When Cars Become a Shared Passion

I often get comments and messages on the blog saying things like, “I’m envious that you and your spouse share a love of cars.” It got me thinking, so I recently wrote this post.

→ Related: The Biggest Reason Wives Object to Their Husbands Buying a Porsche

After publishing it, I received a message that read:

“If a household is like a company, then a wife is a co-owner. The real question is whether investing in a car benefits the company. Fortunately, my wife sees the upside: I’m motivated to work hard, and we get to enjoy trips together in a car we love. Of course, that means I need to work even harder and earn more!”

Well said! That’s exactly right (ﾟ∀ﾟ)!

What’s in It for Your Wife?

Sure, a husband might buy a Porsche—but if he leaves his wife at home with the kids and heads out for a solo drive every weekend, she could easily think, “So you get to have all the fun, huh?” And let’s face it: Porsche ownership isn’t a cheap hobby.

That’s not a shared passion. In fact, it might even make her dislike Porsches (笑).

That’s why, as the message I received suggests, buying a Porsche should bring benefits to the whole family. For example:

① More family trips to hot-spring resorts
② More outings together as a family
③ A husband who’s even more motivated to work and earn
④ A little boost when other moms say, “Wait, you drive a Porsche? That’s amazing!”
⑤ More chances for the couple to go for a drive while the kids are being looked after

Every couple will find their own benefits, of course. But whatever they look like, one thing matters: Does your wife feel that she gets something out of it, too?

Is There Room for Porsche in Your Life?

As I thought more about this, another important factor came to mind: Does your wife have enough time—and, by extension, enough headspace? No matter how wonderful a Porsche is, it can’t become a shared hobby if there’s no room for it in her life.

For me, getting interested in Porsche and making it a shared passion with my husband had a lot to do with scaling back my work after the birth of our second daughter.

I started my own business at 27, and until late 2015, just before our second daughter was born, I worked relentlessly. Staying up on my computer after the kids went to bed was normal. Even when we went away to a hot-spring resort, I always brought my laptop—and sometimes worked right there in our room.

I also seemed to get sick and come down with a fever whenever I finally had a proper break. My husband used to say, “Have you ever gone on a trip when you weren’t sick? (-_-)” (爆)

We already had a Boxster back then, and I knew it was a great car. But with housework, childcare, and work filling my days, there was simply no room for Porsche in my life.

The Decision to Scale Back Work

Then, in the fall of 2016, when I was well into my pregnancy with our second daughter, our older daughter started having a really hard time adjusting to the baby on the way. It made me take a hard look at how I’d been showing up for her as a mother.

We also tried to transfer her to a licensed daycare for the following April, but every place we applied to told us there were no openings.

I started thinking, “Maybe kindergarten is our only option… In that case, perhaps we should look at the international school kindergarten nearby.” When we visited, our usually shy daughter seemed like a completely different child—she was having such a wonderful time. After talking it through as a couple, we decided:

“Our older daughter will go to the international school, and I’ll pick her up at 2 p.m. With our second daughter on the way, I’ll scale back work for a while.”

Until then, work had been my whole world. Honestly, the thought of making that change left me feeling anxious, as if I might no longer be myself. For me, it was a big decision.

A Whole New World Opens Up

Our second daughter was born in January 2017.

Raising two kids was tougher than I’d imagined, but at last I had the space to welcome something new into my life. I gradually became curious about my husband’s constant talk of “Porsche, Porsche.” That April, for the first time, we left the girls with someone else and went to Okayama International Circuit to watch the Porsche Carrera Cup.
“I had no idea this world existed! There must be so many other worlds out there that I haven’t discovered yet.” I was excited—and moved—in more ways than one.

I started this blog in June, went to Fuji Speedway to watch the WEC in October, and in April of the following year decided to make the blog a serious project. And here we are.

Even now, I’m hardly swimming in free time. I get up, make lunch boxes, and hang out the laundry (it helps a lot that my husband takes our older daughter to school every morning). I try to write blog posts or get work done in the morning, often with our younger daughter underfoot. Then I pick up our older daughter at 2 p.m., take the kids to the park, and stop for groceries on the way home. By the time we’re back, it’s 3:30.

I might get a little more work done, but before long it’s time to make dinner. Lately, I often don’t have the energy to cook (sorry! 笑), so I pick up something prepared instead.

Then it’s baths, getting the kids dressed, and rushing to get myself changed and dry my hair. My husband gets home soon after, we eat, and I put the kids to bed—often falling asleep right alongside them. During the night, I wake up every couple of hours or so to check that their blankets haven’t slipped off or to respond to our younger daughter asking for “milk!” (It’s become such a routine that I don’t feel sleep-deprived.) Then morning comes around again.

There are also dentist appointments, trips to the doctor when our younger daughter had a fever last week, kindergarten events, and parent-teacher conferences in July…

So even though I’d like to practice driving our Boxster with its manual transmission, I haven’t been able to make room for it yet (my husband would probably say I must not really want to learn to drive stick!). I make time to write the blog and go for drives because I genuinely want to do those things.

Grateful to My Husband

If I were working full-time as an office employee—getting up at 6 a.m., taking the kids to daycare, working all day, getting home at 7 p.m., then catching up on everything else—I don’t think I’d have the energy to go out in a Porsche on the weekend. It would be impossible.

Thinking about it, I’m grateful that my husband has always told me, ever since we got married:

“If you want to be a stay-at-home mom, that’s fine. If you want to work, go ahead. Don’t worry about the household finances—do what feels right for you.”

His support gave me the freedom to scale back my work and create more breathing room in my life. That, in turn, made space for Porsche to become part of it.

And so… I’m truly grateful to my husband for helping create this life for us. Through Porsche, we have more to talk about and more chances to go places together. I feel every day that it’s making our lives richer, and I hope we’ll keep enjoying Porsches—and cars—in our own way as a couple. (Wait, I think I ended up somewhere quite different from where I started this post (-_-))