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Parenting

do you make your child wear a helmet on a scooter??

55 replies

brimfull · 12/07/2006 13:47

ds is 3 and quite fast on a 2wheeled scooter.Have just been told off by complete stranger that I should make him wear a helmet.
What next do they need one for running aswell?

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poisson · 12/07/2006 13:48

no but kids are not llowed to ride motorised one ona pubclu road or hight way ( arf at jargon) wihtout a dirving licence
in our trade mag last month

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sandyballs · 12/07/2006 13:50

No. Blimey. Whatever next. Tell 'em to butt out.

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MrsBadger · 12/07/2006 13:52

pmsl at a magistrate's trade mag - Justice World? Bench Today? What Wig?
Has it been a guest publication on Have I got news for you?

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brimfull · 12/07/2006 13:52

pmsl at the thought of ds on a motorised one

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Tortington · 12/07/2006 14:49

no.

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hulababy · 12/07/2006 21:02

I do make DD wear her bike helmet when on her scooter. She is clumsy as it is.

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Blu · 12/07/2006 21:06

No, and ds doesn't wear a bike helmet when riding his bike in the park, either.

Our (very reputable) bike shop told a friend that the main reason to buy a 4 year-old a helmet for riding in the park was to stop other parents giving you looks.

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Feistybird · 12/07/2006 21:07

no

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brimfull · 12/07/2006 22:35

ok so I am not an evil slack mum for not bothering with the helmet,thanks

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Pagan · 12/07/2006 22:43

pmsl at What Wig!

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WestCountryLass · 12/07/2006 22:59

DS wears a helmet but he's not forced, he loves it and I can't see what harm it does. DD wears one when I am pushing her on her trike too!

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Heathcliffscathy · 12/07/2006 23:01

thunk.

in holland, home of the bicycle, they do not wear helmets as they don't protect and can do more harm then good.

cannot believe that scooters warrant helmets in anyone's book.

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robinia · 12/07/2006 23:53

Tell me more sophable - I've always been anti-helmets but for the not very good reason that I don't like wearing them. Any evidence that they're not as brilliant as they're made out to be, gratefully appreciated!

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Heathcliffscathy · 13/07/2006 00:05

have seen very few people in amsterdam and suburbs wearing helmets.

cycle training uk aren't that into them iirc

i'd google it if you want more info robinia

i seem to remember being told by a cycle trainer (i'm learning) that the european cycling bodies don't think helmets are any good at all...

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MrsBadger · 13/07/2006 10:22

don't bother when in parks etc but personally I wear a helmet when I'm cycling on the roads because other traffic takes you more seriously.

If I get on a bike in ordinary clothes I feel people just see a girl on a bike, whereas if I'm wearing a helmet and a high-vis vest people see A Cyclist.
As a motorist I feel this difference too, but then I do live in a city where a lot of people ride bikes, some of whom are grossly incompetent, dangerous, and widely hated by motorists and pedestrians alike; and some of whom actually know what they're doing. I find a helmet and a vest means a cyclist is perceived to be in the second camp and gets more respect .

Also having witnessed a rather nasty accident in London where the cyclist involved flew upside down over his handlebars, landed on his head in the middle of the road... and was perfectly alright thanks to his helmet, I think it's hassle worth having.

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poisson · 13/07/2006 11:50

a surgeon told my dad to wear oen as they save lives he said

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HAPPYFACE · 13/07/2006 12:54

10 years ago I ended up in hospital in intensive care and in the bed next to me was a boy of around age 6. My mother spoke to his parents who were by his bed and they said they couldn't believe it, he had only fallen off his bike, but he hadn't been wearning a helmet. My mum never found out if he recovered.
This has stuck in my mind and so I never let my dd on her bike without her helmet, and usually she wants her scooter at the same time and she will keep her helmet on.
Insisting on her wearing her helmet is much easier than her being in hospital!

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tortoiseshell · 13/07/2006 13:01

We are helmet fanatics and I would urge anyone who rides a bike to wear a helmet. A close relative who is a consultant works primarily with people who've had head injuries, so she sees a lot of cycling injuries and the most common serious injuries from a bike are people falling off and hitting their heads off the pavement. The vast majority of seriously injured cyclists would have had next to no injury had they been wearing a helmet. Obviously there are exceptions, but it's not a risk worth taking imo.

In fact I've seen a demonstration with a mini cycle helmet made to fit an egg - when dropped wearing the helmet, the egg is unscathed, when dropped without it, it shatters. Not something I would want to happen to the head of anyone in my family (or anyone's head!).

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tortoiseshell · 13/07/2006 13:02

Also to add, I knew someone as a child, and discovered later that aged 14/15 he had been killed falling off a skateboard going along the pavement, just because of the particular way he hit his head on the ground. Nothing else involved. If he'd worn a helmet he would have walked away.

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MadamePlatypus · 13/07/2006 13:13

I have googled quickly, but couldn't find anything saying that it was more dangerous to wear a cycle helmet - only people saying that compulsory wearing of cycling helmets might discourage cyclists and therefore be bad for health in general. I would be really interested to know more about this point of view.

I wear a cycling helmet for the same reason that I wear a hard hat when horse riding - because if I fall my head is the bit of me that I most want to protect. I can see that badly fitted cycling helmets might not really help you one way or another, but am a bit suspicious about the not wearing a cycling helmet argument - it sounds to me a bit like the not wearing a safety belt argument. However, I would be interested to learn more.

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hulababy · 13/07/2006 18:03

Have you seen a helmet after an accident? A teacher at one of the schools I worked at did a talk at the school, sadly only a few weeks after a 13 year old had died in a bike accident and had been killed - again may well still be here if he'd had his helmet on The teacher had been ina nasty bike accident and brought in the helmet he had been wearing. It was seriously bashed in. If that had been his unprotected head I dread to think what his injuries would have been.

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Pagan · 13/07/2006 22:03

My BIL would have been killed had he not been wearing his helmet although he was in a cycling race at the time so hurtling along at a fair old rate of knots when the puppy ran out in front of them. Having said that we don't wear helmets out cycling but we are usually meandering along quiet cycle paths or country roads. DH always wears a helmet cycling in and out of work though

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spugs · 16/07/2006 22:26

yup, did you not see the recennt thing on the news, a little boy had been knocked off his bike and killed (no helmet) his parents released pictures of him in his coffin to try and get other children to wear helmets. so awful, cried my eyes out

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3babysblues · 17/07/2006 08:57

yes if he/she would wear it,
I have 2 boys with the same sort of scooter thay go mad on it and fast.
I have helmets but the boys don,t always wear it

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gentlegran · 15/02/2014 22:07

My 4 year old grandson is allowed to ride a scooter without a helmet beside a road. It makes me feel physically sick. I now have nightmares about it. Even strangers have mentioned it to me. Am I wrong to think like this

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