We Turned into THOSE Parents

Without trying to, we became THOSE parents, the kind that buys a non-family-friendly car the moment the child leaves for college. 

It actually started a year earlier when I bought a 2-door baby blue convertible tentatively named Veronica for my 50th birthday.

This was followed by Don purchasing a royal blue 2008 Honda Element last week. Though technically a 5-door car, the Element only has two doors that can be opened with handles leading to a passenger seat. To be fair, it does have a lot of storage space, making it the perfect car for moving someone in and out of college repeatedly.

The Element (tentatively called Ellie) came after Ruby the Honda CRV died as we pulled in front of our house after dropping Ashley off at college.

It took visiting Ashley at school for me to appreciate how there is no way we would have bought this car if we were still trying to get three of us places. It was annoying enough having to juggle to open the back door for the three four hours we were together. Laughably annoying. Perhaps that did not help the already tense visit.

Ellie was found on CarGurus.com. Unfortunately she was located in Virginia -- a state on New Jersey's travel ban list by about 10 miles. After trying to have them deliver the car for a fee) we realized it would be easier to drive to Sterling, Virginia to pick it up ourselves. So we drove 3.5 hours each way to pick up a car, only to then have to drive it 3.5 hours home. The entire transaction was conducted outside while wearing masks.

Don loves the new car. It can fit his bike inside without having to take off the front tire. It should also fit the tandem bike inside, though for that we will have to take off the front tire. It has lots of space, enough to fit an entire dorm room.

Sounds like we have empty-nester mentality.