To be annoyed that CM doesn’t use helmets..

[SarahJeffers341]

My daughter goes to a childminder and goes out on a bike. She is 3.5. She told me she doesn’t wear a helmet! This is a balance bike riding around the street. I always make her wear one with us and as a CM shouldn’t she be even more aware?! I took ours and told her I want her to wear is every time she’s on the bike.. she agreed but didn’t apologise and when they went out the other day (my daughter told me) the other two boys she looks after weren’t wearing them!

I just don’t get why you’d not think it was imperative! If one fell off surely she would be liable! I know she will now make my daughter wear hers but I’m annoyed she didn’t think it was an issue. Am IBU?!

It's nonsense to not check your child's safe in a setting.

What?! So every day you're expected to ask the childminder: "can I just check my child will be safe here today please and you aren't going to take any unnecessary risks with her?"

No. You assume safety as the default position with an ofsted approved childcare provider. With regard to any available activities and equipment, you assume the childminder has the expertise to determine alongside you as the parent who knows your child best, at what age and under what circumstances a child is suited to each activity. You don't know what the childminder has planned for that specific day unless she explicitly makes you aware, therefore you can't have input to that specific activity or decision without being asked first.

@cally21 chill out Cally. You're clearly not capable of applying a little bit of logic and common sense so I won't waste my time.

That doesn't mean other parents can be negligent towards their own childrens safety because it's 'the childminders job'.

It is the childminder's job to risk assess and keep your child safe during the time you are paying them to be in their care. Unless they involve you directly and explicitly in a specific issue and make you aware of it, the responsibility for risk assessment during the time they are paid to care for them lies with them. As a parent you aren't there! How can you take responsibility for risk assessing individual activities based on the childminder's decisions when you are not physically there or aware they are happening on that day?!

[quote girlmom21]@cally21 chill out Cally. You're clearly not capable of applying a little bit of logic and common sense so I won't waste my time. [/quote]
🤣
I'm applying exactly that. It's clearly a little "too" common sense and logical for you. Oh dear.

There is a weird mentality on here about helmets, but children always wear them, my 8 year old fell off his bike recently and went head first into a wall, his helmet actually cracked so I am so glad he was wearing it. I don't think you're bu to want her to wear one, but if you have provided one and she is now wearing it I would be happier.

You clearly have a good childminder.

🤦🏼‍♀️ And this is precisely my point!
A good childminder has these conversations with parents before doing any "firsts" with their child. I wouldn't accept anything less. Hence OP is not in the wrong. Her CM is, by taking her child on a bike for the first time with no prior discussion with OP as the parent.

Yanbu

I would expect the childminder to inform all parents that bikes will be being used and ask them to supply a helmet if the want their child to be wearing one.

I don't think it's fair for the child minder not to give the parents a choice.

Just from a quick google-

"Each year, 26,000 children go to emergency rooms for a traumatic brain injury related to bicycle riding. Fortunately, bike helmets reduce the risk of head injury by at least 45%, brain injury by 33%, facial injury by 27% and fatal injury by 29%. For that reason alone, all riders—including adults—should wear a helmet."

What's a 'balance bike'? A bike with stabilisers in new money?🤔

@cally21

You clearly have a good childminder.

🤦🏼‍♀️ And this is precisely my point!
A good childminder has these conversations with parents before doing any "firsts" with their child. I wouldn't accept anything less. Hence OP is not in the wrong. Her CM is, by taking her child on a bike for the first time with no prior discussion with OP as the parent.

This is the whole point. You don't leave a child with a childminder you can't trust and if you do, after they've proven you can't trust them, you're negligent.

If you question them on the things you don't trust them on they're more likely to resolve those issues.

If this is an inexperienced childminder she might not even consider the helmets to be an issue, which would suggest to me there'll be other issues too.

@Justleaveitblankthen

What's a 'balance bike'? A bike with stabilisers in new money?🤔

It's a bike with no pedals so the child just pushes the bike along with their feet.

@Justleaveitblankthen

What's a 'balance bike'? A bike with stabilisers in new money?🤔

No.. A bike without stabilisers or pedals! They kind of whizz along on their feet, it teaches them to balance and we hope they won't then need stabilisers. She lifts her feet up going down hill and gets up some speed!

My kids (aged 11 down to 18 months now) have never worn helmets on balance bikes or scooters. I insist on them on proper bikes, but scooters and balance bikes I don't mind if they do or they don't.

That said, my kids ride scooters and balance bikes in gardens mostly, not on pavements or roads, and so don't really reach high speeds.

I would be more worried by the children riding balance bikes out on pavements near roads. My childminder wouldn't take multiple children out on a bike/scooter because she couldn't keep them safe from the road, or keep them close enough to be fully supervising.

