Babies are bad for fuel efficiency
The roads in my area have cleared of snow recently so I’ve been taking the baby out on more drives, which really soothes him. He howls like an alley cat if forced to sit in a stationery car seat for more than three seconds, so I have to rush to get his seat locked in and get driving. I found myself doing figure eights in the supermarket parking lot last week while my wife went in for groceries, and I always take a longer way home if he’s in the back seat.
One thing I noted is that he finds acceleration particularly soothing. I’ve got a zippy little six speed, and when ever I start up from a dead stop he suddenly quiets. I put a little extra weight on the pedal when we were pulling out of the driveway tonight and he immediately stopped crying, cooed and fell asleep. (This makes me slightly nervous about the thought of him getting behind the wheel of a car sixteen years from now.)
It’s impressive how well it works and I told myself earlier that I was just going to drive around with him all the time whenever he gets antsy… and then I passed a gas station and saw the price of gas. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed it last week, but things have gotten expensive… so now I’m thinking I’ll just walk with him instead.
When my daughter, now 3.5, was a baby I would go for a drive when we were having a rough day so that she would sleep. Once she was asleep, I’d park the car and read and if she awoke I would drive again if she hadn’t had a long enough nap. I’m not sure if I would try it with the current gas prices but I might. I did use the stroller, too, but sometimes only the car would do.