Toddlers on scooters in Skate Parks

[BrendaFlange]

AIBU to think that whilst teens should not use playgrounds and equipment provided for younger children, it is unreasonable for parents to allow small children and toddlers on scooters to monopolise skate parks?

The skate park near us is well used by young teens (and younger children, 7 years and up) who are learning or proficient in skateboarding, stunt biking and stunt scootering. Amongst themselves they have a well ordered etiquette for ensuring that people do not crash. There is no other provision for teens anywhere in the vicinity.

My son and his friends have frequently had to come home because parents of 2 and 3 year olds are allowing their children to use micro scooters in the skate park, and get very shirty with the teens, telling them off, warning them not to skate, shouting at them (they would NEVER endanger a child). My DS asked a child who was sitting at the bottom of a ramp just enjoying the time of day to sit elsewhere, and got an aggressive mouthful from the mother. There is miles of alternative space for toddler scootering - but their presence in the skate park makes it unusable for skate boarders.

And suppose a toddler wanders into the path of a skateboarder in the skatepark and gets hurt? A 12 year old may not be able to anticipate the next move of a pre-schooler.

AIBU?

....and a bit of a proud boast re the swimming before lights out - he swam 42 laps of a competition length pool one day when he was 7 (in the general melee of the pool, not in the "swimmers lane") - all because DH promised him a hot chocolate if he could do 10 laps but he kept losing count so just carried on :o

He's 14 now and a lazy big shite!!

Completely agree yes.
Good point well made.

This comes down to the parents taking them there. My son is nearly 4 and loves his scooter and loves the skate park. He really admires the bigger boys and I'm sure one day will be there on his stunt scooter. However, if the park is really busy we don't allow him on as he has a tendency to scoot all over the shop and I wouldn't want him or any one else to be hurt. If the park is quieter we do let him on the smaller ramps but he knows to keep out of other people's way. We also tend to take him early morning when it tends to be deserted and he can skate to his hearts content.
I would never dream of telling off any of the other skaters and actually think they're dead clever. Can I also say, I've never met any youngsters at the skate park who haven't been polite and well mannered. Some even show Fraser the odd trick, which he loves.

So YABU that toddlers should never go to the skate park, but YANBU when the parents who take them there want to hover over everyone and get in the way of the older children using the park as its intended.

YANBU.
a. Toddlers/little kids are freakishly unpredictable.
b. They rarely like to do what you say, eg. "Darling Willoughby! Come down off the ramp now! Willoughby? WILLY!"
c. They just don't have very good motor skills yet, no matter what Breadstix may think
d. Oh look! A doggie! [darts to left and right like a fly in a bottle]

YANBU. Their parents are the same parents who give my 7 yo evil looks in play centres for daring to breathe near a precious 2 yo.

Toddlers in skate parks on ride-ons, etc. is bad enough but when we were at our local one at the weekend, a mum and three kids walked right across the middle of the skate park slowly eating their ice creams. Not a skateboard or BMX in sight so why not walk round the skate park and not right across it? FFS.

YANBU at all. There should be an age guide sign outside it..."For children aged 8 and up" or similar. Toddlers could get very hurt and then it would be "all the older kid's fault" it's not on imo.

As for those saying toddlers should have a go...what? On ramps? No...they're too big! So let them scoot around ordinary parks.

Wanker - I totally agree with your points about appropriateness of DCs in adults areas, but re the swimming provided your DS can swim at an appropriate speed, doesn't stop randomly in the middle of a length, has a stroke that doesn't cause anyone within a 10 m radius to be completely soaked and pulled into his current ( why is it always men that do this?), and doesn't hog the end of the lanes to chat or god forbid snuggle with a significant other, then he'll be doing better than around 50% of swim lane users.

Well said rookiemere. A 7 year old swimming properly would be the least of my concerns and a delight compared to many other lane users.

Ds likes running up and down the ramps but I always remove him as soon as the skateboarders arrive. He does go on play equipment meant for young children (he's 9) but he finds the big equipment difficult and beyond him at the moment.

thanks rookie and slaggy :) maybe a better example would have been:

My 4 year old has been having swimming lessons for 2 years, he's doing really well. AIBU to let him swim in the fast lane at the local pool and offer advice on technique to other swimmers even though he is still wearing armbands? You need to see it though, he is soooo cute and always tells the swimmers to mind their manners and say "excuse me" when they try to swim past. Everyone thinks he is adorable......

Wanker - I have a horrible feeling that we, well maybe more DH might have been a bit guilty of the old precocious PFB when DS was younger particularly in soft play , which is why I don't like to scold anyone too roundly, but yes that is a good example. I just didn't want to stop your DS from going in the lanes if he was capable of keeping up.

Ha ha - as I said he is too lazy nowadays - doesn't like swimming apart from life guard training or lolling about in the pool on holiday - that's teenagers for you!

I think all kids have something that they are good at and as parents we love them and want to encourage it and I think we sometimes get blinded by our devotion and can stray off into PFB territory - the sensible ones click in eventually or have decent friends that point it out to them :)

I am sure we have all been guilty at some point :)

Mine would be the children getting frowned at as they were very tall for their age and always looked too old to be in the section they were in. But there is a very big physical difference between a tall 7 year old and 9/10 year old both developmentally and strength wise and they were gentle giants who would have got severely trampled when put in with older kids.

