Helmet head
Friday, Dec 29, 2006
Back when gas was less than a buck a gallon, kids everywhere ram-rodded around the neighborhood on their bicycles. The cool kids attached a clothespin and playing card to their spokes or rode without their hands on the handlebars. Is that legal anymore?
There’s a rule for everything now. A few years back, a teen in our church received a ticket for riding his bike on the sidewalk on the busiest street in Orlando, SR 436. Apparently you’re dangerous to pedestrians, even if you’re riding along at 8 mph and the cars are whizzing by you at 60 mph.
Another funny law is the one that requires mandatory bicycle helmet use for all children under 16. Since we’re law-abiding citizens, we comply and make our kids wear their helmets. I agree that my wheelie-popping son benefits from one, but does everyone? Maybe helmet use should be tied to speed or number of wheels on your vehicle.
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I want to add that she got one that fits for Christmas.
Comment by Amy Scott (December 29, 2006 @ 10:01 am )
Back when gas was less than a buck a gallon,
Those were the days.
The Picture is priceless.
Comment by Ched (December 29, 2006 @ 10:29 am )
I love the picture!!!! When we lived in Florida, my son HATED the helmet law.
Comment by Marci (December 29, 2006 @ 12:24 pm )
I love the picture.
Once you find a sure fire way to keep the straps and buckles firmly fastened, let me know. (smile)
Comment by Terri (December 29, 2006 @ 1:59 pm )
What a cutie!
We got our daughter a bicycle helmet for Christmas, too.
~Stacy
Comment by Stacy (December 29, 2006 @ 2:33 pm )
It would seem that the benefits of wearing a helmet would be sorta null if one can’t see where one is going…
But she looks really cute though!
Comment by joythruChrist (December 29, 2006 @ 4:20 pm )
I don’t do everything the government tells me….just saying! Very cute picture of your sweet daughter.
Comment by Nancy (December 29, 2006 @ 4:41 pm )
Hi Amy,
I used to think bike helmet laws were pretty goofy until we were visiting friends in Holland. I was behind a woman who fell off her bike, hit a small post and knocked herself unconcious! I could not believe it! We were barely moving and this woman was sprawled on the ground with a bleeding head wound. Crazy!
And your daughter does look just precious!
Comment by Angel (December 29, 2006 @ 6:10 pm )
Amy,
We lived in town when we lived in the Carolinas, and the children rode bikes on a regular basis. I am not sure if it was the law for the children to wear helmets, but we always had them wear one. When they are used to it from the beginning, there isn’t much rebellion on their part. I worked in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit for a couple years before children. When you see the kind of head injuries that I saw from bike accidents without helmets and car accidents without seatbelts, it doesn’t seem silly at all. We also made sure the helmets fit and were strapped on properly. Blessings
Comment by GardenOfGrace (December 29, 2006 @ 9:04 pm )
Amy-
I have been reading your “humble musings” for a few weeks now, and I have really enjoyed the humor!
Your little girl is precious in this picture!
Jordin
Comment by Jordin (December 30, 2006 @ 12:08 am )
We live in Melbourne Australia where bike helmets have been compulsory for all ages for at least 15 years. And the statistics show that the incidence of head injuries have declined sharply.
My little girl abides by a simple rule: no helmet, no biking and she makes the obvious choice every time. I also think that road safety has as much to do with what one does with the vehicle one has as with what other people are doing on the road. Helmets will give my child some protection against anything she may do herself on her very unpowerful 2 wheel bike and also what others on much more powerful vehicles may do to her.
So, I’d like encourage you to think about it positively.
Comment by HS King (December 30, 2006 @ 8:00 am )
I had been known to take a bike and carry it back home because a 2 year old at the time refused to put back on a helmet!!Now both children wear them ALL of the time.
Comment by Tammy (December 30, 2006 @ 12:42 pm )
My 3 year old, who started riding a two wheeler at age 38 months, couldn’t see out from under his either. He would ride around with his head tilted way back, trying to see, or riding with one hand on the handle bars and one hand holding the helmet in place. We figured that this was more dangerous than him not wearing a helmet at first. Now, however (at two months from 4), he is a wild man on that thing (3 older brothers) and we make him wear a helmet when we go riding. He too has one that fits now.
On another note, I know what you mean about “fun” things not being “legal” anymore. I just returned from Ukraine where people don’t feel compelled to reprimand you for letting your child ride on the rack under the shopping basket in the grocery store. It was so refreshing.
