It’s Friday afternoon. The sun is shining, the tunes are bumping, the wind from the sunroof is whipping through our hair. We’re on our way on to an awesome weekend road trip - just my three kids and me.
As a creative professional, single mom of three, and a brunch enthusiast with a penchant for exploration, balance is really important to me. I aim to balance the needs of my kids to feel safe, secure, and loved, with the needs of my professional life to be flexible, accommodating, and forever gathering inspiration. And then there’s the needs of my personal life in that when adventure calls, I answer.
One of the central tools in achieving and maintaining this balance is the vehicle I drive. Many of us underestimate how active a role our car plays in maintaining this balance and rocking that mom life. For me to do what I need to do, I need a car that is:
1. practical enough to assure me that my kids are safe and comfortable while I watch the roads;
2. stylish enough to get me to arrive confidently at meetings and photo shoots;
3. spacious enough to fit everything we need for any type of getaway, be it spent exploring the city or glamping in a provincial park.
Enter the 2018 Toyota Sienna, which has seriously motivated me to rethink the minivan. It has enough room for my kids and their friends to sit comfortably in peace (without resorting to bickering as an in-car activity), enough attention to detail and brand recognition to make me feel like Toyota kept "form" at top of mind without sacrificing "function." And there's enough cargo space to fit my several outfit changes, camping gear, and four backpacks or carry-on suitcases - all at the same time. This minivan easily claims its spot in “vehicles that allow you to have it all.”
Between the automated dual sliding doors (to give kids the independence of loading and buckling themselves in), dashboard nav (to give me the peace of mind we will get to where we’re going - on time) that includes a voice amplifier so kids can hear you in the way way back, and Bluetooth to connect my playlists to an awesome JBL audio system, now I can get groceries, pack up kids after school, and enjoy a multi-hour road trip - all while sharing my love of 90’s hip hop (or focusing on our own brand of carpool karaoke en route to family brunch) in one vehicle!
The 2018 Toyota Sienna feels more like a lifestyle-on-wheels than it does a minivan. Details only a mother would love? The automatic everything, keeping all controls and moving parts oh-so-simple, the well-styled dash including a countdown to your next rest stop, a vintage nod to classic 80’s wood grain details, built-in shades to filter out the sun (in case anyone wants to nap on the way home after a day at the beach) heated steering wheel, sensory alerts like blind spot and lane drifting awareness - and yes, a cup-holder for everyone. And Toyota makes the only minivan in Canada with AWD, adding security in ALL types of Canadian weather! (Toyota Safety Sense features come standard on 95% of their vehicles.)
We become parents and sometimes develop a fear of losing ourselves; the minivan itself has become a symbol of that. We fear waking up one day and realizing we gave it all to our kids, keeping nothing but the memory of our pre-kid selves. When we consciously make decisions that fit all aspects and meet the needs of our multi-faceted lives, we can maintain that sense of being ourselves and having it all, knowing that our 30’s are about being “ourselves but better,” and keep the feeling that even with our kids in tow and our embarrassing in-car singing, we’ve got it going on.
If you’re looking for a vehicle that can make you feel that way, and the minivan has fallen off your radar because of too many preconceived notions, think again. Dare to consider the 2018 Toyota Sienna as the vehicle that lets you blend your work, social, and home lives together in one, and make the choice that lets you style your life exactly as you need to.
If you're looking for even more reasons to think about rocking a minivan in your mom life, we're giving away one (1) grand prize of a $500 Visa Gift Card and three (3) $100 Gas Cards from Toyota in the contest below!
This is proudly sponsored by our friends at Toyota.
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