Hubby & I bought our 2002 Subaru Legacy Outback with the idea that we’d have this “wagon” for our future children.
Never mind that we had already been on the infertility roller coaster for more than three years by then. And that I was heading into my first laparotomy to clear out some of that nasty endo stuff. Nevermind that we pretty much knew by then that IVF was in our near future.
We just wanted to have a nice reliable “family” type car to own so we’d be able to share memories of road trips with the kids like both of us remembered growing up.
And as we all know, that dream never came into fruition. Well, at least the “kids” part.
Anyway, around the time Hubby & I got our Outback, these car stickers began to pop up on minvans and SUV’s everywhere. They were the kind of clear car stickers that you could place on the rear window and peel off, if you ever needed to. And on these stickers were “stick figures” of all the family members that lived in the particular car-owner’s household. You know, Dad followed by Mom plus how-ever-many kids they had … and even whatever pet they had.
They still have those stickers today; except now you can customize it to whatever you’d like. You can have Dad be a “golfer” while Mom is a “nurse” (or worse … at least for me, pregnant!); and you can have kids be “dressed” in whatever activities they’re involved with (sports, scouts, etc.).
And as much as I began to despise those car stickers (especially in the later years of our IF journey), I must admit that I’ve always wanted to have one.
Of course, our sticker wouldn’t have any children on there; it would only have Hubby & I in our “custom” outfits. And of course we’d have to add our fur-children. So I looked online to see what they had available and was pleasantly surprised to see just how much we could customize them.
I haven’t ordered one; nor do I think I ever will … because geesh! They seem ridiculously expensive for stick figures … but, it was fun imagining what our rear window would have looked like.
I’m happy for the Punsiher tee shirt, but think I’d like a X-Men logo. Hah. And we can have a sticker on our wagon, but never a minivan thank God. Though now that they really deck out the minivans it might not be a bad idea…hmmm. I could always get nice rims for the minivan and maybe some custom flame paint job. We could line it with shag.
Oh, man. I’d like to blame it on infertility, but I *hate* those stickers! It’s just, like, too much information, or something (ditto to the “Baby On Board” placards– why do I need to know this???). Those stickers to me scream “I have no life outside my reproductive capabilities. I think, “goody for you, you managed to have three kids… Why should I care?” But then again, I was bitter long before infertility, so it shouldn’t surprise me that I’m bitter afterward. Granted, the only bumper sticker on our last car was a magnet in the shape of a ribbon that said, “Enough With The Ribbons”. I’m cool with irony or sarcasm, but not so much with sincerity.
Anyhow, H threatens me with those stick figure stickers all the time, that if I don’t straighten up, he’s going to paste family indicators on all sides of the car, various balls with team logos on them, honor student stickers, and as many gloaty twin bumper stickers as he can find, because he knows this would be my own personal version of hell (to drive around constantly advertising that I’m basically nothing but a uterus and have no identity outside my children and that in order to make myself feel better, I have to brag about my kids… Nah. Not a bitter old infertile at ALL…).
However, I fully support and agree with non-traditional versions of the stick figure family, like I saw one the other day with one mom and one kid, and I kinda liked that this mom wasn’t afraid to advertise their less-traditional status. So, I personally think you should TOTALLY rock the Mom, Dad and Fur Babies stick figures. At the very least it might make people think…
I may sound like a cranky old lady, but I have never really understood people’s needs to advertise their political beliefs, family status (those “Baby on Board” signs annoyed me too – even before IF), or whether or not their kid was a student of the month on their cars. It’s just bizarre to me.
Even so, your stick family is really cute!!!
About the only sticker I tolerate is the one asking people to leave space so someone can get a wheelchair into a car. That said those stick people and animals are quite cute.
Well, hello wagon partner in crime. Yes, I also made the wagon purchase thinking – Oh – won’t it be great when I have kiddos one day. HA! It was EXTREMELY helpful during the 4 times I moved due to my divorce which may or may not have been directly related to infertility and facebook – thankyouverymuch. No, not bitter at all.
The stick figures, urghhhh completely bug -lately I have seen pairs of flip flops indicating how any in the fam- really, that’s just too much math for me and confusing when they are all the same size. I did see some cute stick figure peeps when I was at Disneyland and thought about getting one just for me and Foster – do you put one on for a boyfriend? and his four kids? Oh, this new world I am in. HELP
I had never heard of these until just a year or two ago. Sorry to say they are starting to pop up here in Canada too. Ugh.