By now it’s old movie trope – the unaware soon-to-be father cruising along in his sexy sports car, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by a thin blue line. Of course, rather than be overjoyed at the prospect of his bundle of joy, the first thing that the father thinks is that he now has to get rid of his beloved automobile. Need examples? See Hugh Grant in 9 Months for perhaps the most classic of all portrayals.
Of course, it does not just sports cars that are often maligned as being less than family-friendly. Pickup trucks have long been the domain of the rough and tumble cowboy (even just urban cowboys) and very rarely thought of as being fantastic family vehicles. However, it’s high time to let that prejudice go; in fact, you may be surprised to find that some of the trucks on today’s market rival or even best many of the so-called “family” sedans and SUVs. If you need a little convincing (or if you need help convincing your spouse) that a truck is perfect for your growing family, then simply explore some of the great optional truck accessories that you can buy to customize your truck to meet all of your family’s needs.
The Best and Most Basic Accessory Money Can Buy: Floor Liners
Before we start discussing the truly cool accessories that you can buy for your truck, let’s talk down and dirty – specifically, floor liners. Look, kids are adorable (and everyone knows that you think yours are just the cutest), but let’s be honest; they are also super-sloppy, have sub-par hand-eye coordination and really just don’t seem to care much about picking up after themselves. What does this mean for you and your truck? It means your trucks is filthy, that’s what. Just imagine apple juice, Goldfish crackers, and cheerios being flung around the back of your truck like culinary confetti. Not awesome as it’s happening, and definitely not awesome once it’s all ground into the floor mats. Get out ahead of the little terrors and buy some high-quality and durable floor liners to protect the interior of your truck. Not only will the floor liners protect your truck’s interior from your children’s snacks and spills, but they will also protect against standard weather wear and tear – think melting snow or muddy boots.
As if simply keeping the interior of your truck protected wasn’t a good enough reason to purchase floor liners, keep in mind that you can also remove your floor mats for easy cleaning. We hate to say it, but if you have a kid with a tendency towards accidents or motion sickness, you don’t just want to buy floor liners, you need to buy floor liners. Sure they aren’t sexy and most of the time you’ll completely forget they are there, but trust us, when it comes to money well spent, if you have little ones riding in the backseat, there will come a day when you will want to kneel at the altar of truck accessories and thank your lucky stars you went ahead and purchased the floor liners.
Keep Your Truck Clutter – Free with Smart Storage Solutions
So we’ve figured out how to avoid disgusting stains and spills in your new truck, but there’s another thing kids do that will make your truck look like a junk heap in no time… they bring stuff with them. Everywhere. And not just a little stuff, but so.much.stuff. Think blankets, gloves, sticks they find in the parking lot, a cool leaf they just had to bring home, random toys you aren’t even sure to belong to them… All of these things will one day wind up taking over the backseat of your truck and you’re going to need a place to store them – or rather hide them. This is where cargo management solutions come in.
You might want to consider buying a storage console that can fit right under the truck’s back seats, which makes it easy to store your kid’s belongings and keep their stuff cleanly out of sight. Or you might want to explore getting a front floor console organizer – they’ll be shocked when you pull out one of their favorite toys from your secret hiding spots while on a long road trip. Of course, if you’re a family who is always on the go and looking for adventure, you definitely need to invest in roof racks and bike mounts – after all, how else are you going to teach your kids how to get out and explore the great outdoors?
There are no shortage of cargo accessories on the market, so no matter what your storage needs are, you’ll definitely be able to find a cool solution to help keep the inside of your truck organized – even if it is full of stuff.
Prevent Kiddie Road Rage with a Little Technological Assistance
While it’s nice to think that your children may stay amused on long car rides simply by partaking in family sing-alongs (we see you Clark Griswold) and playing the license plate game, we all know that most likely that’s just not going to cut it. Let’s face it – you’re no Elmo and sometimes a little Sesame Street is the only thing that’s going to stop your kid from going into full meltdown mode when you’re stuck in traffic. That’s why we strongly recommend purchasing a universal tablet holder for your rear seat tykes. Sure, you may not want your kids using electronics all the time, but there’s nothing wrong with saving your sanity by using a little technology every now and then. There are some fantastic rear seat entertainment systems available for pickup trucks, and while we always want to encourage families to spend as much time as possible laughing, joking and conversing, we also think there’s definitely huge benefits to scoping out all of the entertainment options possible for your little road trippers.
Don’t Ditch the Pickup
While we aren’t sure that we are ever going to be able to convince anyone that a two-seater drop-top convertible is going to be an ideal family car (spoiler alert: it isn’t), we are confident that no matter if you’re expecting your first kid or an old pro with a handful of youngin’s, your trusty old pickup truck doesn’t have to go in order to make room for baby – it might just need a few truck accessories to make it the perfect family ride.
