Bike-Friendly Cities Also Family-Friendly

Karen Murphy — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:30:00 GMT

I'm something of a cyclist. It happened when I moved to a town not far outside of Boulder and I saw that bikes were pretty much standard-issue in that area. It was great: cyclists were everywhere! In the city of Boulder they seemed to be well-respected by drivers and well-taken care of by the bike lane and bike rack gods and it wasn't unusual to see Burley trailers being towed along which contained a kid or two next to the groceries. And it spoke to me about a very different way of life from the isolating car-centric society we seem to have built. Since then, I've had to move again to eastern Pennsylvania, where things aren't nearly so bike-friendly.

This article in Wired about bike-friendly cities around the world got me to thinking about how being bike-friendly also means, by extension, that a city is family-friendly:

Cities with a lot of bikes tend to have less pollution. Unless they are Beijing. Or Bankok.
People who ride bikes as transportation (sweeping generalization here) tend to be more eco-friendly in other ways too.
Cities that are friendly to bikes tend to be more people-centric in general, which is good for families.
Cities with thriving neighborhoods that are bikeable or commute-friendly attract families.
Biking is wonderful exercise and can be part of an overall healthy family lifestyle.

If you live in a bike-friendly city, I am envious. Can I move in with you? (You don't mind a few extra kids, do you?) Seriously, I think a wonderful way to raise kids is in a smaller city that's bikeable and walkable.

Why I'm Going to Vaccinate My Unvaccinated Kids

Karen Murphy — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:28:00 GMT

I'm coming to the conclusion that I've been hiding my head in the sand for several years now when it comes to certain parenting issues. My happy little parenting Bubble Of Goodness. I think a lot had to do with being immersed in a Waldorf school community and all that went along with it: the Attachment-Parenting, no-circumcision (I haven't changed my mind about that one), no-vaccinating, organically-grown parenting ideals that many in that lifestyle, myself included, subscribe to.

I'm finding though that as my kids get older or as I chill out a bit or maybe both, that some of these ideals aren't as ideal as I once thought.

For instance, no children sleep in my bed ANY. MORE.

And the vaccination thing. My youngest son has respiratory issues anyway simply because of Down syndrome-related anatomy, and for him, dealing with a serious illness like whooping cough could be difficult if not fatal.

And it turns out that there's a measure of social responsibility involved here. If the majority in a group vaccinate, those who choose not to can rely on the group to protect them from the disease the rest of them are vaccinated against. But when a large number in a group fail to vaccinate, things fall apart. Which is why the largest whooping cough outbreak in recent U.S. history occurred in Boulder, Colorado, the city I recently moved away from (not for that reason) and a city where a large number of folks don't vaccinate their kids.

But don't take my word for it. Julie Marsh at The Imperfect Parent explains it oh so well. And I'm okay with you making the choices you feel are best for your kids, truly I am. I still worry for my own kids about some of the issues that kept me from vaccinating in the first place. But I no longer feel that those issues outweigh the larger one of social responsibility.

What's your stand on vaccinations? Yea or nay, and why?

Strollerderby : Boulder Colorado

Bike-Friendly Cities Also Family-Friendly

Why I'm Going to Vaccinate My Unvaccinated Kids