Should I make him wear a bike helmet?

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My DS is almost 12. He has just joined Y7, likes to meet up with friends and often this means going out on bikes. He took his cycling proficiency earlier in the year. None of his friends seem to wear helmets and I have, so far, insisted he should. He doesn't want to though as this makes him different to his friends. Should I insist he wears one, advise him he should but let him decide or not let him out on his bike if he doesn't?

I have the rule no helmet no bike. This comes from a woman who was making jumps and doing high speed skids with no helmet in the 80s and who also ended up in hospital for month with a brain injury.

Go to the Netherlands. Never see a helmet. Their cycling culture is less aggressive and lycra-clad

It’s totally incomparable though isn’t it? I didn’t wear a helmet when I lived in the Netherlands. Like you say, there’s a cycling culture. That also means decent cycle paths and drivers who are alert to cyclists. Here, I always wear one (and insist my kids do). Windier roads, less awareness from drivers, fewer cycle paths.

I would make him wear it. He’ll probably take it off when he’s out of sight but I’d make him wear it.

DS2 went over his handlebars a few years ago braking too sharply on a hill. Helmet had a big crack in it. Head was fine.

The dad who had the terrible head injury is Dutch - he is very pro helmets now.

I will never forget the time my ds came off his scooter and the back of his head hit the kerb - it knocked a huge chunk out of his helmet. That would have been HIS HEAD if he wasn't wearing a helmet. I shudder when I think about it. One of my friends was very sneery about putting helmets on for scootering - I am am so glad I wasn't influenced by her.

We all wear helmets for cycling. For a while my dh didn't, but I told him he was being a terrible influence on the dc - suggesting to them that once they are a certain age they don't need to wear one. He wears one now.

I've heard the head protection/greater risk taking argument in the context of rugby, but not cycling - surely it's just flipping common sense to wear a cycling helmet!! I didn't wear a helmet as a child (I think most of us probably didn't) for cycling, roller skating, etc, and I was pretty bloody stupid - not sure a helmet would have made any difference to stupidity levels!

I think helmets should be worn for skiing/snowboarding too.

My best friend was hit by a bus riding her bike when were 13. Her face was pretty badly injured, but without a helmet she would be dead.

No helmet, no bike riding in my house. I don’t give a fuck how old you are or what’s “cool”. Permanent brain damage is hardly cool.

I can’t believe those saying he shouldn’t be made to wear one and he will get bullied. Maybe teach your kids not to be shit bullies?! 🤦‍♀️

TBH.
If you bought him one he would take it off as soon as he is out of sight.

There only seems a handful of dc who wear helmets while riding their bikes to school. I always point out to my own dc how wonderful it is to see this, despite peer pressure.

Ds keeps asking if he can ride to school and I’ve told him that yes he can as long as he wears his helmet.

What I don’t understand is that during PE other forms of safety wear are worn with no problems. Shin pads, gum shields etc why is it deemed ‘cool’ to wear these items but not a helmet?

I teach cycling proficiency and can't stress enough the importance of wearing a cycle helmet. We teach the importance of them and how to wear them properly in the 1st week.
We cant force them to wear them outside the lesson, but we do stress the importance of them.
We also have a battered helmet to show the kids, it saved a fellow cyclist life.

My ds is 2 years older than his friends who live in our street. Even though the younger friends do not wear helmets I have told ds he has to.

Ds came home one day saying one of his friends had fallen off bike and hit his head. Since then I have noticed his friends have been wearing helmet.

I wouldn’t allow my child on their bike without a helmet.
He would also certainly be different to his friends if he fell off and knocked his head pretty hard.
He’d either be ashes or if lucky extremely disabled.

You see young boys try and knock each other off their bikes etc for fun, there’s nothing fun or clever about falling off.

I think the fact that I’ve seen this happen maybe clouds my judgement but we’re not invisible.

I feel the same about scooters @littlepeas - I see many people with their reception aged kids on bikes and scooters on the school run with no helmets and it’s so wreckless.

They should be law IMO. I'm amazed at some of the responses on here.

I think you should try to persuade but not force - he is old enough at 12 to make his own decisions about something like this, though admittedly peer pressure is a hard thing to ignore at that age.

How hard I would push would depend on the kind of environment he is cycling in. Where I live there are lots of cycle paths and you can get anywhere without cycling on roads, so even I only wear a helmet when I am going further afield and don't worry about it for short journeys. If roads were the only option though I'd push much harder, or offer other incentives but I'd still not force the issue as it isn't black and white by any means.

ROSPAs position :

www.rospa.com/Road-Safety/Advice/Pedal-Cyclists

It's interesting how polarised the debate is, I've taught Bikeability, the new version of Cycle Proficiency and regularly told parents to look into the debate and make an informed decision themselves. The effectiveness of helmets hasnt been proven with little research demonstrating sufficient evidence to support compulsion.