@girlmom21

That wasn't your "whole point" at all. You declared my opinion as "nonsense" because you disagreed the CM should be informing OP that her child will be using a bike for the first time in her setting. You said it was on OP to "know" this. I wholeheartedly disagree with that point alone and I believe it is on the CM to communicate with parents about her intended activities so parents can have input, for risk assessment purposes partly but also for "is my child even interested in this activity / would they enjoy it" type discussions.

You're now diverting onto an entirely different point about realising your CM is negligent and still sending your child there. I don't disagree with that point in and of itself - I'd be very unhappy about this personally and would be questioning my trust in the CM.

But my original point stands. It was on CM to communicate her plans for new activities that she knows that child has never done before, to see how OP feels about that, whether her child is experienced or otherwise with that activity, whether they enjoy it, etc etc ... and of course most importantly how will they be kept safe. Except for minor things like colouring in, I'd expect to be consulted on most new activities involving my child, and especially those where she's using equipment and there's a safety element to consider.

Helmets are a personal thing for sure but I'd be more concerned about a lone person trying to supervise 3 x ~4 year olds riding balance bikes on a hill next to a road. Helmet might help if you fall off, they don't do much for getting run over

CM absolutely should make sure the children are wearing helmets on bikes and I can't believe there are people who don't use helmets on their young children.

@SarahJeffers341

Does your CM have a communication diary / log book of the day's activities? I'm struggling with how you didn't know your little one was using a bike! Does she not communicate at all about your little one's day?

I actually think it depends on the street situation you mention. I just can't envision a child minder taking a group of little ones out on a busy highway and letting them zoom off down a steep hill at full speed. Plus balance bikes don't have brakes do they? I'm pretty certain the ones mine had didn't have brakes.

Is this street a busy main road? Or more like a quiet cul de sac with just a handful of cars throughout the day?
How steep is the hill? A slight incline so they can pick their feet up and roll down it or a 45 degree angle where they are likely to hit 30mph?

Because if its a busy main road with lots of traffic and a steep hill YANBU and honestly I have more of a problem with her taking them there at all, helmet or not.

If its a quiet lane sort of setup outside the house with hardly the chance of meeting a car and a very small incline, and the DC are just pootling about on their bikes, then I think YABU and I can understand why she thought helmets were not required.

However, you have provided the helmet and shes wearing it.

If a child is riding a balance bike etc in a contained area where hazards are easily managed e.g. flat garden, the chances of an incident where a helmet would give added protection is very low. If children swap activities meaning montioring is harder, and a child could free-flow onto another activity where retaining a helmet is a hazard, then the overall benefit is not worth it.

Out in public on streets with uneven surfaces and hazards, you're in the environment where helmets give the greatest benefit. It's easy for a child to swerve into a wall, hit a rogue stick/ stone/ paving slab and come off.

The type of cyclist where the benefits of hemets becomes more debatable is on urban comuter types. Not applicable to young children.

A child minder should have risk assessments covering her activities and I am surprised that cycling helmets are not a feature on there when cycling in public as a practical measure to reduce potential injury risks. When we do cycling in Guding/ Scouting, it is always a part of our risk assessment even thougn we manage the children in a controlled way in appropriate environments to their skill level.

I've been a childminder for over 20yrs. The parents wishes don't come into it, in my house it's No helmet = No bike. I don't know any childminders who take children out on bikes without helmets.

If this CM is happy to take her charges out without helmets

I’d be worried about her safety standards behind closed doors

[quote cally21]@SarahJeffers341

Does your CM have a communication diary / log book of the day's activities? I'm struggling with how you didn't know your little one was using a bike! Does she not communicate at all about your little one's day? [/quote]
No! I pick my daughter up and she says we did this and that and sometimes give me something they've made. She does send texts in the day with pics of what they've been up to. I think the bike usage was relatively new as my daughter has only just started riding one!

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable at all. I’d expect my child’s nursery to say in advance that they were planning to take children out on balance bikes on a road and ask for properly fitted helmets to be provided if parents want their children to participate. This exact situation hasn’t arisen with my child’s nursery but similar ones have in relation to other activities and they always do a risk assessment, ask for permission and ask parents to supply any child-specific gear.

We have a hard and fast ‘no helmet, no balance bike’ rule at home.

@cally21 you're wrong.
It is on the OP to know what her childminder is doing with her child. I haven't changed my mind on that or anything else.

[quote girlmom21]@cally21 you're wrong.
It is on the OP to know what her childminder is doing with her child. I haven't changed my mind on that or anything else. [/quote]
I'm not "wrong". I just have a different opinion to you.

I’d give CM one for your daughter and insists she wears it. I’ve always been the horrible uncool mum who made her kids wear helmets. Earlier this year DD fell off/onto her bike and nearly bled to death from the damage to her liver. The side of her helmet was smashed from her head hitting the ground. If that had been a bare-head injury there’s pretty much much zero chance she would have survived. That was on an asphalt path. The thing about accidents is you don’t know when they’ll happen. YANBU OP.