While walking back from the market, I watched a group of four people bike down the hill towards me. Two men, two children. They were on regular bikes, not crappy beach cruisers.

The boys were wearing helmets, the men were not.

One of the men noticed me watching, and called out to me. Not sure what he said, but it broke me out of my train of thought, and I loudly called out ‘Sir! You should be wearing a helmet, too!’

The guy looked a bit stunned, as if he did not expect that reply from me. But what made it great was that right after I called that out, one of the boys goes “YEAH, DAD!”

As they passed by, I could hear chattering. I could only hope that there was a healthy dialogue about how dad needs to be wearing a helmet, too.

I am starting to see how much influence the children have. I got jeered at the other day by a group of teenagers for texting while driving. It was quite mortifying, to have this population group sneer at ME, an adult, for doing something they KNEW was wrong and dangerous. God, you would have thought I was drunk driving. But they were right. I should NOT have been text-driving. My car might have veered into them and killed them all. For shame.

I hope the father gets a helmet. As adults, we need to be role models. It’s a sign when the teens and kids know better than you do.