Moving Car-Free as a Parent

I am late to share the news here on my blog, but I became a father recently.

This has opened my eyes in many ways, but I want to jot down some thoughts about family mobility while they are fresh.

Moving around as a parent with a child is a form of physical disability.

I did encounter this fantastic YouTube video a month or so before our baby was born, and it was inspiring:

You can of course forego a car ride home from wherever your baby delivered (I was born in my parents’ home!).

I had heard that it is illegal to leave the hospital without a carseat, but it turns out that is not correct.

In fact a Minnesota state legislator & her newborn were biked home by their husband recently in a cargo bike (Instagram video).

But fast forwarding from the moment of delivery to being back home with infant, wife and myself–I endeavored to discover all the ways to avoid driving:

Walking is key
- with stroller or carrier (of which there are quite a few variants).
- strollers are incredible shopping carts: they can carry your required diaper-changing gear, bottled milk/formula, toys, and groceries.
- a big caveat for post-partum mothers, whether they deliver vaginally or via C-section, mobility is impaired and you don’t want to push things too fast.
- I actually run when it is just me and my son–this roughly doubles my walking time and I have gone on 10+ mile runs with him.
Public transit is a much more difficult space to navigate:
- your newborn will not be fully vaccinated for a wide range of diseases until the 2-6 month mark–and in the first 2 months your infant is at acute risk of respiratory diseases that would cause hospitalization. This is a reasonable risk to mitigate by not using public transit until respiratory immunizations are done at the 2-month mark.
- most buses and many trains have (1) no at-grade boarding and (2) appropriate space for a stroller, so most parents are understandably deterred from utilizing them. This can of course be avoided by using a carrier, but learning to use a carrier with a newborn who has poor neck strength can be easily overwhelming
- “What will you do if their diaper is soiled?” – this fear turned out to be totally overblown. In the absolute worst case you can de-board the bus, change the diaper at the bus stop, and board the next bus! Turns out that infants’ feces are not smelly either.
Bicycling is do-able, but traffic risks take on a whole new level of stakes:
- I tested out the Urban Arrow bucket bike with a carseat adapter, but didn’t have quite the budget to buy the bike–I would recommend it though!
- much more accessible in the US is a bicycle trailer (Burley, Thule, etc.)–while their product descriptions deter usage below 12 months, this is for legal liability purposes and concerns about neck strength–but realistically these trailers have great suspension + inflated tires so they are a real option and parents of infants in Europe use them.
Driving is the default for the 95% of North Americans
- This is just reality – it is what most North American communities are built for, and depressingly it translates to a highly asocial and lonely experience for new parents–something that my household’s lifestyles miraculously is innoculated from, though it takes real sacrifice to make it logistically possible (e.g. be more selective about where you choose to reside and what services/businesses you patronize). This is a sacrifice that most North American new parents cannot hold space for making.