Seattle Forrest

Birth control.

DataJunkie

Screw that. I love being a father.

bonz50

fact. no bicycle or ride could ever be so fulfilling, for me.

Nassa

+1000000

As I mentioned before commuting is just not feasible for me. My wife drops the kids in the morning and I pick them up after school; this is due to our working schedule; I start early and finish early. If I try and commute, 50 km one way, I would never make it to school on time. Yes I can drive part way and ride the reminder, I had never thought of that; great idea. My next option would be to join a cycling club, they have night rides 2 times a week so that might help. We have a long winter here so I may be looking at a trainer or rollers or spin bike, haven't really decided....suggestions welcome.

As was mentioned above, being a father to me is number one....there have been great suggestions here hence the reason for starting the thread. Thanks to all.

sbxx1985 

Logistically, commuting is not an option right now. My two street "neighborhood" is bordered by busy streets. The route to daycare is even busier, and I avoid it on my bike. Add the trailer and it's too dangerous, especially in rush hour traffic.

My wife and I alternate drop off and pick up depending on early/late court or meetings. I need the car and car seat. Daycare opens at 7:30 am. Son gets there at 8:00 am and we pick him up at 5:00 pm. Half an hour from work to daycare by car. I'm in court most mornings and neither of us can leave at 4:30 pm every day. As I said, we discuss it each morning and coordinate.

Granted, I find the time to ride. Wife wakes up every morning at 4:30 am and goes to the gym. I take my bike to work and go home and ride when I'm not on pick up duty. We work together and it works well.

Commuting does not always work, at least right now.

cyccommute 

I'm not buying the "bordered by busy streets" excuse. I live in the same state as you do. Every neighborhood is bordered by busy streets here but there are always quiet alternative streets/routes available. You might have to go a bit out of your way but you want the exercise anyway.

I've bike commuted at least one day in every month of every year from 1988 to now...at least that's what I have records for. We raised 2 kids in the time period while working in demanding careers but I still managed to ride. My neighborhood is bounded by I-70, Sheridan, Federal and 38th Ave, but I still managed to ride to work and deliver kids to daycare. I broke an ankle at Thanksgiving one year, had surgery to remove the old hardware, was in a cast for 6 weeks and still managed to get at least one ride in before the end of the year. I've work shift work...graveyard...at times and I still managed to commute. I've worked in Vermont for a couple of summers and, yes, I bike commuted there too. Bike commuting is always an option. How you do it is just logistics.

pgjackson

Another consideration is the necessity of both parents working. I see a lot of people claim that being good parents is #1, but then they stick their kids in daycare all day. Then the parents complain about not having any time at all. My wife and I decided when she got pregnant the first time that she would not work and we would make due on my salary. It is more important to us that she stay home with the kids than having more material things that a second income would provide. It has been hard and we have struggled...but it is worth it. Just food for thought.

DataJunkie

My wife is a stay at home mother and we made that decision during her first pregnancy. Someday when the kids are bigger she will return back to work. It is worth the extra planning and money pinching if you can manage it. Plus I can ride more.

sbxx1985 

Believe what you want.

Heading east is accomplished by riding on an east-west road. South Boulder Road has no bike lane once you get to Louisville. Baseline is two lanes, which is OK until you get to Lafayette, where it gets sketchy. Arapahoe is under contruction until November 2013.

Sure, I can ride any of those roads and put my son in some danger for my commuting benefit. One inattentive morning driver and my son gets hit. That might be something you're willing to rationalize, but I'm not.

DataJunkie

I wouldn't pull my kids in a trailer in that area. Decent riding for me but too risky for the kids.

bonz50

same here. only difference is that with a special needs daughter it is unlikely my wife will ever be able to work outside of the home. she is currently working toward going rpo with her photography someday, but that is a long term plan/dream. in the meantime we are a one income fam and I'm very grateful for it, as are my kids.

ortcutt

I've used one of these with both my kids, and on a bike with drop bars (Surly CC). (However, the cables are routed Campy style; Shimano style might not work.) My eldest rode in it until she was three years old and had reached the manufacturer's weight limit. I like the design, and I often recommend the seat to curious onlookers who ask about it.

As for managing my cycling time with small children (ages 4 and 1.5): I did a lot of commuting before taking some time off. These days I run errands all over town with my youngest. But that's on my sturdy city/touring bike. I take the road bike out for a brisk 25-miler at 5am, three mornings a week. I do a longer ride, of around four hours, one weekend morning a week. I keep this schedule up all year round. (But not so many weekend rides during a Massachusetts winter.) If the weather's bad, I spin on a trainer in the basement and catch up on some podcast or other.

