Do you need a new car when having twins?

When you find out you are having twins, you will think that everything you own is too small to handle your suddenly bigger family.

You may be right.

Your first thought may be that you need a bigger house. In fact, you may not need a bigger house with twins.

Your next thought will be about your car. How are you going to transport your new twins and your current family around town?

Do you need to buy a new car?

Here is the simple formula:

Current Number of Kids + Twins + Parents + Future Kid Plans = How many seats you need in your car

If the number of seats you need in your car is greater than what you currently have in your vehicle, it is time to start shopping.

Before we had any kids, I swore that we’d never own a minivan. I told myself and wife that we’d just get a big SUV to haul around the expanding family.

That plan worked until we had two kids. At that point we knew we wanted room to grow and so bought a minivan. Don’t feel bad if you have to take back a similar “no minivan” promise. They aren’t so bad after all.

So when we found out we were having twins, we already had room in our van and didn’t need to buy a new car. However, the girls’ arrival immediately maxed out our seating space.

Remember the formula above. If twins are your first kids and you have a back seat in your car, you may be fine waiting to buy a bigger vehicle.

If, on the other hand, you already have a child and just a little Honda Civic, it is probably time to upgrade.

Keep in mind that car seats are often bigger than a normal person is wide. So just because you have three seat belts in the backseat doesn’t mean you can fit three car seats back there. Take your car seats to the car dealership when you test drive to make sure they will fit.

Good luck!