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Strollerderby
Today is Bike To Work Day. It’s also a great day to bike to school with your kids. Parents driving their kids to school account for 20 percent of morning rush hour traffic.
If you live within a few miles of your child’s school, which most of us do, walking or biking might be a better option for your health and the environment. It’s also a lot of fun to experience a little morning sunshine and fresh air with your child. And if you live in an urban neighborhood like mine, walking or biking can actually be faster than sitting in traffic.
Even if you’re not up for biking every day, doing it once in awhile can give you a fresh perspective on your commute.
It’s one of the most bike-friendly towns in the Boston area, with every inch within a few miles of the Minuteman Bikeway, the most popular bike path in the country, with two bike shops for the towns’ 41,000 or so residents, and with a Bicycle Advisory Committee to advise civic leaders on all matters pedal-related. When you consider that most children in Arlington, Massachusetts live within a mile of one of the seven elementary schools, you’d think that it would be the perfect place for kids to ride their bikes to school and back. So why do the schools discourage biking to school and parents forbid it?
This summer, my 6-year-old learned to ride a two-wheeler. Not 24 hours after that first wobbly solo ride, she asked me if she could ride around the block by herself.
“Sure,” I stammered, after a moment’s hesitation. And then I sat on my porch and sat on my hands to prevent myself from following her. It felt right, but it was hard letting go.
Later that night, my husband — the parent less likely to hover — said, “Oh, I would have never let her do that.” I had to do a gut recheck: Had I misjudged?
I don’t think I did (and after watching her, my husband agreed). Teaching kids to be independent is part of parenting, one of the harder parts for most of us. But her confidence grew each time she circled the block — how could we take that away from her to save ourselves a little anxiety?
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