Aibu to wonder whether most parents insist their children wear helmets when on bikes and scooters?

[Pl242]

I’m curious on views on this.

We have always insisted both our kids (5 and 2.5) wear helmets when on their bikes and scooters.

Our 5yo is in year 1 and has just started to cycle to school. The bike is stored at school and we have been taking the helmet home and bringing it back at pick up. Mostly just as we thought it might easily get lost.

We had noticed that a fair amount, in fact probably the majority of kids who we see on bikes and scooters around school, don’t wear helmets. This surprised us a bit but obviously none of our business as to what decisions other parents make.

However now our 5yo has told us that they’re allowed to cycle around the playground at playtime and also at the after school club she attends at least one afternoon a week. This isn’t a surprise but hadn’t crossed our minds really. She told us about it in the context of a new after school club friend in the year above her who she says doesn’t wear a helmet. This prompted us to tell her that our rule is that she always needs to wear a helmet when cycling and that we would start to leave the helmet with her and her bike at school. She accepted this but obviously we won’t be there to enforce that and she did seem a bit confused/upset as to why she has to and her friend doesn’t etc. We just reinforced our view again.

I don’t want to come off as precious. It’s not as if we’re hugely worried of the risk of her having a serious bike accident in the playground. It’s just that we want to be consistent on helmet wearing. And I know that I can and should direct any specific concerns about bike use at school to the school.

It’s just that this situation prompted me to wonder whether we’re in the minority here or not. Interested in views and if you want to vote I suppose the possible answers are:

YANBU- most parents insist on helmet wearing
YABU - most parents don’t see helmet wearing as important.

@HosannainExcelSheets

www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/1365/is-it-safer-to-wear-a-helmet-when-cycling

It's more complicated than most people think. Helmets might actually make you more likely to be involved in a collision and there's no evidence that they help in collisions with cars. Head injury rates in Australia didn't change when helmets became mandatory for cyclists, and head injury rates are very low in Holland where almost no one wears a helmet to cycle.

BTW Bikeability absolutely do not insist on helmets. It's a choice on the consent form.

This is a bit of a silly post though. Where is the evidence that you are more likely to be involved in a collision? Is that because of the helmet or because people wearing helmets are more likely to be 'serious' cyclists who use the road, therefore more likely to be in an accident?

When the law changed in Australia, did the severity of head injuries decrease, even if there was no change in the absolute number of injuries [hint: probably yes!]? How compliant were people with the requirement?

Holland is a whole other story! Their country is so well set up for cycling, it means that you are less likely to be in an accident. That has nothing to do with helmets.

Another one answering bike = yes, scooter = no.

CiderWithRosiee, so sorry for your heartbreaking loss ♥️

I have always insisted on helmets - bikes, scooters or skateboards. In fact more so with skateboards because of how unsteady and top heavy they seem (and Rosiee's awful experience just reinforces for me).
My youngest just started secondary and has taken to scooting the mile there and back - he didn't even question wearing his helmet because he knows the scooter would instantly be banned. My kids have tried to argue the case not to use helmets when in the garden or in the front street - but concrete, walls and kerbs exist there too, so no dice.

That said I see plenty of kids of all ages on bikes and especially scooters without helmets, so I guess it's a risk many are willing to take.

I don’t make DS4 wear one for riding a balance bike on the pavement. He isn’t likely to fall off, and if he does it will be onto his hands and knees not his head.

Scooter I am a bit on the fence with - he has flown over the top a couple of times (when he has hit a kerbstone or something), but tbh he’d need a full-face helmet to offer any protection there, so I think the helmet is making me feel better rather than preventing injuries.

When he eventually graduates to riding on the road, he’ll wear a helmet just because his speed and the speed of other objects around him will increase.

Thanks for the replies here. It’s interesting to hear what people think.

Ive always insisted, but then I had a nasty accident on a scooter when I was little which ended up with me needing stitches in my forehead. Always insisted on helmet wearing on bikes because that’s even more dangerous. I don’t really understand why more parents don’t want their child’s head protected.

