The bigger problem in the winter is the drivers get even crazier and the roads can occasionally get icy.
When I was bike only I had my arm damaged in a way that it took close to a decade to get back to normal. On another occasion I was knocked unconscious. Both occasions were drivers who left turned into a parking lot without looking, crossing a lane then going right into me in the bike lane.
A car provides a nice cushion for those sorts of happening. I think if I had a child in either case there is a good chance they would be dead.
While I support the right of people to make their own risk assessments for their family, I fear it is only a matter of time until they come to understand what I did about Chicago biking.
Do you put the kid in that seat?!?