Frustration, still

The day went along without a whole lot of hoopla. Rain, rain, everywhere, not that much eventful for the day. Foodwise, we did delivery Chinese for lunch, and enjoyed a neighbor's potato pancakes this evening with our Trader Joe's roasted garlic chicken sausage and a small salad. So foodwise, not that much new, the usual scattering of fruits throughout my day.

In other events however, at the end of the day, Hubby and I decided we would take an Audi A3 for a test drive, since, with the impending growing belly, I guess my 2-seater really won't be all that appropriate for carrying an infant around. But then, I mentioned this to one of my colleagues, and boy, it launched an all out convinceathon. Apparently, accompanying the growing belly, an ass the size of a 16 wheeler, the hourly hugs with the local all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, and mood swings that make the ultra black-diamond rollercoaster at Six Flags look like a ride on the local winky-dink kiddy swing, a pregnant family is expected to also start purchasing random monster-sized gas-guzzling vehicles so that they can transport their one 7-pound child from point A to point B. He launched into an all out reasoning as to why it is that we really, truly should reconsider purchase of a small vehicle and instead purchase the largest vehicle we can, since, apparently, his family doesn't unload their truck of all the tricycles, bicycles, and gear for the local park, and they could use all the space they could get.

As you can probably tell, this got me thinking, but not about our decision to forgo the two-seater for something with, at least, a sizeable trunk. Do we, as consuming Americans, determine more of what we "need" based truly on what we need, or based on what others tell us we need?

Case in point: my 3-person family grew up with sedans, and my mother, as a paraplegic, drove a van. Not once did we ever fill that van up the way I pictured the trunk of my colleague's SUV, not even on road trips. And somehow, we got along just fine. Some of my friends' parents drove minivans, but the mass majority drove stationwagons. Even Hubby's family grew up with stationwagons. And somehow, we all survived our deprived childhoods. No big problems of adjustment, of complaining that there wasn't enough space, or worrying about having to lug just about everything in the house from point A to point B.

Am I just completely missing something?

Amazingly, somehow, people living in cities seem to get by with children sans SUV's. My parents did when we lived in Taipei for my first 6 years, and all my relatives there still get along just fine without these monster vehicles transporting their family, their extended family, their extended families' families, and all their tricycles around. So that brings me to wonder: if the majority of, if not the entire, rest of the world doesn't need these SUV's to survive daily life, what makes American life so special that we need to have these monster vehicles to survive life with children? Do we truly need to transport all the contents of our house from our house to other people's houses in order to feel comfortable (at which point, who cares about going to other houses, we might as well just stay home)? Or do we need these large vehicles as just a mark of status? Or have we all been just so busy gaggle with the Joneses, that we don't realize any of us could actually take the lead and be the Jones?

For much of my life, I've fought categorization, fitting into any given mold, and general mass-migrative thought. And for the most part, I exist as an outsider because I don't care to digest mass thought like it's white bread. Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't necessarily mean that it makes sense for each of us. And progressing along this pregnancy, I still try to fight that incessant American need for categorization as much as possible. I've defied, so far, most of the stereotypical marks of pregnancy. Who knows, maybe through the rest of the pregnancy, I'll still be able to take to my scooter while everyone jumps on the back of the trailer.