Teen wearing bike helmet

[curvymumma79]

Sorry, didn't know where to put this.

How can I stress the importance of wearing a bike helmet to my 14 year old son? Other than banging on at him.

I've caught him out today!

He doesn't think it's cool, and not all of his friends wear one. He seems to think he's invincible, and although I trust his riding abilities, we all know it's not just about that.

Is there any literature/ videos aimed at teens to express the importance of this?

Honestly nothing you say will get through to him, so I'd just confiscate his bike until he can be trusted.

It’s not about his riding ability it’s the potential for brain damage if someone crashes into you. It’s protection.

Unfortunately I think it's one of those things that you either have to enforce as pp said by taking his bike or he'll have a near miss and realise why he needs one.

There was a boy who lived near us when I was a tween, he was a bit older and made fun of me and my friends for wearing helmets. He came off his bike his head hit the curb and he got concussed. The Dr at the hospital told him how lucky he was that it wasn't more serious and he always wore a helmet after that.

Tbh if it was a choice between my teens having to ear a helmet or not riding their bikes, they’d choose not to ride their bikes

Then I sincerely hope that you don't let them ride their bikes.

When my ds was 13, an excellent, very experienced road cyclist, he asked to cycle back from the cafe by himself (we'd stopped there mid ride, done maybe 50 miles). He was about 200m from home when having turned left off the main road the car in front of him decided to slam on the brakes to let someone out having not noticed him behind him. He hit the back of that car at 20mph.
Wearing a brand new, well fitting, quality helmet and good sunglasses he walked out of A&E that evening minus a tooth and all the skin off one side of his face (his eye would have been damaged if not for the glasses) - he had concussion for a week.
His helmet is squashed completely flat at the front and is cracked all the way round to the back as it transferred all the force and did what it should have done. Without it, the consequences would have been much more severe.
He's 16 now, and wears a helmet for even the shortest ride without being asked

My kids saw their dads helmet after a car knocked him off - completely squashed broken it did it’s job. He’d cycled 2000 miles that year walked away with broken collar bone, awful road rash and months of physio. The physio actually said it was just inevitable he’d get knocked at some point due to his commute. He drives to work now 😞but at least he recovered & work covered his lost income for 4 weeks as he couldn’t drive. The driver that hit him ..a 19yr in his dads BMW!

It’s just not cool to wear a helmet from most teens perspectives. My son refused from 13 onwards as ‘no one else wore one’ so he didn’t get to use his bike. He was pissed off and moaned for a while but tough. He did say he knew we were right, just that he didn’t want to be the odd one out, which I completely understood. We’ve all been that age. I told him however miserable he felt came nowhere close to how we’d all feel if he was badly injured or dead. That was the end of it. No bike.

Very sadly, a child that attended the same school as my son was knocked off his bike not wearing a helmet and died and I did use that as an example. I vaguely know the boys mum and it was obviously devastating for the family. Using a bike without a helmet is non negotiable in our house.

There’s all sorts of videos on YouTube an articles online but honestly, nothing will feel as important that fitting in with his friends. You just have to say it’s a helmet or no bike. And it sounds like he’s not willing to wear the helmet so I’d be stopping him using the bike.

My friend was in a coma for a week after a bike accident that didn’t involve a car and they were wearing a helmet.

I am a very passionate advocate for helmet wearing. No one in my house gets on a bike without one.

This is the campaign I always remember