DS always on both bike and scooter. I doubt it would occur to him without.
Most parents I know also insist on it.

And my daughter has since clarified that she only gets to ride her bike at school during after school club. Which makes a lot more sense! And if I take her at her word, she put on her helmet to cycle there today. I’m going to check with the club staff about it all but if that’s the case then I’m really pleased she has put it on without us being there. As I just want her to see that a helmet is automatically required when she gets on something with wheels, regardless of what others are doing and even if she’s in the minority.

I do and I wear one myself too when cycling.

* Absolutely helmets at any time on wheels. Head injuries ruin lives.*

^This

I always wear a helmet too

We do and pretty much all parents I know do, but we live in an area where there is a lot of cycling and most kids cycle to school.

The school enforce helmet wearing too and regularly send out safe cycling instructions.

Bike yes, scooter no.
DD7.
Scooter only gets ridden occasionally to school gate ... which is about 10 meters from our house :)

Stand firm about this. You need to ensure that wearing a helmet on a bike/scooter is as natural as wearing shoes to go outside to your kids. My kids are 14 & 12 and would never not wear a helmet on a bike, it’s something they always do. It helps that their uncle always wears always wears helmet & he’s had a couple of serious cycle crashes on the road over the years.

I think it's harder as they get older, you can monitor it a lot better when they are young, when they go off on their own with their mates whose to say they don't take helmet off as soon as our of sight ?
My 16 year old cycles alot, he now chooses to wear a helmet, rather than me nag him, but it's still a worry, the way the traffic is now.

DS is 5 and wears a helmet on his scooter. I see loads of kids on bikes and scooters without anything though

@GreatPotato

I think it must be a class thing.

On MN it's shocking that a child might ride without a helmet, but I live opposite a primary school with a very deprived catchment and very few children wear helmets to cycle to school. I've never seen a scooting child in a helmet.

I live opposite 2 primary schools and a few minutes walk from 2 nurseries in a MC area.

Most kids don't wear helmets on scooters or skateboards.

The majority wear them on bikes. Most of the toddler boys wear them on balance bikes but the few girls that have balance bikes don't tend to.

I don't make my toddler wear them on either mainly because she has worked out ways to get her parents to pull her along on both so doesn't go that fast. When she starts using her bike with pedals she will wear one.

At the park no.
Camping no.
On the pavements near roads yes.
They are still little though so not riding at speed.

My dc wear them for bikes and the younger one for scooter as well. The older one wears it for scooter if we do a longer trip or go to the skate park. He doesn't like going too fast so goes really slow but maybe I should still insist on a helmet. Most kids around here have helmets on at primary school age. Secondary school students not so much.

Not always

No we don't. No one in Holland does.

I do think cycling round the playground is quite different from the cycle to and from school though

The risk of head injury on the way to school and in the playground are indentical. The helmet is to protect the head, which is at the same risk whenever and wherever riding a bike.

Having worked in a Head Injury service I promise you you do not want to know what happens to children's brains if they fall off and hit a kerb, pedal etc. It can be life-changing. Children's skulls are not as robust as adults'.

You're more likely to suffer a head injury as a car passenger, maybe wear helmets then as well

Always when on a bike (DD doesn't have a scooter). We support a family where the father was hit by a car when cycling, and suffered a serious brain injury. He no longer recognises his wife or son, and lives in a care home. DD knows this. We can't be certain whether a helmet would have helped; he'd probably have still had a brain injury, but even a small reduction in its severity would have been more than worthwhile.

Meanwhile DB went through a car windscreen headfirst while cycling. He was wearing a helmet, and walked away with minor injuries (well, until the ambulance arrived and strapped him down just in case).

DD(8) can reach 20mph, so even on cycle paths with no cars, that's easily fast enough for nasty injuries if she comes off.

Most kids I see round here where helmets and knee pads on bikes and scooters, and my kids have to wear helmets at nursery on the bikes. Personally I don’t have them for my children, but they’re 3.5 and only on balance bikes round the garden. Once they start riding bikes out and about they’ll have helmets on.