Thanks to Coolibar for providing sample sun hats. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

Melanoma runs on my husband’s side of the family. This means that my husband AND my children are more susceptible to skin cancer than the average person, and this, in turn, means that we take sun protection quite seriously. We have a complete aresenal of sun screen and we try to avoid being outside too much during peak UV ray times (10-4).

But I read something recently that really got my attention. It was about how few people guard themselves against exposure to those rays when they will only be outside briefly. I’m most definitely guilty of not worrying about the exposure I’ll be getting during the few minutes I’m outside running errands, for example. But what I read stated that if you are only exposed to those rays for 5 minutes a day, that’s 35 minutes each week of unprotected exposure, which brings you to almost 1 1/2 hours of unprotected exposure each month! It’s highly unlikely that you’ll experience a sun burn as a result of this exposure, but those cancer-causing UVB rays don’t let you see the damage they are doing by way of burns, so you really are blissfully unaware of what’s happening.

I wish I could tell you that I have a new commitment to lathering up before making the 50 foot walk from my back door to my car, but that’s just not true. There’s actually an easier solution: protective clothing! Specifically, I want to talk about sun hats and why they are such a simple fix!

I am totally digging this hat from Coolibar (it’s called Marina) because it is cute, obviously, but also because it can fold up and go right in my purse so that I can easily have it on hand any time I’m about to step outside.

Tim also has a foldable hat (called the Featherweight Bucket Hat). He bikes to and from work, including a mid-day bike home for lunch, and we have realized that he is getting quite a bit of unprotected sun exposure. This hat will fit in his bag.

For the kids, they are rocking the surf’s up bucket hat. I’m actually going to keep these right in the car for the girls so that they can wear them any time we are out and about.

One of my favorite features of the girls’ hats is that they hold up great in water. And little kids seem to be especially keen at finding sources of water everywhere they go, so this is a great feature!

We have our kids very well trained to know that if they are headed outside to play on a bike or a scooter, they MUST be wearing a bike helmet. It’s time to start training them (and ourselves, too) that a sun hat is a must for time spent outside, whether it’s 5 minutes or 3 hours. Coolibar hats all have a UPF of at least 50 and their protective powers do not wash out or fade.

I’m putting a sun protective jacket on my Christmas wish list for each family member, as well, because it’s really starting to dawn on me that my mentality of, “Oh we’re only out for a short while” doesn’t make sense, because major damage is done over time, with cumulative exposure rather than only with too much exposure on rare occasion. Those 5 minutes add up terribly fast, and the result is increasing a risk that for my family, is already high. A sun hat, like those from Coolibar, can go a long way toward keeping those I love the most protected.

Have you ever thought about how those few minutes outside every day really add up? I’d love to hear if you take extra measures to keep your skin protected or if this is something you hadn’t really thought of until now.