In worrying about scooters on paths?

[Googlers123]

Ds is nearly 4. Got a scooter Nd loves going round the park on it. Dh says he will be fine on the paths when we go out for a walk but I'm not sure. I often see very young children scooting very quickly along the paths here, with their parents quite far behind and I can't but help think about cars reversing off their driveways who wouldn't have a hope of seeing the child until it was too late. But I see it so often that I think I'm in the minority worrying About it. Genuinely can't work out if I'm being over the top or if it's not safe. What do you think?

YANBU I worry about this too

Mine are a bit older now, so no longer on scooters, but I can sympathise. I think the thing to do is keep a pretty close eye on them and keep training/reminding that people may come out of driveways, so they should always be aware and stop and look at the driveways with hedges at the sides where the residents may not be able to see them until the last minute. It can be pretty scary, but part of the letting go/training in safety process I think.

Unfortunately this did happen to an acquaintance of mine where we used to live. Her child was a little way ahead of her and got hit by a car reversing out of their drive. Luckily the child was ok in the end but they were told the outcome could have been very different if he hadn't been wearing a helmet.

I make mine scoot beside/just in front of me when we are on the pavement. They know they mustn't go faster than my brisk walking pace. I sometimes need to remind them to slow down, but they are usually pretty good at regulating their speed.

Same with walking, when we are beside the road, they need to be close by, the youngest potentially needs to be holding my hand. On bikes, ditto, you can't go faster than walking pace until we get to the cycle path (my DC are too young to be able to cycle on the road yet).

Once we get to the park they can run/scoot off, but on the pavement it isn't appropriate, and going at high speed on the pavement is also dangerous to other pedestrians and worrying for drivers who can't tell what you are about to do.

Yes, I do the same as Spirit. I also drum into them that they have to be aware of others on the pavement

Some good points there about training and keeping the child close. Thanks. Glad I wasn't going OTT! I saw a very young boy on a bike this morning wobblying all over the pavement, I was worried driving past him in case he wobbled into the road.

YANBU, DD walks to school rather than scoots, it's her choice, but if she scooted I'd make her stay in sight of me.

There's a section on our walk that's downhill with a blind corner at the bottom. On more than one occasion we've been overtaken by a young child (4-6) who has zoomed around the corner barely in control of the scooter, then when we round the corner we've found the child screaming on the pavement with torn clothes and bloody knees, their parent still on the hill oblivious. It could be worse than a skinned knee too, if one day a child shot off the bottom of the hill instead of around the corner they'd be thrown straight into the main road,which is used as a rat run in the mornings. Seeing children coming down that section of hill full tilt makes me feel sick to my stomach.

I make them scoot close until I trust them to slow down, listen for car engines, look for reversing lights etc at each driveway.

Only this morning my 4yo stopped, waited and then went across with me behind the car when I got there and the driver waved us on.

It has taken some training and modelling, but it's not that different to making sure they always stop at kerbs, never scoot out of sight etc.

I saw someone the other day with a dog lead attached to their young childs scooter, it was stopping them going too far ahead they also got a tow up the hill