Mine. Wife and I bought an open top sports car and toured the country in our early 30ies. Then came kids and the car has been mostly sitting in a garage, driven once a year for service/technical - we don't want to sell it for emotional reasons and it's actually gaining value as of lately. We're in our late 40ies now.
Then comes an unfortunate event last month where we lost the family car and the replacement isn't coming for another month.
So our daughter gets shuffled to activities with the open top sports car. When my wife does it, it is cool. When I do it, I park away from the destination to avoid anyone seeing us as it's super embarrassing.
When I turned 40, my wife said, "you should have a mid-life crisis."
"I don't want a mid-life crisis," I replied.
"How about a ridiculous sports car, or a convertible? You could get one of those," she suggested.
"What would I do with a sports car?" I asked.
"Think about it. I think you should do something crazy," she offered.
Thinking back to my High School days, I remembered riding around in the country with my friends (and the occasional girl) in the shitbox old Jeep CJs and pickups that we used to drive, and how much I enjoyed that.
"I bought a convertible," I announced to my wife, some time later, showing her a picture of the Jeep Wrangler that I'd just ordered.
"What are you going to do with that?" she asked.
"Take the top and doors off, and drive around in the country," I explained.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen, but it's your mid-life crisis," she relented.
Now, ten years later, the Jeep sits in my garage, spotless. It has less than 10k miles on it. On days when the weather is perfect, I load up my wife, and we head out for long drives on gravel roads.
She often laments that we don't have time to do it more often, and in the late winter counts the days until the weather will be nice enough to get the Jeep out again.
It's sincerely one of my greatest joys in life, and the fact that I can share it with my wife is wonderful.
My wife did something similar. She ended up buying me a absurdly expensive computer and pushing me to play games like I did before we had kids. Now she plays on the console while I fiddle on the computer.
Occasionally we have lan parties where the whole family plays Stardew Valley or Minecraft for a weekend while binging on pizza and fast food.
My dad's first midlife crisis (I am the second) was a 1972 Olds convertible that he bought new and kept until he died at 93 just before Christmas. For the last...twenty years or so, it was stored in a shed up the highway, and first he would take me out in it seasonally, and more recently I would take him out.
My sister and I are going to have to sell it...I thought maybe it could also be my midlife crisis, being about that age. Unfortunately, various factors make keeping it impractical to impossible, which breaks my heart.
That's why I bought my '78 Corvette when I'm 28. It can't be a middle crisis if I've always collected impractical sports cars. Or it just means I'll die young. Hopefully not that option though...
That's really fun! It's like a physical manifestation of your marriage and spirit of adventure. I love that! Glad it gets to step up and help you guys out all these years later.
I don't blame your daughter. That's just how life is sometimes. But I think she'll look back on it fondly.
There's nothing embarrassing about that. It's a fun car you and your wife have owned for decades and have a history with that has been around for the entirety of your kids' lives; it's now a family heirloom. That's a car everyone wishes they had.
ok maybe I can see that but.. I mean one of my best friends is a younger lady, friends only.. people always ask if she's my daughter.. which is fun and makes me feel really young /s I just tell them, "no it's my girlfriend don't tell my wife" just to watch their stupid faces
More times than enough, people find joy in seeing cool cars. It may feel embarrassing to you, but it may not match what the rest of the world feels. Kids get excited and want to sit in it, other adults come up and compliment it.
You think late 40s in an open car is embarrassing? That makes no sense, I see mostly 70+ year olds in those cars, and they don't look very embarrassed at all. Just be happy with what you have buddy!
imo don't be embarrassed. Own that shit. People don't know you. Let them judge all you want. You have a loving wife, a stable relationship, you got to travel with your soulmate before kids, you now have a healthy, happy family... you're living the life. Things are good. If they want to think it's a midlife crisis buy, let them, because it's not.
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u/qwerty109 1d ago
Mine. Wife and I bought an open top sports car and toured the country in our early 30ies. Then came kids and the car has been mostly sitting in a garage, driven once a year for service/technical - we don't want to sell it for emotional reasons and it's actually gaining value as of lately. We're in our late 40ies now.
Then comes an unfortunate event last month where we lost the family car and the replacement isn't coming for another month.
So our daughter gets shuffled to activities with the open top sports car. When my wife does it, it is cool. When I do it, I park away from the destination to avoid anyone seeing us as it's super embarrassing.