Hats on to Sunscreen!

Since my childhood, my dad has been telling me to put on a hat.  More recently, he passes around the sunscreen.  I never liked hats much and complied with the sunscreen for longer beach or boating outings, still getting several significant sunburns in my youth.  When the babies were young we used lots of sunscreen, but now, when they get off the bus and play for an hour, I didn't think to put on sunscreen.  We do on longer outings but often forget on random outdoor play.  And never hats.

But, with Dad's skin cancers and repeated warnings about sunscreen, we're more vigilant now.  Even more, the kids now have to wear hats outside!  We all do because the scalp is vulnerable (and never gets sunscreen!) and cancers there are often not detected until late (see Mary Elizabeth Williams's chronicles on the stage 4 malignant melanoma on her scalp at Salon).  Reading this recent post was my main motivation--it argues that sunscreen and hats are habits that must be started in childhood, like helmets and seat belts.  It's not a habit I picked up, despite my dad's gentle suggestions, but it's one we're instilling in all of us now.