Summer is here and that means it's time for all of us to slather sunscreen on our kids, force them to wear unattractive hats with ridiculously wide brims and insist that they conduct all outdoor activities in the safe, UV-ray-resistant shade. Assuming, that is, that we let them outside at all. Because really, isn't the safest thing to just keep them indoors until October arrives?
Honestly, sometimes it seems that way. Like any parent, I want to do whatever I can to protect my child from getting sunburned or -- God forbid -- skin cancer further down the line. There is plenty of good information, including the guidelines in this piece from Huffington Post, about how to do just that. Use plenty of sunscreen, dress your kids in appropriate attire, avoid being outside during peak hours, keep applying sunscreen every 3 or 4 hours, more if they've been swimming, and so on and so on. The best we can do is follow those rules as closely as possible, right?
Right. Yet our overly neurotic sides sometimes take over, prompting us to obsess so much about reapplying SPF 50 every 15 minutes that we barely give our kids the time and space to lay the foundations for their sandcastles, much less build them. We get so concerned about whether their skin is frying that even as our daughters shout from the swimming pool, "Look, mommy! I just did a perfect dive!" all we can hear is, "Melanoma, melanoma, melanoma..."
Of course, we still need to make a firm commitment to keeping our kids' skin -- and ours' -- protected. According to a recent survey in Consumer Reports, we Americans still have a ways to go, especially on that latter point. Among other things, the survey found that 25 percent of parents with children under the age of 12 were no more diligent about slathering lotion on themselves than were adults without children. The good news is that we do a relatively good job with our little ones: 78 percent of the respondents said they put sunscreen on their kids if they know they will be in the sun for four hours or more. Yeah, that percent should probably be 100, but still, not bad.
The bottom line: we need to strike a balance between sunscreen vigilance and sunscreen neuroticism, so our kids can enjoy the sunny days without feeling like they're being hunted down by the SPF police. Perhaps one way to bring a sense of humor to the serious matter of skin protection: start using Will Ferrell's line of sunscreen, something he created to raise money for a cancer charity. Just make it clear to your kids that streaking like Ferrell did in "Old School" is absolutely not a good idea on days when the UV index is high ... unless they manage to do it while staying in the shade.
Image: Popcrunch via Momlogic
