Electric Ride on cars

[1980cat]

I took Dd to look for a bike for Chirstmas and she just wasn't able to peddle it (just a little 3 year old so might persist with the trike for little while longer) and she was much more interested in the little electric ride on cars.
Do Children actualy play with them more than just the day they get them and will it just end up sitting in the shed all year?
If they do has anyone seen any decent ones for less than £100?

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MNHQ

they are for fat idle kids imo
not for you lovely dd

also if she cnat pedal it thats cos she eneeds rpactise

Can't see the point of them at all. I mean - the child doesn't actually do anything. What skills are they learning? What exercise are they getting? WTF are they actually for?

we were given a v expensive one about 250 pounds - ds does love it for about 5 mins at a time - but it takes an age to charge is very heavy so can't go to the park in it because he loses interest very quickly, does not wear him out and I would not dream of buyong him one waste of money
Wondercod - he is not fat!

She is deffinatly not a fat kid. She will get the practice on her trike but there really seems no point buying her a bike that fits her now when she can't work it may as wel lwait till she can then get her one that fits her then.
I think the point is that she liked them don't see why she has to be learning things all the time (hate this obsesion with educational toys she will learn when she is having fun) But I do understand what you are saying Emmy she proabaly will get bored really quick.
She wouldn't be using much other than around the garden and down to the library, no parks anywhere near where I live (not that I'd let her play in anyway).

1980cat - you missed my point a bit with the learning thing. Learning to children is a bit like breathing. All toys provide some learning in the experience they offer. Some of these experiences are richer than others. A bike or even a bigger or different trike will offer your child a chance to make a whole new series of neuron connections in her brain and coordination and all that it entails (pedalling, steering, even just the movement of limbs) is very very very important to the developing brain.

Just seems a shame to waste an opportunity by actually choosing to spend money on something that is little more than a white elephant.

But it's your choice.

She's 3 get her a proper bike. She will find it hard at first but children learn very quickly, then there'll be no stopping her!

I realy can't see why a bike has any more educational value if she has no intrest in it. She will use it around the garden and her imagaination will provide the learning. The idea was she liked the car and it would be used not instead of a bike, as she is still using the trike, but as something else.
I wasn't saying I wasn't going to buy her a bike just not now when she has a trike she is still learning to use.

If you are anywhere near Brighton I've got a pink electric ride-on trike you can have for £20. Has a brand-new spare battery too and has never been used outside.

We bought one for our ds as he couldn't manage a normal trike and got one for dd too as we thought they could play together even though she was really too old for it (but very small for her age). We lived in a pub at the time with a massive downstairs so thought they could play there in the mornings before we opened, driving round the pool table etc . Unfortunately ds's autism meant he would crawl along beside his with his hand on the pedal so he could watch the wheels go round but wouldn't get on it and dd wasn't interested in playing by herself.

The point of this waffle is that although my own children never played with the trikes, visiting children always made a bee-line for them and had lots of fun. They were quite easy to carry up and down stairs and held their charge very well. Don't know if that helps.

I'm not anywhere near Brighton unfortunatley, east of scotland so a bit of a long drive.
It's difficut I don't know whether I'll end up getting one just beacuse it is the only thing she has shown any intrest in when we have been shopping, other than a talking percy and a magnum ice cream this afternoon. It is something she can use in the garden now by herself which she could do with.
Her little trike is difficult to go on the grass without being pushed and I think the difficulty with the proper bikes was that they were just too big for her. The 10 inch were better but all seemed to be character ones with plastic tyres and the 12 inch ones she could only just touch the ground with her toes so proabaly felt pretty insecure on them.

Have you got a Maplins near you? There are bargains here for electric ride-ons.

Kids do use electric ride-ons more than just the first day, but only if the model is decent. The very cheap ones with weak 6V batteries often end up abandoned because they’re slow, don’t run on grass, and the battery dies quickly. A better 12V car usually keeps a child interested for a couple of years.

Finding anything good under £100 is tough most at that price are the flimsy type. If you can stretch the budget a bit, brands like Little Tacker Toys, Peg Perego, or even some of the basic KidsVIP models hold up much better and actually get used.