Fecking scooters during the school run

[KneeHighScooterBruises]

Due to family circs, I've been picking up my nieces and nephews for the past 2 weeks and will be picking them up for the foreseeable future.

The main gate is at the top of a hill, on a quite narrow but quite busy pavement. The road is also quite busy, especially at pick-up time.

Every single day groups kids have been whizzing about on these scooters- IMO it's a case of when an accident happens rather than if.

One child went straight into the back of my legs today and the mother looked as if it was my fault!

AIBU to ask my sister or BIL to raise it with the school? Or to mention it myself?

Yanbu. It is possible for pedestrians and scooters to share the pavement happily but only if scooters slow down and stop where appropriate, even if this is less fun. You can't expect young children to do this without supervision.

Hmmmm, sure I said it was easier to get 3 YO to scoot rather than an admitted I couldn't get him to walk but you take whatever you like from that... Or alternatively make shit up to suit yourself

Well it may be easier but it's not safer. And I don't see ONE parent on my school run who is next to their scooting child. They're always at least a few steps behind....more often miles away.

i just HATE these sorts of excuses: it's boring to walk, my child moans if he has to walk up the hilly bit, it's much more fun this way and makes the school run easier etc etc

Yes but easier for WHO?? You, the parent who is not parenting!! You need to teach your children to live peacefully in the real world, that lots of other people have the right to live in peacfullly. TEACH your kids to bloody walk or move to the side or scoot safely! Other people should NOT be paying the price for parents who can't control their children!

I'm not excusing anything, I'm telling you why my DC scoot home from school. The reason I don't need to excuse it is that they do so safely & as I tell them, they have never hit anyone or been in the slightest bit of danger & yes this includes the 3 YO.
You don't like it, this is fine-there are lots of things I don't like but I suck it up as it's tough shit.

its good exercise for them and its fun. The only kid thats scootered into me is my own dd. Most kids round here are pretty good with them

If they scoot safely there's nothing to excuse

Telling, though, that you refer to your DC never having "been in the slightest bit of danger". That's great and what we all want. But what about everyone else?

You missed the bits that stated they scooted safely & didn't hit anyone then? Yep, of course you did

I don't think a 3 year old can be trusted to scoot safely beside a road unless the parent is within grabbing distance eg arms length at all times tbh. It's not fair on motorists or other pedestrians.

& you quoted out of context, clearly.

People really aren't complaining about children travelling at a safe speed, looking out for and avoiding pedestrians, with an adult clearly accompanying them.

I agree holdyourown.

He's not beside the road-that's the fucking point

Yabu. And I suspect you own a car and don't have to rely on a toddler / preschooler moving quickly and in the right direction for the school run twice a day.

Balance bikes and scooters are really important for kids who are too young to walk a decent distance quickly but too old to need a buggy. As long as you teach them proper pavement etiquette and to stop at driveways, roads and corners, scooters are a good way to get to schools and nursery.

If they aren't behaving properly, that's a parenting issue, not a scooter problem.

Omg. Did you read my post??

And since when is the threshold hitting someone? When you're infirm, fearing that you might be hit is bad enough. Forget being infirm, having to jump to the side because of an excitable child careering towards you - when you have no clue whether they are capable of controlling their scooter or not, because it's a kid, and you make the split second judgement that, because it's a kid, they might not be able to - is bad enough. Why do I need to be HIT for you to consider my presence??

The fault really is NOT the child's. It's unreasonable to expect small children to have perfect scooting techniques and full road awareness. It's the parents letting them loose at other people's expense.

Our school does the Big Pedal every March and it is a bloody nightmare. There's quite a lot of scooting and cycling to school anyway, but they encourage parents and younger siblings to scoot in. This year it was extended to three weeks of hell rather than two.

Toddlers on scooters falling off into the road, running into the back of my legsI'm on warfarin so I spend the best part of a month bruised all up the back of my legsknocking over other children, all so that the school can try to win bike sheds. It already has bloody bike sheds!! (Adequate, too!) And as noted up-thread, the parents aren't with the kids so it falls to other parents to quickly drag them out of harms way or pick them up and see if they're hurt or not. I hate it.

That's the point though isn't it. There are inconsiderate arses in every walk of life. We try to address the arsey behaviour, not ban every activity that might cause harm or conflict. I have no problem at all with people saying 'kids ought to scoot carefully and be considerate of pedestrians'. I do have an issue with saying 'scooters are only for the park.' In a busy urban area where most people walk long distances daily as a matter of course, children on scooters are now part of the landscape and everybody needs to adapt. As in fact, round our way, they have. My kids scoot everywhere, they are VERY well schooled in scooter etiquette and I come down on them like a ton of bricks for any transgressions. Most parents I encounter do too. I walk to and from school 4 times a day along a narrow city street with 600 other children and their parents, and not once has a child hit me in the ankles. And as matter of fact, the one place I'm not that happy letting them scoot is our local park. There are kamikaze bikes, dozens of dogs, and toddlers wandering everywhere!

And I suspect you own a car and don't have to rely on a toddler / preschooler moving quickly and in the right direction for the school run twice a day.

Wrong on both counts, actually.

It might be a parenting problem, but the combination of bad parenting and scooters = danger.

A 3 year old on a pavement should be in grabbing distance unless the pavement is very wide, there are few pedestrians and there are no cars pulling in and out of driveways.

Near schools pavements are often narrow, crowded and close to manoeuvring cars.

As this is an anonymous forum I have no idea how any poster's child scoots.

My you are a delicate flower, how on earth do you cope gping out full stop if you live by what might happen? Prams, bikes, scooters, mobility scooters, cars need I go on? You could potentially be injured by any of these at any time, clearly you think that children are way more hazardous than adults...
Best you stay indoors love then you need never worry about anything again.

zoemaguire Yes! Maybe we live in the on civilised scooting paradise!

Well, we all know that Bolshier is one of Those Scooter Parents

That last post says it all - own goal, sweetheart.

I have stated several times that my DC scoot safely, you believe what you like but as I said they have pavement etiquette & have yet to hit anyone. I don't live life on what ifs & maybes, if you do that is your choice.