's hard to get out to do things with DS but if I NEED the car DH can arrange to get picked up or use a company vehicle. Obviously it's do-able, but I'm not looking forward to being housebound in the winter when I have a toddler AND an infant!

jenifairies

we've had to share one car before and to be honest, it sucks. if i need to go anywhere, i have to get her up and take him to work and then go get him in the afternoon. i feel trapped on days i'm stuck with no car. even if i hadn't made plans, it's nice to know i can leave if i think of something i want to do, kwim?

right now our second car is broke down. to get to the dr the other day i had to borrow mil's car to keep from having to haul both kids (i babysit one) to take dh to work and pick him up.

I'd be getting a second car, even if it's a cheapie. We're about to replace the one that keeps breaking down.

i do know people that are fine sharing though.

julia&jared

I think it has a lot to do with personalities....I like to stay at home and do stuff close to the house. That said, I do live close to a lot of things so it is not too bad, so we have another car, but dont really use it (we dont use it now because there is a problem with it) but with appointments it will get tough. DH went with me to all of my appointments because his work is pretty flexible. I say look into getting a cheaper car but to be honest during the first little bit you will not want to be going out places as much as you think you'd might (besides appointments)

DevonPow

We only have one car (actually, I don't drive at all), but we live in a major city, so DS and I walk or take the subway everywhere. If it wasn't possible to walk everywhere I would go crazy - we are out all day, every day (usually only home for naps and meals). If we were in a place that we had to drive places and only had 1 car I would have DH carpool with co-worker or I would drive him/pick him up at least a few times a week. I would chew my own arm off if stuck inside every day.

jen5-03

We've only done the one vehicle thing when one of ours breaks down. I absolutely take DH to work at those times. I can not imagine the cabin fever I'd have if I couldn't get out of the house. It seriously gives me heeby jeebies just thinking about being stuck here, and we even have a park within easy walking distance but that's not enough for me. A lot of that is my personality, I know some people are more content to be in the house. If I could get to places without a car, that would be a different story.

But, assuming you can't get anywhere by walking, what would you do if your DC spikes a fever and you want to rush to the pedi's office? I've done that at least 2x.

Also, I know that for us, morning is THE time to get out because DD takes one nap a day from about 1-3 (sometimes 12-2, sometimes it's 2-4), but she's grumpy when she wakes up and trying to do anything but cuddle/watch tv/play at home is just a nightmare. So all our outings are in the morning whether we're going to the zoo, playgroup, or just the grocery store.

Read2Me

We have just one vehicle and it works really well for us. ?But my DH works from home so he doesn't need the car during the day. ?It would have been silly for us to have two vehicles. ?I don't think I could handle not having a car if DH worked away from home. ?I go somewhere every day with Eva just to get out of the house!

gatogrrl

We had NO car while we lived in Chicago (the first year of DD's life).  That was, frankly, how I'd prefer to live.  Cars are such a pain, and public transportation was always so fun for DD.  We met a lot of nice little old ladies!

Since we moved to New Jersey, we've had one car, and I drive DH to work every day so that I can have the car.  He walks home, which is only two miles and a nice walk through a college campus.  Since we can't afford to have a home near campus, when we buy we'll probably still work it where I drive him twice a week, he takes the car twice a week, and then he'll work from home on Fridays.  We're trying to get a house right in the heart of a smaller town, where services for us (library, pre-school, simple groceries) will still be in walking distance.

funchicken

We only have one car, but DH takes the T to work, so the car stays at home.  I don't use it every day because things are really walkable here.  I'm hoping that when we buy a house, we'll be able to continue to be a one car household.  I like not having to rely on it to go places.