Comment by Anonymous (December 30, 2006 @ 8:17 pm )
Amy, my dad fell off his bike on Christmas Day while riding down to get the mail. He’s been riding for over 50 years and is quite athletic and able-bodied. He actually cracked his helmet and thus saved himself a head injury. Had the helmut not saved his head, he would have laid out in the snow in that remote area for quite sometime with a head injury.
Helmets should be mandatory for all people. It’s just good sense to protect your most valuable asset-your head.
Comment by Imajackson (December 30, 2006 @ 9:08 pm )
My kids have worn helmets since their first days on bikes. Now, as 8 and 10 year olds, they don’t even question it. Even though their friends ride without helmets, they wouldn’t think of going without them. I know my children and if we hadn’t insisted on it from day one, we would have a major battle on our hands at this point.
While I don’t believe it should be a law, I DO think everyone on a bike should wear a helmet. (DH and I wear them, too.)
(Absolutely adorable picture, BTW.
)
Comment by Rhonda (December 30, 2006 @ 11:23 pm )
Oh well, someone has to disagree with the majority and it may as well be me. There is a difference between wisdom and the law. Just because it makes good sense to wear a helmet doesn’t mean the government should automatically have to mandate wearing them; or, maybe they should. And maybe they should make a law that my children must drink 3 glasses of milk a day and never touch soda. I like that idea a LOT better! It’s amazing that the human race has been able to survive the last 6,000 or so years.
I have to admit, I had a banana seat bike and would not only ride without hands, but would stand up straight on the seat while I did it.
Comment by Laurie (December 31, 2006 @ 3:17 am )
We had a scooter/helmet Christmas too. It’s rather chilly and had been snowing here, so they’ve been riding in the basement…sometimes without helmets. Although I have strapped a helmet on the newly turned one year old, a time or two when he plays down there with the big kids. He gets to toddling so fast and the floor is cement. *shh…don’t tell him it’s a pink ladybug hand-me-down from his big sisters.*
Sadly my husband knows two people who have died from head injuries in bike accidents.
Comment by Roberta (December 31, 2006 @ 3:38 am )
Very cute! Yes, there’s a rule for everything nowadays, isn’t there?
Comment by Stephen (December 31, 2006 @ 9:03 am )
I too am in the minority. And thankfully, live in Indiana which does not have any such law. Seems like there are laws to take the fun out of everything nowadays. I love to feel the wind blowing through my hair as I coast down a hill! And yes, I use to ride without hands! But then, I also gave my boys pocket knifes for Christmas…….
Comment by Amanda (December 31, 2006 @ 8:14 pm )
It is true the government shouldn’t make a rule for everything. However, when we make the government responsible for the COSTS of the injuries, then it starts making more sense for the government to try to prevent such injuries in the first place.
However, regardless of whether it is a law or not, as a parent you should require your children to wear helmets on a bicycle. I was convinced of such after seeing the injury to a cousin (NOT a daredevil) who took a spill on a bike without a helmet, and the cracked helmet of an uncle who escaped injury while riding his bike, and I just can’t imagine what would have happened elsewise.
Comment by My Boaz's Ruth (December 31, 2006 @ 10:36 pm )
I must agree with the number of wheels bit, or maybe a new law should go into effect, taking the size of a child’s head into account. How can it be safe to be driving around with a helmet covering the majority of one’s vision?
Makes for an adorable picture, though.
Comment by Aubrey (December 31, 2006 @ 11:28 pm )
And what does DH mean? I see it everywhere? Did I miss an internet lingo class this year?
Comment by Aubrey (December 31, 2006 @ 11:30 pm )
Hey, Aubrey, I know how you feel. I see stuff all the time that I don’t know. I first saw all these abbv. at the flylady site. She talks about housekeeping, mostly. DH means dear husband, DD is dear daughter, DS dear son etc. She had a book called Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley if you are interested in learning more about her approach to housekeeping
Comment by Another Heather (January 1, 2007 @ 9:07 am )
Thanks, Heather!! I can now pretend to be ‘in the know’ again for a little while!
Comment by Aubrey (January 1, 2007 @ 2:55 pm )
Your Welcome!! Happy New Year everyone
!
Comment by Another Heather (January 1, 2007 @ 8:09 pm )
Yeah, and remember when men played basketball with canvas Converse hi-tops? And not the expensive “pump it up” versions?
Comment by a suburban housewife (January 2, 2007 @ 11:15 am )