Does anyone ride a Vespa or other scooter with a sidecar?

I'd love to get a sweet scooter with a sidecar to put my youngest child or groceries in. This would be for running errands all day while my other kids are in school. I've looked into the sidescars (they go on aftermarket) and have heard they are very difficult to drive. Is this true? What do you have to be careful of? Is it possible to drive them safely? I wouldn't be going on the highway and would top out at about 45MPH. Mostly I'd be going about 30.

The dealer lets his 2 YEAR OLD ride in the sidecar. I would never do that! I'm thinking of a six year old.

Go for it.
There is an EMS supervisor who rides a scooter with a side car, in my town, so I reckon they are safe.

A bike with sidecar doesn't handle like a two wheeler. You must turn the handlebars in the direction you want to travel, like driving a car. This is why you hear experienced riders say they are hard to handle. Experienced motorcyclists usually don't do too well on scooters, at first, either.
Side hacks were commonly use in Britain as family transportation for quite a while.

Sometimes the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) has trike and side car seminars at their state rallies.

They require different riding skills and things to watch out for.I have been looking at them and if that is what want then vespa would be the way to go. But a small child in the side car I am not to sure about that.

dont like the idea of the kid in the side car.

It's not that they are DIFFICULT to drive it's that it is completely at odds with you instincts after you learn to ride motorcycle. For that reason, if you have not yet begun to ride, you may wish to wait to learn.

When you exoect to turn left and it turns right that would be bad would it not? that's because a side car makes a motorcycle into a two track vehicle, which handles differently from ANY OTHER VEHICLE. Some instructors have said that you need to have another class of license for side cars.

A scooter is rather underpowered for most sidecar rigs. imagine that your power is coming ONLY from the left hand tire (because it IS) and the right hand tire is not powered. so you start it up and it is dragging you to the right. When you let up on the gas. you are dragged left.
and when you want to turn, you actually have to STEER your scooter to the left. That may not sounds like anything much but I assure it IS.

I read an article about a woman who was rifing in the 1930-40s, and she said that her side car was astounding for the odd behaviour it caused. Imagine you are going to turn left, you have to be very careful NOT to lift the side car up off the ground or the whole vehicle may turn over, and spoil your groceries. for that reason it takes an expert to fit a side car onto a motorcycle or scooter, to make it point right and handle predictably. And it adds 150 to two hundred pounds to the total weight of the vehicle, which by design is very light weight.

About the only one I am familiar with is a Russian side car, the URAL. It is usually found attached to the BMW WWII motorcycle 'clone' that was used for decades by the Soviet Union. (No it was not a modern design then and it matches NOTHING that BMW sells today.)

Has this discouarged you yet? Because it would discourage me, to know that is was going to cost twice as much as a new vespa to buy such a rig, and then you have to learn to ride it. And there are very few experienced side car drivers, never mind instructors. (it does have the advantage of giving you a seat to take your instructor along!)

Just spotted a vespa side car combination. Imagine a $6,000 vespa, and another $6,000 for the side car and it still has to be hooked up, before you can ride it. You are talking about a sub-compact car, now.
This vehicle is ONE of a kind, it includes a vintage vespa, and a COZY brand side car from the 50s. But it comes all up for $6000.