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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think if your dc wants to ride their scooters to school....

52 replies

TantrumsAndBalloons · 20/06/2012 09:00

Then they should actually ride it?

Not scoot 1 minute to the bus stop, get on bus with scooter,hitting everyone in the process, get off bus and scoot 30 seconds to the school gate??

What is the point?

There were 7, yes 7 scootering DCs on the bus this morning, they all got off at the bus stop outside the school, 30 seconds from the gate.

Surely if you live too far to walk and you have to take the bus dont bring a scooter

OP posts:
GrahamTribe · 20/06/2012 10:50

Dammit! I'd incinerate every scooter in the land as well as every one in the and (or foot!).

Ormiriathomimus · 20/06/2012 10:52

There's one mum that cycles home from school in the mornings with 2, yes 2, scooters across the handlebars.

GrahamTribe · 20/06/2012 10:53

Oh man! I need coffee! That didn't come across to well. I am not an elderly woman. Quite. Yet. I saw an elderly woman trying to protect her little dog. Oh, hell, you get the idea.

AnyoneForTennis · 20/06/2012 10:56

Gwendoline walking would be a better habit to get used to.... Shat about that hill on return journey? Have seen so many parents running behind,juggling books bags,rucksacks and lunchboxes, trying to catch up but it's usually too late

Then you hear 'I told you to slow down/stop there' etc..... But no, it happens again and again.

thekidsrule · 20/06/2012 11:45

im getting increasingly feed up of all the issues relating to these blardy things

only yesterday a 5yr old child crashed into a young girl on the way back from school,

there was a thread on scooters not so long ago made intresting reading

yanbu

DeWe · 20/06/2012 12:00

Our school has a scooter park, a strict no scooting inside grounds rule, the head stands at the gate and reminds children as they go in. Personally I think they're better than bikes, particularly up hill.

YouBrokeMySmoulder · 20/06/2012 12:08

I am very pleased with mine - if dd (4) were not using it on the school run (2 miles) then you would all be cats bum face at me because she would be in the buggy. You just can't win.

Northernlurker · 20/06/2012 12:08

Gwendoline - my dd rides her to school sometimes - it's a 20 minute walk. I ride my bike ON THE ROAD alongside her as she goes at quite a rate. She has never flattened people nor dogs - because she has been taught to be considerate. It is possible.

Northernlurker · 20/06/2012 12:09

dd is 5 btw - so yes I think it's possible that your child can manage one.

takingiteasy · 20/06/2012 16:42

I had the car at school as I'd been out for lunch. I watched a woman park up, scoot over the road and meet up with the other scooter gang, hand it over to her son and go back over the road and put it back in the car. This happens every day.

simpson · 20/06/2012 17:04

Scooters are not allowed to be ridden in my DC school anymore as it was getting dangerous.

Both my DC scoot to school but in the school gates they walk with them.

Pompoko · 20/06/2012 19:43

People should make kids blooming walk!
Kids often complane about being tierd when in truth they are bored. They need to learn to get on with it.
Scooting is more tiring than walking so if DC can scoot somewhere they can easily walk it!

thekidsrule · 20/06/2012 20:44

funnily my 5yr old asked if he could ride his scooter to school tomorrow,as hes seen his class mate (the one that crashed into the young girl) on his

guess what i said NO,im sure some parents are scared to say that word to there kids

there plenty of time to ride a scooter mainly in after school hours

GnomeDePlume · 20/06/2012 20:58

Are you sure it wasnt 'bring your to school day'? If it was then you can look forward to a variety of inappropriate bits of tat/random relatives/pets being hauled onto the bus over the coming months.

YouBrokeMySmoulder · 20/06/2012 21:05

I think that's rubbish pompoko, a lot of under fives simply find it hard to walk long distances quickly enough for the school/nursery run.

And for a three/four year old with little legs, scooting faster than my fastest walk would be the equivalent of them running full speed for two miles, can you do that? Props to you if so. [cats bum mouth]

Booette · 20/06/2012 21:09

On the rare occasions my kids take their scooters to school if they don't want to ride them they push them themselves. If they say they can't push them I tell them to leave them on the pavement where I'm sure another child would like it! I will not carry them/push them myself. (But sometimes I have a scoot) They're not allowed to ride them in the playground, and most kids are good at not doing it. It's the parents on bikes who cycle through the gate who are worse!

