I always take my helmet off when I visit the grocery store–even for one-item trips–but the kids don’t mind leaving their Little Nuttys on and it certainly speeds things up. However, in addition to the “Cool helmets, guys!” we get some funny looks so I wonder if some fellow shoppers think they’re wearing the helmets for the shopping cart ride. I’m tempted to notify them, “We came by bike!” but I just smile and imagine I’m thought of as the crazy lady that puts her kids in helmets to go grocery shopping.
The grocery store was only a small part of our fun day. In the not-so-fun department, I opted to return some library books to the Fremont branch and rather than go around the block, I scaled one block of Troll Avenue. Big mistake–way too steep for two weeks into the cough-that-wouldn’t-go-away. Fortunately our next stop was Space Needle Swimming Pool (aka DuPen Fountain) where I recuperated in the shade while the boys splashed around. And then we moved to the Children’s Museum where they splashed around at the water table while I further recuperated on the squishy toddler play floor.
I had originally planned to head home and hook up the trailer to haul our expired carseat to the CoolMom carseat recycling event at the Phinney Farmers Market, but I couldn’t stand the thought of more hills. But I really like the idea of biking our old carseat to recycle it so it’ll happen one of these days.
Today’s miles: 11.0 miles
September cumulative: 163.0 miles
Days missed: 5
Family Ride 
Totally go shopping with helmets on! We sometimes play on the playground toys with helmets on but that makes be terribly self conscious because I’m not crazy about the kids having to wear helmets even on their own bikes, let alone in regular play. They are easier to spot with helmets on in the store, well besides the store displays that get twisted and shaken or the various clean up announcements that accompany my children’s whearabouts.
I know what you mean about it being easier.. I leave my on sometimes when I’m making a quick run into the store on my way home from work.. and then as I walk through the store I think about how ridiculous I look. I think the little guy likes wearing his helmet.. he leaves it on all the time – I usually have to ask him to take it off. I think he likes showing off the cool bike-gear stickers he’s been collecting and putting on it. ;-)
And the kids will have the last laugh if my helmet gets stolen from the bike basket outside the store b/c I was too concerned with my appearance to just leave it on, eh? Good tip about the stickers! If they start disliking extra helmet wearing I’ll start stickering them up.
I typically take my helmet off as soon as I get of the bike, but I can’t get my eight year old son to take his helmet off at all. He wears it for hours while he plays at the neighbor’s house.
My son really likes wearing his bike helmet and never wants to take it off in stores, the playground, you name it. I had to buy him a new helmet yesterday and he asked to wear it out of the store.
“But…we came here by car!” I replied.
“I don’t care. Can I wear it? Please?”
So, he did.
Imagine how self-conscious I felt driving to a playground and having my almost 6 year old jump out of the car and play in his helmet.
Heh, cute! I want to put “I came by bike” stickers on our helmets, but I guess that doesn’t address the jumping-out-of-the-car-in-helmet issue. What kind of helmet did you get? I need a new helmet myself, but am procrastinating (or waiting to see one on clearance :))
The Super Star Nutcase helmet (aka Captain America), which is cute, but kind of pricey. We had a bit of a crash on our way home on Saturday – we’re both ok, not counting some scraped elbows, but Spencer hit the road hard enough to crack his helmet. I may blog about it, after my heart rate finally drops back to normal, which may take another day or two. So, on Sunday, I took him to the bike store (by car) and let him pick out any helmet he wanted.
This is the one:
http://www.nutcasehelmets.com/en/collections/product_street/superstar
Personally, I like this one:
http://www.nutcasehelmets.com/en/collections/product_street/blackdana
However, in the absence of another crash, I’ll probably wait until next year.
OMG–scary! I’m glad you’re OK. I love the helmet he chose! All the Nutcases are so cute. I’ve been looking at pictures of the new helmets shown at Interbike. I think they’ll all come out in the spring. Both Nutcase and Giro are going to have new “commuter” helmets that look great. Gives me time to procrastinate :)