I have just seen a parent on a bike with a trailer containing 2 toddlers (fair enough), and wearing a baby in a sling. Tell me just how U I was to raise an eyebrow...

[LewisNaiceHamilton]

Sling was one of those front-facing, Baby Bjorn type things. Baby would have been too small to go into a child seat (it looked about 4 months), which I guess is why it was in a sling (it would have flopped around in a carrier).

Given that I've long carted my now teen around in a tiny sportscar that would disintegrate in a collision, and that when he was little (from about a year to 4 iirc) he rode in something like this , my reaction is hypocritical and unreasonable, no?

Actually, is it even legal to carry a baby in a sling on a bike?

Only two people saw me.

It's not the cyclists

It's the motorists

I used to cycle to ds's nursery, then for the return stretch he'd stand on the pedals and I'd push him home

Fairy, my falls have all involved misjudged kerbs and possibly a little wine, in my youth - I couldn't afford cabs home after work, or rather I spent my £ on drinks... - I suppose with a trailer, you wouldn't be attempting to mount kerbs.

It still seems a little reckless though, to be carrying such a small baby like that.

Do you remember when Jools Holland got papped with his tiny DD in the basket on the front of his bike?

Even I was a bit at that.

I used to have my two eldest on my bike. One in a carrier seat and one on a cross bar seat. I didn't drive and I had a straightforward drop off to nursery, school then on to work.

I can't imagine doing that now with my youngest two. I am not sure why.

There are dozens of things I would have done when ds and I were younger, Devere, that I wouldn't do now. I dread to think what kind of parenting fails I'm committing now that I'll be utterly mortified by when he's 30. Or maybe you come to terms with it?

I'm taking note of all this ready to advise my dil, when the time arrives

Hearts aren't the Dutch and the Danish massively into ruggedized, front facing child seats in cars? Or am I confusing them with the Swedes?

hearts if they were danish the baby probably would have had a helmet. Tis law here.

lewis i only know 2 people in denmark with rear facing seats. one of them worked in the babyshop so got massive discount and the other is a neurotic but lovely british ex police officer.

Trailer, fair enough. DH has taken two of ours at a time out in a bike trailer from the age of about 18 months but they always wear helmets. 7 year old still gets to school in it but he is growing out of it now.

I had an acquaintance who used to ride her bike with toddler in an egro carrier, on her back, without a helmet. I do still think that was very dangerous. I'd never ride a bike with a helmet-less child in anything, seat, trailer, anything at all.

I cycle with my dog in a baby sling attached to me.

I don't think the trailer will make the bike more stable, either - the one we have is designed so that if the bike tips, trailer stays upright - there's a twisty bit in the connection - it doesn't keep the bike upright like a tricycle!

Ah ok. Must admit I've never had a trailer. I always assumed it turned it a bit trike like.

Redexpat is it really! I never noticed when visiting, mind you that was 10 years ago already. Where does the time go!

The risk in this case is that IF the parent falls for any reason there is zero protection for the baby's skull and she is likely to be going at slightly more than walking pace and from a slightly higher height than if she was standing AND be less likely tp put out hands etc to break the fall because the bike will get in the way. So no, I don't think this is a good idea.
No reason why the baby shouldn't be in a car seat in the trailer though. The seat will offer some impact protection and you don't have the same risk of fall from height - which is why trailers are safer than bike seats. That said I loved having dd3 on my bike in a seat - which we did from age 1 through till just before her 7th birthday

Reminds me of last weekend, on busy ring road going to the ferries, lady on a bike and dad on a bike behind, holding pretty terrified baby on his lap!! No helmets for any of them.

I would not be able to watch. I can't bear to watch parents riding bikes in heavy traffic with little children in those trailer 'pods'.

I just think the children are so vulnerable and have no protection. I do not understand the parents at all. Children are so very precious.

Even the trailers make me wince, they're so flimsy and so low to the ground and dragged along behind a (hopefully) concentrating-on-traffic parent. They do not look safe for roads! Nice ride in the park yes, but not for eg school run!! So I am almost fainting at the thought of baby-carrier situation. YANBU!

Heaven forbid any of you visit the Netherlands (or even any other countries that are big on cycling)! :o

What about the ones who go skiing with the child in a bs k carrier?
Much worse than that one or just on par?

Tbh I have seen a mum with a toddler in a seat following another 2 (maybe 3 can't quite remember) children cycling. The children were around 4~6yo and one if them clearly didn't know how to cycle very well.
They were on a very busy road.
Now I can see that mum doing the same and tbh I think it's probably even more dangerous!

I regularly see one of the dads from school doing the school run, cycling on the road in (heavy) traffic with his 8 year old son perched on the crossbar, no helmets for either of them. I always think "What an arsehole".

I saw quite a few parents carrying children in slings on bikes when we visited the Netherlands last summer, we took ds who was at the time 6 months on a front mounted seat with no helmet, I asked about helmets and they said that the most common bike accidents were when parents propped the bike up against a railing with the child in the seat and the bike fell over, they said just keep hold of the bike at all times and it would be fine. We went on a very slow cycle around a park and it was all fine.

We didn't see any children wearing cycle helmets and we saw lots of children being transported on different sorts of bikes.

We live in Sweden ( which is the land of rear facing car seats) it is illegal to have a child on a bike ( their own --or a seat on their parent's bike) without a helmet. Ds has one of those push along trikes with a handle for the parent, I took him to the shop the other day and dp's friend who is a police woman stopped for a chat and was horrified that ds didn't have a helmet on

I've spent time on Denmark and the Netherlands and the difference is that it's cities are set up fir cycling. Copenhagen is super safe fir bikes and children are safer too.

So true BogQueen. I rode my bike all over hell's half acre when we lived in Amsterdam but have barely been on my bike at all in the 11 years we have lived in London. I am just too scared to brave the traffic on London roads.

I cycle with my dog in a baby sling attached to me.

You put your dog in a baby sling?

He's only a small dog, he loves it. He weighs less than many newborns.