No Helmet

Today was "Bike (or walk) to School Day" around here.  We have two extra kids staying with us for a couple of weeks while their mom is out of state with the National Guard, so it was a bit more of a production for us to participate, but the kids were motivated so we did it.  It was Quinn's first time biking to school since he learned how to ride last summer, so he was really proud of himself, and I was impressed that he had no problem doing the nearly two mile route.  Our youngest guest doesn't bike yet, but she took her scooter about a third of the way before that became too much and we packed her up into the bike trailer for the rest of the trip.  It was a lot of fun, and definitely something worth making the effort to do again.

This got me thinking, though, about one of the choices I make that diverges from the norm in parenting circles nowadays:

I prefer not to wear a bike helmet.  I hate them.  I have a nice one, and I do wear it when I know I will be using busy streets or I'm participating in an event where it's required, but otherwise?  No thanks.  And when just biking around the neighborhood?  I don't make my kids wear them either.