I was always supervising them anyway and probably made them overly conscious of being physically aware of others, as a consequence they have never been into team sports as they are too wary about getting into a physical tussle to get the ball in case they hurt someone.

That's the thing as well isn't it.

Young children are naturally active so - dare I say it - don't need that much in the way of organised activities to be encouraged to burn off energy. DS 9 is still happy clambering round a play park, playing with a frisbee or doing some strange wrestling game outside with neighbourhood children. I can't recall if he did any organised activities at age 3 - he might have had a weekly football skills class, but really it seems awfully young to be a grand master skateboarder or whatever.

It seems a shame that teens that have less natural inclination and opportunity to exercise because they don't want to look silly on the play park equipment or are too grown up for it don't get the chance they need to use their part of the park as it's being hogged by younger DCs.

I agree totally rookie. Our most successful family days out in the last year (it's a struggle to get them out at all unless bribed with lunch!) have been to quiet places with some rocks that they can just clamber about on with no witnesses :o

tbf, mine did go to everything as kids, they gave up most things and then tried something else - they stuck with the swimming and also Judo for many years but the enduring thing has been scouts where they get some freedom to try things in a familiar group of kids.

Maybe if we had insisted they stick with a sport they might be competent and enjoy it now, but our decision at the time was to let them try everything in the hope they'd be inspired.

They actually do quite like scootering but just around and about rather than stunts at a skatepark. It's a bit difficult though when they are hunched over the scooter given the height of them.

Wow you really all hit every arsehole stick on the way down from the top of the tree didn't you?!

Wanker by name and probably by nature I should guess and, seriously, lurking I think you need to wind that neck in! My ds doesn't lecture he asks where their helmet is and quite rightly so. At the skate park kids are asked to leave if they don't wear a helmet, there is very good reason for this.

And I am far from a twerp, but then none of you actually know me and are obviously feeling very safe behind your keyboards to make that judgment. The nastiness that comes out of some of you is quite shocking, innit!

If some little kid told my DS to wear a helmet I'd fully back my DS up in telling said kid to mind his/her own business, ta very much.

Quite astonished anyone would seriously encourage that kind of behaviour in their DC.

I think YABU to say that small children cant use skate parks at all. If there are no signs saying 7+ only, then it's open to all. But YANBU to be fed up with any children (regardless of age) using the equipment in a selfish or dangerous way.

oh the hypocrisy of calling other people nasty......

If you want to PM me your location, I'll gladly meet up with you if you are nearby. I have no need to hide behind a keyboard I can assure you - people are simply trying to make you see sense since you are obviously blinded here. I am sure your son is totally cute and may end up being an Olympic skateboarder - that doesn't mean that you aren't encouraging him to be a knob and and as soon as he is big enough, some other kid is probably going to smack him in the mouth if he continues to be encouraged in that direction.

Nah, I'd say it to your face too. Dds sport requires safety gear, she still wouldn't be allowed even now at 11 to question others on it. And if you say the kids have to wear a helmet at that skate park then I assume the staff, rather than your preschooler are responsible for enforcing it? I'm not a skater but in the sports I do know about, being offered unwanted advice or questioned on your decisions by someone less knowledgeable is a big no, and I see no reason skateboarding is different.
I notice you fail to answer my question though, why is it the older kids responsibility to watch out for him rather than yours to go when it's quiet? And what is the purpose of allowing your son to question them? Do you believe it more conducive to upholding safety standards than other approaches? I can just see it. 'Hey mum, when you're not around I don't wear my helmet despite yours, families and various coaches constant reminders why, but some woman brought her 3yr old today, and while it stopped me using the skate park properly his precocious questioning really got the message home about safety'.
For the record, you may think I'm an arsehole, perhaps you may like to think on what your local skate park users think of you?

Bossy know it all threenagers are very funny. Most of us roll our eyes or when our pre schoolers start taking people to task: it's sweet, funny and precocious .

Incidentally Breadstix, I have just been looking up skateboarding accident stats, and safety advice (since I do not know one single teen who wears a helmet, DS included.) And one firm piece of safety advice from the American Academy of Paediatricians is that no child under the age of 5 should ever ride a skateboard . (Due to a list of developmental factors)

Breadsticks - you are completely on your own with your viewpoint in this thread. People from varying walks of life all think you're wrong. And still you think you're right. Really??

Is this the new supersoaker thread?

Sadly not quite, breadsticks sadly lacks the charm that the other op had.

Wind your neck in bread. No one wants to be questioned or lectured by a three year old. Seriously, it's not cute or funny, it's fucking patronising and I would assume that the three year old and his mother do a lot of "goodness, look how silly those people are" chats. He's 3. Let him be 3 and tell him it's none of his business and he should just play....in the swing park and not in the skate park.

I can't abide this kind of parenting, where your child is some kind of genius and its acceptable for him to tell adults or teens that he's never met before, what to do. And you don't say a word.

Storing up major problems.