As it was me that invited them onto our forum, I'll kick off the response, with our story to date...
I started off as 'just' a cycle commuter (didn't do any cycling except to & from work), but when my first child came along, and eventually started at nursery (2 miles away but in the opposite direction to work!) it just seemed logical that I would do drop-off on the bike with a bike seat rather than (heavens forbid) getting a 2nd car just for the nursery run. So far so good.
1st challenge - getting appropriate clothes for winter. By looking at skiing retailers, I managed to pick up a thick all in one 'romper suit' and balaclava for him. Getting him dressed & undressed in the morning does add to the overall commute time...
At about 2 1/2 he started on a balance bike and got pretty confident at it, so when someone at work offered up a tag-a-long for a good home, I snapped it up. We gave it a little try and he was hooked, so from before his 3rd birthay he commuted on it - our route had to change to avoid the 'tight squeeze'.
2nd & 3rd challenge - Being behind my towing bike meant that on a wet day he would arrive at nursery with a muddy face - they soon learnt to have a flannel ready. Initially, the only glasses I could find for him to wear to protect his eyes from the mud were sun-glasses, but as this was winter I had to find a pair with clear glasses as we were arriving in the dark... Fortunately fleabay came up trumps with a interchangeable 3 lens set.
For his 3rd birthday he got his first pedal bike, although it took a little while to get going soon he was off and wanted to pedal to nursery, which was fine, but about 4 times slower than being towed, so made me late for work...
The next big challenge was his younger sister starting at nursery. I didn't want his cycling to stop (i.e. by putting them both in trailer) but equally I couldn't see a way of connecting both a childseat and tag-a-long / trailgator to the same bike. I did a lot of research and came up with either the Follow-Me tow bar or the Circe Helios. After much thought (about 6 months), discussion and a trial run on the Helios from LaidBack we decided to go with the Helios - fortunately my son is big for his age so could fit on it at only 3 1/2.
I can honestly say we haven't looked back. I've done over 2,000 miles on it in the last year, with over half of that with the kids on board. Thanks to studded tyres we haven't miss a day due to the weather.
We're now using the bike a lot at weekends and exploring many new play parks around the city rather than just using the nearest one. It's not uncommon for us to do 15 miles on a Saturday morning in search of a new slide or set of swings...
My next challenge will be to get both my daughter & son pedalling - I've seen a Helios with a tag-a-long off the rack, so I think this will be the future for us... as will a longer commute once they start he starts at school.
Other challenges we faced were:
1. Stopping boredom - have to keep thinking of games to play - counting lampposts, naming parts of the route, making funny noises through tunnels etc.
2. Fitting lights on a childseat - for some reason this is very hard - I put Fibreflares down either side.
3. Dropping / trailing gloves - String is essential.
and finally...
4. Kiddy tantrums in public display. For most people their kids tantrums on the way to nursery are safely enclosed within their metal box. When you're on the bike everyone can see & hear them. My style is just to keep cycling and keep smiling. Much easier to deal with at nursery and it is usually forgotten once they get there.
Here's a photo from a trip to the bridges - panda, flag, balloon & stripes are optional extras...
20130616_120830 by HankChief, on Flickr
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