It is highly emotional though!

Thank you all for the input so far. It is interesting to hear from both sides. Certainly when he was younger there was no discussion. I now want him to understand why I think it's important he should wear one.

They should be law IMO. I'm amazed at some of the responses on here.

I'm amazed that you're amazed, unless you haven't actually read the arguments and evidence both for and against.

You are more likely to suffer a head injury in a car accident than a bike accident - should it therefore be the law to wear a helmet while driving or being driven?

Wear a helmet if you want but stop advocating to take personal choice away just because you personally don't agree and especially when there is NO consensus of opinion either among experts or the wider public.

I can’t believe so many on here saying no to a helmet. Of course he should be wearing a helmet.

” The effectiveness of helmets hasnt been proven.”

That’s an interesting comment to make, given the link you posted. The Rospa cycle helmet fact sheet contains plenty of evidence showing the effectiveness of helmets in reducing injury IMO.

I can see the argument that having a law might reduce the overall levels of cycling in the country.

But people made the personal choice argument in relation to car seat belts as well. In hindsight they look bonkers !

Seems very clear to me that if my children come off their bike, their chances of significant injury are fairly substantially reduced if they are wearing a helmet.

Any adult is free to make a ‘personal choice’ to avoid helmet-hair (or whatever reason they have for not wanting to use safety equipment), but until my children are adults, my job is to protect them as best I can.

I was a teen living in Oz at the time when their cycle helmet law kicked in. I remember being pulled up on a footpath next to my parents' house and being issued a $50 (or was it $100?) fine.. I was 14.
My closet friend studied medicine and did a stint at a Head Trauma unit as part of their studies. Aussie health system being similar to the NHS means that most care is tax-payer funded. Supporting a person with head trauma is INCREDIBLY expensive so the move to the helmet law was said to be a v mercenary way to cover some of those costs.
Since the law was introduced that same trauma unit has had a reduction in severe cases caused by cycle injuries by 75%.

Obvs a helmet won't protect you from a road train ploughing into you on an open country road as it did my friend's husband. But that number ^^ above makes any argument for not wearing one kinda obsolete.

"That’s an interesting comment to make, given the link you posted. The Rospa cycle helmet fact sheet contains plenty of evidence showing the effectiveness of helmets in reducing injury IMO."

In reducing injury maybe, and even then it isn't convincing. But RTI (Road Traffic Incidents) are far more about the circumstances surrounding the incident, the behaviour of the individuals involved, the infrastructure being used etc. In risk assessing situations ideally injury reduction should be last on the list, with preventing the incident in the first place being the priority. If helmets result in a greater likelihood of an Incident, then they may be more detrimental when compared to the injury they limit...

In my experience of this age of child. You'll do your best to enforce the wearing of helmets but if the child feels they are the odd one out, the helmet will be taken off the minute you're out of sight
I never did work out what the answer is

"But that number ^^ above makes any argument for not wearing one kinda obsolete."

Not really, as the medics only see the end result, they don't take in to account the wider picture of Road Safety Professionals who make judgements on why/how the Incident occurred and whether the impacts could be avoided completely or reduced prior to the injury occurring.

It also doesn't account for the significant drop in cycling as a result of mandatory cycle helmet use, or the knock on effects such as increased vehicle use, encouraged sedentary lifestyle etc...

As it is, reducing the debate to these kind of figures is simplifying a massively complex situation.

” In reducing injury maybe, and even then it isn't convincing.” well I was pretty convinced by those statistics, as well as by anecdotal evidence.

”But RTI (Road Traffic Incidents) are far more about the circumstances surrounding the incident, the behaviour of the individuals involved...,If helmets result in a greater likelihood of an Incident, then they may be more detrimental when compared to the injury they limit...”

First, RTIs aren’t the only type of incident that might involve children coming off their bike. And secondly, again anecdotal, but my observation locally from seeing swarms of teenagers cycling to the local secondary school, the ones who do see the need to wear helmets tend to be those who use the cycle paths and cycle sensibly. The ones who don’t see the need for helmets are the ones who swarm all over the road, dodging around cars, on and off the pavement, not signally or looking. And coming off, either due to being hit by a car or just due to reckless behaviour on the bike.

It really isn’t the case that they put a helmet on and then think they’re invincible and behave like idiots. If they think they’re invincible and prone to behaving like an idiot then they’re also not going to think they need a helmet!

The OPs problem is whether she can not only tell him he has to wear a helmet, but also convince him of the need to wear one so that he doesn’t take it off again when he’s out of sight.

If the traffic where you live is so bad that you think a helmet is necessary, you should not be cycling, or not cycling on the road.

And if the arguments presented for cycle helmets are valid, then we also need compulsory helmets for all pedestrians, which given their greater numbers than cyclists, would certainly save more lives.