taking my dc to the skate park? have a commited some horrible teenage faux par

[Esmeismyhero]

We live in a fairly quite town and recently my dc (4 and 5) wanted tot ake their bikes to the skate park. There were maybe 3 or 4 teenagers there and tbh they were very good with the kids, I managed to keep them out of the teenagers way etc.

The dc loved it, going on the ramps with their bikes and watching the tricks the other kids were doing but am I being a nuisance being there?

One teenager was a bit of a shit looked annoyed that were there but in fairness the kids were not in their way.

the dc want to go again, I know its holidays and probably a cool hangout but if it was packed I wouldn't let the dc go there and if they were annoying the teenagers I wouldn't.

aibu?

It might look like you're not in the way, but that's probably because they're avoiding the children and giving them a wide berth. The skate park we used to hang out at had a lot of unwritten/unspoken rules when it came to etiquette, and new teens tended to hang back to get the lie of the land. Small children would just be all over the place, as small children tend to!

OP you actually seem very reasonable in a) thinking and asking, and b) saying about going early in the morning.

You can take bikes on the jumps- it's an entire sport. I've seen a kid do a 360 degree jump on one of the ramps at ours.

Ditto scooters.

(that was to lighteninggirll by the way).

First why can't you go when the holidays are done. Second your kids shouldn't be on the ramps in a skate park on bikes. Third when your kids are teens you'll want somewhere they can go that's their own and they don't have to dodge tinies. Try to imagine that day and then ask if you're being unreasonable.

Well there are bikes there too so.......

Think of it as a tennis court. If there are teens or adults wanting to play would you stop them so your little one can run around with a racket trying to hit a ball?

The skaters will want to go at high speed, do jumps etc. They can't do that on any flat surface, unlike little ones.

Also teenager beginners are very unlikely to skate at a park until they can hold their own. No one, most of all teenagers, likes looking like a twat in public.

If you wouldn't rock up to, say, Venice Beach skatepark with young kids on bikes, I don't see why the local skaters can't be offered the same courtesy.

Now toddlers aren't allowed to play tennis! honestly I feel like We all need a copy of these unwritten rules!

Of course you wouldn't chuck adults off a tennis court, similarly as an adult if there was a kid there enjoying them selves regardless of whether they were competent tennis players I wouldn't kick them off either!

I don't understand the complication, no one owns the park it's a community space, if teens want to go on the swings or down the slide I'm not going to kick them off for my toddler and vice versa!

We all share this world equally, as long as you're being respectful and not deliberately ruining someone else's fun

Go when it's quiet, if there's teens there, be respectful to their space and they can be respectful to yours and the world will keep on turning!

Kids under 5 aren't recommended to skateboard.

skateboardsafety.org

'According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP):

• Children under age 5 years old should never ride a skateboard.
• Children aged 6 to 10 years old need close supervision from an adult or trustworthy adolescent whenever they ride a skateboard.

When young children are involved in skateboarding accidents, they are often injured severely. Skateboarding is a special risk for young children because they have:

• A higher center of gravity, less development and poor balance. These factors make children more likely to fall and hurt their heads.
• Slower reactions and less coordination than adults. Children are less able to break their falls.
• Less skill and ability than they think. Children overestimate their skills and abilities and are inexperienced in judging speed, traffic and other risks.'

If your kids want to learn to skateboard pick a playground or flat traffic free area, absolutely not a skatepark. That's for people who can skate.

Nowt wrong with scooter or bikes at a skate park, but again littlies just won't have the coordination to use the features in a park safely.

look out for indoor skateparks as some do novice sessions with competent riders or skaters teaching

Toddlers can have a go at playing tennis. But if people were already playing properly on the court, the normal etiquette wouldn't be to take your toddler on and allow them to run underfoot doing something akin to an egg and spoon race with the ball and raquet, and then run up and down the nets shouting 'look mummy I am batman' whilst waving the raquet at invisible bad guys. Or any of the other million and one things that small dc do. You'd do that when there weren't players using the court, and take your dc to one of the many other places they could play tennis. And the same courtesy should be extended to skate parks.

Also not getting this weird pedantry over it being a skate park - BMX, skateboards, blades and scooters are all pretty standard.

Surprised at all the people saying YABU as my local skatepark is always very busy with a range of ages. I would say people using the skatepark range in age from about 3 to mid-thirties, maybe even a bit older sometimes! The majority are definitely teens (three quarters of whom are usually sat in groups on the picnic benches playing music and chatting and not paying much interest in the skating!) but there's always a mix of ages when I go by in the daytime including families with young kids of small groups of adults. There's also a mix of skateboards, rollerblades, bikes and scooters si not solely for skater.

That said it is a pretty big skatepark, fairly new with a lot of money behind it, and it has plenty of different sized ramps/ hills/ drops etc and lots of space for people to be doing different things at different abilities. Some bits are very obviously for beginners. Maybe in a small skatepark it's different.

Lurkedforever1 I don't think tennis is a good example, I wouldn't expect anyone to interrupt anyone else's game of tennis regardless of age ability whatever, same as I wouldn't expect to just turn up to a park and be able to go on what I wanted regardless of who else was on it to begin with

Skate parks are different, they can be used by more than 2 people at once!!

I think actually everyone that posted has agreed really that you should try and go when it's quiet and interrupt their enjoyment as little as possible. It's just common courtesy! It doesn't matter what age someone is, if you turn up and are respectful of other people there shouldn't be an issue, if you turn up and ruin it for other people, then expect these people to be pissed off, regardless of age!

The thing that i can't understand is how everyone seems to think teenagers have monopoly on skate parks! I must have missed that memo! It's a communal space for the community, just because it's mostly teens that access it, shouldn't give them exclusivity! a lot of mothers and young kids go to our local pond to feed ducks and walk around etc, if a group of teens turned up there to feed the ducks, and did so in a respectful manner, would I moan? Even if it meant that me and DS had to wait for them to move so we could feed the ducks? Of course I wouldn't! It's a free world!

My local free outdoor skatepark has a website (!!) and it clearly says it is for everyone in the community, young and old.

The only photo of it in action (I'm guessing from the day it opened as it isn't normally quite so busy) seems to mostly show primary-aged kids on bikes/ scooters! (Although the big ramps are at the other end of the park)

It's a community space so I think everyone in the community should be able to use it unless it states otherwise (eg: if it states 12+ obviously don't bring your pre-schoolers!)

Outs self...
We have the biggest concrete bowl in Europe here, it's amazing.
My dc's learned to skate in the street outside (admittedly quiet), they were around 4 at the time. As they grew they had ramps on the pavements and then progressed finally to the skate park aged about nine.

Mornings are the best time to go to avoid the older crowd, but as you've found most will be welcoming if not a bit irritated.

I miss it myself, one of my best memories is watching ds skate the vans park in LA, could spend hours watching. Unfortunately despite both kids and their friends attempts I spent more time testing gravity than looking cool.

I don't think that will out you ....