#LetsModo: Car Sharing with Little Kids

Parking at Surrey Bend Regional Park to take the ferry to Barnston Island

A long time ago, possibly even before I was pregnant with Linnaeus, I remember people telling me we'd have to buy a car when we had kids. We'd been car sharing with Modo for a few years already & didn't have any plans to own a car.

More on our car sharing story & why we don't want to own a car here

Living in Mount Pleasant there are tons of Modo cars in our neighbourhood, lots of frequent transit connections, errands & shopping are often within walking distance, & though we don't have any fully separated AAA cycling facilities right in our neighbourhood, there are lots of quiet neighbourhood bikeways.

More about how car sharing & family biking go hand in hand here

Somebody is excited to go in a Modo car

Once Linnaeus was born, we got used to installing his carseat in the Modo cars--it really doesn't take long to set up. We'd just click the "baby bucket" base into the car's child seat anchors, tighten it up & level it using a short length of pool noodle or folded towels underneath if needed. We tended to use just one or two specific Modo cars so we knew the seat angle, & how far the front seat needed to be moved forward.

Most of the time, since we've got two parents around, one of us walks over to pick up the car, while the other one stays with the kids at home. Then we install the car seats here, load everyone in, & away we go. Occasionally, I've gone out on my own with the kids in a Modo vehicle. Slightly more complicated, this is still very doable.

Carrying Linnaeus & his car seat to the Modo vehicle wasn't too hard--getting a stroller that the seat can click into is ideal. We didn't have that, so we sometimes just rested his car seat into the bassinet of our Uppababy Vista stroller or bungeed it to a small cart & wore him in a baby carrier.

My post on car sharing with one parent & a toddler, with photos here

When Bronte was born, we got an upgrade on our baby car seat. We were able to borrow both the seat & the adapters to click it into our stroller. Linnaeus' toddler seat fit in the basket below, just barely. Bronte would ride in the stroller in her car seat, Linnaeus on the skateboard attachment on the stroller, so I could walk with both kids to a car, set up the car seats inside & leave from there.

Bringing two car seats to a Modo car is easy with a cart

Now that both kids have graduated to the next stage of seats--Bronte is in a toddler seat & Linnaeus in a booster seat--it's even easier. I can strap both car seats to a cart or umbrella stroller & both kids can walk the two or three blocks to the car. We typically use the full back of Linnaeus' booster with the shoulder belt positioner, but we can remove the back so he can carry it himself.

Car sharing is definitely possible with little kids & gives us a lot of flexibility. We usually use a Mazda2 because it's close by, but when we're planning on carrying a lot of stuff for camping trips or furniture shopping, or possibly even a live Christmas tree, we can get a minivan. If we're picking up trees or backyard play structures from Craigslist we've used a pickup truck. We've also gone out with another family of four in one of the premium Modo vehicles in our neighbourhood that seats eight people.

Here are ten more reasons that car sharing is awesome.

What about you? Do you car share with kids? How do you make it work? Any tips to share?



If you'd like to see how carsharing works with biking & a family, watch for us on Instagram! I'm taking over Modo's account this week!

Disclaimer: As an Official Blogger Ambassador, Modo will be providing me with some driving credits & I'll be blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, & Instagramming about our adventures big & small with Modo. I've already been writing about carsharing for years, so if you've been following me for a while, expect more of the same!

To follow my Modo travels, & the other Modo Blogger Ambassadors (there are a few of us!) click on the hashtags #LetsModo & #MyModo & follow @Modo_CarCoop on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook.

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