To not make the kids wear helmets while scooting?

[DingbatsFur]

My kids have mini micro scooters and scoot to and in some cases from school. All on pavements, one road to cross. At home the scoot in the driveway and up and down the pavement outside the house. They have fallen off a handful of times. The speed they reach is about what I can do at a jog.
Now I'm all for safety gear and should they ride bikes they will wear helmets & should the roller skate they will wear elbow, wrist & knee pads and when they ice skate they wear helmets.
Scooting no helmet however.
Little boy up the street one year older than my youngest appeared by our house yesterday wearing a helmet with his scooter and wanting to know why my two were helmetless as 'helmets make you safe'.
I hadn't considered we were being reckless?

[1Veryhungrycaterpillar]

I can walk faster than my two can scoot

[littlepeas]

My ds came off his mini micro backwards - it sort of kept going after he thought he had stopped and it did a bit of a wheelie, tipping him off backwards. It took a HUGE chunk out of his helmet - that could have been his head. My dc always wear helmets.

[southeastastra]

my son doesn't have a scooter but i have often wondered what the appeal is. the wheels are way too small to be effective when getting up kerbs etc and i don't find it surprising that there are accidents but would put that down to the design rather than the user.

when i was younger scooters had proper wheels

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

I have very rarely seen kids on scooters with helmets on. Ds has come off his a couple of times, but has learned how to fall properly.
Bikes-yes, because he is higher off the ground and much less in control.
We never wore helmets to do either (or seatbelts but that is another matter) and I never knew a kid who had a head injury, despite countless wheelies etc.

[1Veryhungrycaterpillar]

I've never seen a child on a scooter with a helmet either, unfortunately you could suffer a brain trauma falling over whilst running, should we make them wear helmets for that too

[FairyTrain]

My DCs always wear a helmet when on bikes or scooters... no brainer really!
My DM wouldnt let us have helmets when we were younger as "it gives you a false sense of security" . I think she was just too tight to buy my DB and I bike helmets! (Although we always wore riding hats when on our ponies!)
My MIL had a very bad cycling accident with brain injury a couple of years ago while on her bike without a helmet on , she would not have been nearly as badly injured if she had been wearing a helmet.

[littleducks]

Mine don't wear helmets either, they have mini and maxi micro scooters with three wheels so are pretty stable, maybe I would feel differently if they were on two wheeled ones.

They scoot pretty much everywhere when I don't have the car and helmets would make it pretty impractible, needing to be left out in the rain/sun would probably render them useless. If we don't have scooters they run along ahead and tbh I don't think there is much difference between that and scooting in terms of safety, probably ideal scenario would be helmets for running but I don't see that catching on

[MaMattoo]

No helmet no scooter here for my DS.
A few months ago he went down a slope fast, wobbled, fell on this side quite hard. The helmet was very badly scratched. I am glad it was the helmet that got the scratches.
Wearing one can't do any harm, so I don't see why it's debated so much really.

[brilliantwhite]

let them be kids ,i never bothered with helmets for scooters , bikes or skates , what next a harness to climb trees .

[TwasBrillig]

Doesn't stop my kid being a kid! What a strange thing to say. My daughter is great on her like a bike and scooter and goes very fast on both. She'll run in, grab her helmet, get me to check it in seconds and off we go! She's always warn one, so doesn't inhibit her in anyway and of course now we're practicing on a 'big girls bike' is completely used to the concept you put a helmet on.

I really can't see why anyone wouldn't,especially after reading stories on here of people who have had a close shave!

[wonderingsoul]

one b ikes, yes they do. scooters ds2 does becasue hes 4 and loves his helmet.

ds1 i make if we are going out to play on his scooter, becasue he likes to try and do stunts..like ramps etc if we are just going to school or town no he doesnt.

[funkybuddah]

I've never put helmets on mine for scooters and none of the other kids at school wear one either.

So yanbu

[Crowler]

Let kids be kids? How weird. Put a kid in a helmet, and you can well and truly let them be a kid.

[Grumpla]

Another wheels = helmet family here.

My mum's life was saved by a bike helmet, they are non-negotiable IMO.

[Breezy1985]

Last summer holidays a little boy (7) in my DD's class fell off his scooter, banged his head and spent the next few weeks in a coma, and suffered brain damage Not worth the risk in my opinion.

[wonderingsoul]

breezy

thats terriable, its made me re think making them wear them all the time now. bikes are atomatic, but scooter i tended to think where pretty safe, as you go side ways and kinda roll. its deffintly made me think twice.

was the boy ok in then end?

[Fenton]

I don't insist on helmets with scooters but do with bikes, I've always felt that they're more likely to be able to save themselves on the scooter but the a big mistake on the bike will have them over the handle bars and on the head. Having said that I think I might make it a rule after seeing them dashing about this weekend.

I want to send them out in full head and body armour with chin and teeth guards.

I can't watch.

I try not to be but I am a HUGE what-if-he-falls type worrier.

[Crowler]

Kids get pretty fast on scooters as they get older. I see the l2 and 3 year old kids on the scooters and I can appreciate the no-helmet rationale; they are tiny, close to the ground, and not fast.

But it is very hard to get a helmet on a kid once they're used to not wearing one.

[DeWe]

I don't know any children round here that wear helmets for scootering except the older kids when they're doing stunts.

However I suspect that the number of (non-road using) children who have been prevented from death or serious injury by wearing a helmet on bike or scooter would probably be about the same number that would also be saved by wearing a helmet in the car, or crossing the road, and I've yet to meet anyone who insists their child wear a helmet in the car.

[Crowler]

That may or may not be true (I doubt it) - but it's not fun to transition to a helmet once you've started on the street & are used to not wearing a helmet. I'd feel nervous that my kids would take it off the moment they were out of my sight.

[BegoniaBampot]

From the way I see kids riding scooters it looks just as likely to cause injury as bikes. Plus many kids seem to have put aside their bikes for scooters these days and it's all about stunts etc. the local skate park you have to pay not insists on helmets or you don't get in.

[HystericalParoxysm]

Why would you not put a helmet on your child? Not exactly much effort is it! You do not need to be going fast or fall a great height to sustain a life changing brain injury. A child on a scooter is going to have less control over their movements than a walking child so in my book they need a helmet.

[afussyphase]

We used to try but we were inconsistent. Then a friend's toddler did a face plant and got a dent in his helmet plus a small scratch on his lip, and now we are consistent.

I do have trouble adjusting the helmets though - should this be obvious (tight enough)? It isn't, with my 2. One of you who hates seeing them poorly adjusted, could you post a link explaining how to do them properly?

[steppemum]

I insist on helmets with bikes, but not scooters
Pretty much half the school scooters to and from and I don't think any of them wear helmets!

All those on bikes do though.

[EmmelineGoulden]

Scooting is a safe activity with or without a helmet. YANBU to not make them wear one. Parents who insist on a helmet for their DCs ANBU either.