Note from Patrick:
You may have clicked on this post before and gotten a 404 error—sorry about that. I originally wrote it a few days before my bike accident and had scheduled it to publish a week later. After the accident, I decided to hold off for a while… but it briefly went live anyway, just long enough for the internet to decide it should be recommended far and wide. 🤦‍♂️

So if you ended up chasing a dead link: my bad.

I’m posting it now, for real. I still think cargo bikes are awesome—and I still love what they represent as a metaphor for parenting differently. Thanks for your patience.

When my daughter was born, I had a vision of what parenting would look like. I’d read Bringing Up Bébé while my wife was pregnant—a book about folding a child into your adult life, teaching them to adapt to your pace, your world, your lifestyle.

But it didn’t work out that way.

Because of my daughter’s challenges, we quickly realized that following the “main path” wasn’t going to work for us. And when it came to simply getting around the city, I had to start thinking differently—more creatively, more practically, and with her specific needs in mind.

That’s how the cargo bike came into our lives.

At first, it was just a way to move her from point A to point B. But it quickly became so much more. It was freedom. It was peace. It was a way to experience the city that made everything feel smaller, easier, and more connected.

Almost every ride relaxes us both. Instead of stressful subway trips or long walks through crowds, we glide past people who smile at us. It’s not flashy—just a dad and his daughter moving through the city in a way that works for them. But the simplicity of it is part of the magic.

We were early adopters. People used to ask a lot of questions: “Is it safe?” “Is it hard to ride?” “Where did you get that?” And I get it—it looked different. But different doesn’t mean wrong. In fact, using the bike became an instant reward for thinking outside the box. It worked. It made us happy. And it planted a seed: what other “rules” are we following that don’t really fit us?

This wasn’t just about transportation. It was about learning to parent our child—not the child we were told to expect, but the one we have and love deeply. Her journey isn’t “less than.” It’s just hers. And as parents, our job is to find the paths—sometimes literally—that let her move safely and confidently through the world.

Parenting Pivot was born from moments like this. From realizing that when we break free from the expectations, we can actually build something better.