I also make them carry all their bags (lunch bag, book bag, violin bag, pe bag etc, obviously not all on the same day) themselves.

And I make the poor things walk 4 miles to and from school everyday. I really don't get how kids can't walk! Scootering is definitely more hard work than walking.

Pompoko · 21/06/2012 08:05

Youbrokemysmolder is it realy safe for a 3/4 year old to scoot faster than you can run? Too easy for them to foget the rules and scoot into the road or into some one.
Kids do daft things without thinking. This done at speed on scooters can kill them

Kids need to learn how to walk and not dawdle. Not always easy but they can do it! They complain because they get bored and complaining gets them carried/ put in buggy/ car or given a fun scooter.

TheSpokenNerd · 21/06/2012 08:08

My 4 year old got flatened by a bigger child who came hurtling round the corner whilst his Mother chatted....they were lucky she wasnt a car...she was just getting out of a taxi and he came and rammed right into her at top 6 year old speed.

The Mother looked sorry and said sorry but never made her DC say anything...she must have been embarrased for allowing him to go ahead. I had a face like thunder but managed to say "It's ok" but really it was not ok...he could have knocked her onto the road.

takingiteasy · 21/06/2012 08:10

I'm another 'you bring it you ride it' mother and the threat to leave it works perfectly.

TheSpokenNerd · 21/06/2012 08:10

My child is 4 youbroke and can walk up to two miles....people just don't mae them as they can't be arsed with the whining they do...but that fades as they get used to it.

TheSpokenNerd · 21/06/2012 08:11

Plus...if you actually ENGAGE with a 4 or 5 year old on a walk and point out flowers and other interesting things, they are happy.

takingiteasy · 21/06/2012 08:23

My son was a bit of a pampered soul was always driven to nursery on my way to work etc. We would walk for leisure with the dogs at the weekends but he never really had to walk with purpose until he started school.

It's a mile each way. He was 4 when we started walking and moaned about 3 times. Sometimes he takes his bike and we have agreed points for him to stop and wait.

Pompoko · 21/06/2012 08:28

Did read somewhere that kids sould be able to walk the same number of miles as their age. Dunno how true it is.
My ds could easly clock up over a mile on walks before he hit 2. That was only at fun places like the beach, woods ect. Now at nearly 4 we go for 2 -3 hour walks every day. No buggy, no scooter and rarely stop also go a good speed. Its amazing when the complaining and dramatics stop dead when there is a stretch of grass to run at full speed on or get to the park.

bugster · 21/06/2012 08:49

OP YANBU, I don't think scooters should be allowed on the bus. A agree with other posters that more parents need to learn to say 'no' to their DCs, I see the increasing failure of parents to do this leading to all kinds of problems with the children.

However, I think scooters can be great fun and are definitely better than being driven everywhere. If a child has a relatively long walk I don't see the problem with letting them scoot, but they have to be able to scoot properly. Probably a lot of the accidents described here come from children not having enough practice. Also there's no way children should be scooting in indoor shopping centres, I can't believe that's allowed.

Here in Switzerland the children can scoot very well, probably because ghey play out a lot more and there are many more areas for them to do it safely. I've never seen a scooter collision. The children aren't allowed to scoot to school until thtey are 9 though, and then it has to be the whole journey on tthe scooter, not just up to a bus.

3duracellbunnies · 21/06/2012 12:24

All three of mine scoot to school but only 3 days a week (the other days we go on walking bus, so they walk). It is up and down hills, but I have a strict I don't carry their scooter policy. If they can't handle it then it is left in a school friend's garden on the way, and they can't use it the next day. Same if they scoot beyond defined points on the way, so I can always see them. They never have collided but again that would be a day's ban. They are 7 and 5 and it is 0.7 mile up and down steep hills. I make them push scooters down the hill which is officially condemed as too steep for the precious secondary school children to walk down.

The 2.5 yr old is on a scooter which I have put a strap on, so he goes where I go and at my pace. He has a choice each morning scooter v pushchair. He wouldn't be able to walk fast enough to keep up with his sisters. Scooters work for us, but you have to lay down the rules and stick to them, same as any part of parenting.

I would only take ds's on the bus/ in shops but I see that as a more compact form of transport than a pushchair(which would be my alternative option for him), it is entirely under my control, takes up less space and I don't need to get him out and fold it up if someone in a wheelchair needed the space on the bus. School age children don't need to scoot 30 seconds to the bus though.