As someone else remarked, it isn't as bad as it sounds if you really love to ride. And during the warmer months I see lots of bunnies. My daughter enjoys hearing the day's bunny count.

cyccommute 

You, like most noncommuting bicyclists, are looking at things with 'car eyes'. There may not be any shoulder in Louisville, although the road is quite wide but once you get to Louisville, you can find any number of bike paths and residential streets that you can follow that roughly parallel South Boulder. Once in Lafayette, you can take any number of residential streets to get across town. Although you may already know this, Google maps has a pretty good bicycle route map feature which you can access from any smart phone.

If you feel that you are going to put your child in danger, ask your spouse to take him to daycare 2 or 3 days a week and you commute the other days.

I don't see why not. There are lots of places to ride in the Boulder/Louisville/Lafayette area that don't involve riding on South Boulder Road, Baseline or Arapahoe. You may have to cross them from time to time but that's not all the difficult nor dangerous.

cyccommute 

But consider that not all people are the same. My wife absolutely hated staying at home with the kids. She needed some adult face time. On the other hand, our daughter flourished in daycare. She loved every minute of it. With the exception of growing into a bike nut, she's even pretty stable as an adult

DataJunkie

South Boulder to Louisville with a bike trailer? Er? Ha
That is akin to telling me I should pull my kids to Firestone from Thornton.

pgjackson

That is unfortunate. Why have kids if you don't want to be with them? I am strongly against day care except in extreme circumstances. That's just me.

sbxx1985 

I bike commuted for seven years until we adopted our son a year ago. I've lived in SE Boulder for fifteen years. I know the area.

We can disagree. It's OK. You're comfortable pulling your kid in a trailer on a busy road with no shoulder for the sake of bike commuting. I'm not.

Snapperhead

1. My wife runs. I give her time to run, she gives me time to bike.
2. My kids don't run my life. They play one sport a season, not three. We limit how many out of school activities they are involved in.

It has been my experience that people who don't have time to ride (or whatever) just don't make the time.

sbxx1985 

That's fair. You're not alone.

Out of curiousity, how did you two decide who would stay home with the kids? I assume you made more money, so it was your wife. If that was the case, if your wife made more money, would you have stayed home?

Snapperhead

Just to throw in my $.02, as we did the same thing. Yes, I worked because I made more money, mostly because I'm 8.5 years older than my wife and met her when she was only out of college a year or so. My "career" was already in full swing.

And YES, if she made more money I would've had no problem staying home. In fact, I wish she had made more.

bonz50

not me, my wife works WAY freakin harder at home than I do at work. being a stay at home parent isn't a day of sittin around havin a beer and watching a soap opera. no way i want that job, not that I couldn't do it, but I'd be even more exhausted than I am now.

Snapperhead

Believe me, I know. I don't say that because I think it's an easier job or because I haven't done it. My wife has been on several trips over the years (my kids are 8, 10 and 14 now) so I've had my stay-at-home-dad time. I say it because as a working parent you miss a lot. And I don't like that. But that's just me. I admit that being a stay-at-home parent is not for everyone.

pgjackson

I was a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps at the time. The decision was pretty easy. She was a school teacher up until about half way through the pregnancy. Once the kids were both in school, she started teaching again at their school. So there was about a 7 year period where she stayed home. During that period she was an aerobics instructor which was perfect because the gym had a little supervised kid's area where she could drop them off for an hour, teach her class, then go home. Didn't make much money, but it was good for her sanity.

If the wife had the better paying job and I wasn't owned by Uncle Sam I would have stayed home and tried to find work I could do from the house.

pgjackson

I wouldn't say that. When I hear people say "being a mom is the hardest job", I kind of cringe. Not because I don't believe it's an important and difficult job...just that it's a silly concept and way too PC. They aren't mining coal or digging oil wells or fighting terrorists in the disgusting, hot desert. But it's become very PC to say that mom's have the toughest jobs. That's kind of insulting to people who really do have tough, stressful, dangerous jobs. Being a Mom is absolutely critical, but I'm pretty sure most mother's would rather stay home than dig holes in the ground or lay roof tiles all day.

McTufferton

2 kids ages 8 and 3. I ride or race 5 days a week. Let's just say that my wife is the shiz.