Moms Talk Q&A: Promoting Safe Biking

Each week our Moms Council discusses a different parenting issue. Join the conversation by weighing in on a topic or ask our panel of experts your question.

We put this week's question to our North Potomac-Darnestown Patch for their ideas and advice. The suggestions don’t end here‚ add your own tips and advice in the comments section below.

This week's question comes from , a reader and Moms Council member.

My kids have recently mastered bike riding and they LOVE to ride. While I'm thrilled for them, I'm unable to keep up with their desire to ride—ALL THE TIME! We live in a neighborhood where kids ride freely Where many kids ride freely without parents. So far, I've only let mine ride in a limited area where I can see them. How do you make the transition to more freedom and independence, while ensuring their safety?

My kids, also 6 and 8, love to ride their bikes. We live on a cul-de-sac with few houses but they are only allowed to ride when an adult is out there with them. While the people on our street know to watch for the kids riding and playing, not all visitors or friends of neighbors know, and I would rather be safe than sorry! I also have an almost 4-year-old which makes it hard because I need to have the bike trailer hooked up in order to take her with us if my husband isn’t home. She does love to ride along in the trailer, but it makes my job much harder especially in my VERY hilly neighborhood.

In the next cul-de-sac up from ours we let the kids ride from one end to the other (around a big curve where they are out of our sight), but that is as far as I have let them go and they go down to the end and back. I feel it will be awhile before I let them really branch out and ride the neighborhood without me. My third-grader is looking forward to next year when she can ride her bike to school, but I’m not sure that will be something I will be comfortable with. I can already imagine the daily texts from friends along the way indicating my daughter has passed their house and when she finally does arrive at school.

My kids also loved to ride their bikes at that age and now that they are older (11 and 13), they ride their bikes into the Kentlands all the time (together). I'm lucky because there is a cul-de-sac street across from my house, and I would let them ride up and down that street and to certain friends houses along our street. They were usually together or in a pack of other kids.  

This is one of those questions that depends on the kids' individual personalities. Do you believe that they know how to basically stay safe by not getting into someone's car or house without your permission, or that they are cautious in regard to traffic? If so, and assuming that you live inside a residential neighborhood and not on a busy, commercial street, perhaps you could allow them a specific, mapped out area of streets around your house where they are allowed to ride.

The stipulations would be that they stay together and one of them has a cell phone. Also, I recall being 8 years old and having free rein of the neighborhood on my bike and it really creating a sense of self-reliance and independence in me. This might be something missing for a lot of kids today. This is your opportunity to give them that.

My kids also love bike riding. They ride to and from school most days. We will let them go ahead of us just enough to be out of our vision for a few seconds. Usually they ride up to the crosswalk and wait for an all clear. We live in a cul-de-sac at home so there is less worry, but I'm still concerned about cars not seeing them. They can ride up the street and around the corner. Then they have to come back where I can see them.

The biggest issue for me is that I am not comfortable being inside when they are out riding bikes. I try to sit outside with a book or magazine while they ride, but that doesn't help with the laundry or help put dinner on the table!