Before L came along, back in the time of my life I like to call B.F. (Before Fatherhood), I used to rail against the coffee-shop drive-thru, going so far as to label it as one of the dumbest inventions of all time.

To me, these seemingly unnecessary amenities fostered laziness, facilitated American obesity and contributed to the destruction of our environment (thanks to all of those idling vehicles).

Beside, I insisted, why couldn’t we just lug our butts out of our cars and get the drinks ourselves?

These days, however, now that I’m a stay-at-home dad who frequently finds himself out and about in the car with L, I understand the benefits of the coffee-shop drive-thru, and admit I was wrong.

The major benefit: convenience (duh). It’s not that schlepping babies by car is all that challenging, but being able to get a coffee fix without leaving the vehicle certainly makes things easier. I mean, let’s face it: Getting those little buggers in and out of their car seats isn’t easy. And if L is snoozing away when I pull up at the Starbucks, the very last thing I want to do is risk waking her up to fetch my triple Americano.

Sure, I feel some pangs of slothfulness as I sit in my car waiting for the barista to hand me my drink through the window. And yes, I prefer doctoring my own drinks (as opposed to trusting someone else to do it, which you are required to do at the drive-thru).

But so long as it means keeping that peaceful baby in the backseat peaceful, I will from this point forward call the drive-thru my friend.