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If your child is too young to safely ride her or his own bike with you on recreational outings or trips to the library or store, you can still take your bike. You just need enough seats on your bike for the number of kids you will be taking as passengers -- and the strength and skill to safely manage the bike with the kids on it.
A surprising number of places have laws saying you can't put a kid under 12 months of age on a bicycle. At all. These places include the state of New York and the state of Massachusetts. It is unclear to me whether these laws are ever enforced. Don't put your kid on a bike if they can't keep their head stable with a helmet on, and you will likely at least be following the spirit of the law. I'm not a lawyer; this is not legal advice; you're on your own here.
If you try to buy a seat for a kid on your bike at a bike shop, the guys at the shop may say they are hard to load and unload, a problem which can be mitigated with an adequate double kickstand. If you can't lift your kid in and out of a bike seat, I don't know how you're going to deal with getting them in and out of the shopping cart at the grocery store, so I tend to view that as irrelevant to anyone contemplating utility cycling with children.
Some of the child seats are easy to take on and off, and you can buy more mounts for them (the ones that mount on rear racks, and the Bobike Mini). That can be convenient if you have several bikes and/or several riders who might take a kid out in that seat. If you leave the seat in place on a kid-free errand, you can often use the seatbelt to strap a bag of stuff into the child seat. Remember that in a high-theft area, that bike seat might be gone when you come back, and plan accordingly.
For children up to about three, there are some seats that attach to the top tube (and these work on step-thru bikes) or stem.
The Wee Ride has decent built-in nappability but significantly interferes with knees. The Bike Tutor is for an older child who does not require any back support and can balance fairly well. It is not safe at all for a sleeping child and cannot be made so. It is a very difficult to install, but extremely flexible to install, product.
Alternatively you can put your kid behind you. Bike shops don't like to sell these seats, because of the mounting problem (can't swing a leg over). With a step-thru bike, this isn't an issue (but watch any old habits you have left over or you'll clip the little one).
You can also buy cargo bikes, and carry your child in the cargo space.
You can join the Xtracycle cult, and put your child in the Peapod, or carry them sitting on the snapdeck.
You can get a trailer. Trailers carry one or more children and cargo. You'll notice that weight going uphill and stopping, but this will have the least impact on the stability of your bike. If you fall, the trailer will probably be unaffected.
You can get a trailabike/surrey bike.
The Burley system is particularly nice as the trailing bike attaches to a rear rack which can take normal panniers even with the trailing bike is attached. When the trailing bike is not present, a rack bag can be attached to the rear rack. Most trailing bike solutions make it difficult or impossible to have a rear rack, or to carry anything on it. Most rear child seats are similar, altho the ones which clamp to a rack which is usable cargo space when the child seat is not attached. I have so far failed to find a way to have a rear childseat and cargo, other than the Xtracycle.
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Copyright 2009, Rebecca Allen Created: July 10, 2009 Updated: July 10, 2009