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Kids can't leave home today without wearing something resembling a hazmat suit
As a kid, I played with a toy that got so hot it melted plastic into assorted figures. Bicycle helmets? I never wore one. But today, "we worry about our children, which makes them worry, and then -- surprise! -- we treat their worries as a health crisis and medicate them," writes Patricia Pearson. (USA Today)
September 5, 2006 | Permalink
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My brother and I rode bicycles "no hands", played a game where we rode down a grass hill and jumped off them (practicing to be cowboys), used to ride under chin-up bars, grab them and lift ourselves off the bike (again, cowboy practice).
We climbed trees, built rafts to pole across ponds, caught snakes and frogs, built treecamps and rope swings and had fun.
We left the house at 8 am summer mornings and might stop back for lunch, but if there were any berries ripe or fruit getting just past green , we might not be back until dinner.
When my nephew was born, my sister-in-law swathed the entire house in foam rubber, locked all the cabinet doors and blocked all the outlets. He was never out of supervision and never allowed to come to injury in any way.
He's nervous all the time about hurting himself; but has a stunning lack of instinctive ability to avoid hurting himself.
If someone tells me something is "hot enough to cause burns", my inner instinct takes over and I avoid the hot object. I've been burned before; it hurts, and I don't want to be burned again. My nephew understands "hot enough to burn" at an intellectual level, but he's never been burned, so he is much less careful, even while being more nervous.
Posted by: David | Sep 5, 2006 8:07:21 AM
Bike helmets are about the smartest thing we have ever come up with. Getting seriously injured from a non vehicle collision while wearing a helmet is pretty rare. When you have a crash on a bike you try to hold onto the handlebars and that leaves you going over the handlebars, head first and you will hit head first. Even at low speeds that is enough to crack your skull. A lady was killed last year on my street when she swerved and hit a parked car, went over the handlebars and hit head first into the side passenger window, killing her. Its fun to make fun at modern ways and some don't make much sense. Kids have to wear helmets adults don't: and adults can make decision that effect life and death and kids really can't. They have to rely on adults to keep them as safe as possible. I get the point is to poke fun but I think the most stupid statement anyone can make is "I didn't do that when I was a kid and look at me" because its a different world today. My uncle used to say that about cigarettes even after my aunt (a non smoker) died of lung cancer and then he did too.
Posted by: TomW | Sep 5, 2006 8:10:50 AM
I was 11 when the helmet law went into effect, and I stopped riding my bike until I was old enough to not wear the helmet. Wearing a helmet sucks every ounce of joy out of bike riding. But hey, by the time they started legislating away outdoor fun, video games were getting so good that playing outside and risking a horrific injury became unneccessary!
Posted by: SwarthyTroll | Sep 5, 2006 8:16:40 AM
Per the helmets argument - it really isn't a different world between, say, when I was a kid (15 years ago) and now - sidewalks are still hard, cars are still made of harder stuff than your average kid's head. No helmet, ever, and no brain damage. The ditziness is just a normal state of mind.
Posted by: Day | Sep 5, 2006 8:17:49 AM
I had some stepkids by a prior marrage. The older boy came to live with us at 14. He was sent to us with an arsenal of antidepresents asthma meds and different ADHD meds. His mother worked as transcriber for a doctor. The dr we took him to here took him off everything but an otc allergy med. He also joined the football team at school, Mom had a fit,the boy was alot healthier and seemed better adjusted.
My daughter has always had sinus problems, she does not have asthma she was hospitalized one time with a sevier sinus infection before the tests even come back the dr tried to put her on prednesone "just in case" she had asthma. I refused and got a lecture on how I could not possibly know my own child better than the doctor. The nurse kept refering to me as "mom" during the confrontatiion instead of addressing me directly. The tests came back the next day negative;
I am not saying that some meds can not be beneficial but we as parents need to stay informed and be allowed to make interlligent decisions for our children Kat
Posted by: Kathyj | Sep 5, 2006 8:21:15 AM
i'm reminded of the history of polio.
back when sewers were open the polio virus was endemic, but cases of the illness were rare because everyone had natural immunity from constant exposure. it was only when sewers went underground in the second half of the 1800s did polio become a scourge -- it did so because kids weren't exposed to it and never developed immunity to it. for three generations polio was feared, until the salk vaccine came out in the 1950's.
the moral of the story: it's possible to be too clean. kids should develop a healthy relationship with the environment.
nonetheless, bike helmets are a good idea, and not just for kids.
Posted by: d_m_arnold | Sep 5, 2006 8:41:19 AM
Great. Now I'm worried about not making my child worried.
Posted by: ssw | Sep 5, 2006 8:44:50 AM
bike helmets make sense and save lives. if you can't enjoy a bike ride because you are wearing something on your head, i feel sorry for you.
Posted by: c'mon | Sep 5, 2006 9:00:05 AM
ok, here's the thing. let's say I let my young children play outside unsupervised, run around the neighborhood, and have unpadded, characer-building experiences. Somewhere along the way, one of them becomes injured in a freak accident, locks herself in a car trunk, or goes into a coffee shop/retail establishment and makes noise until the police are called.
Next thing I know, I'm in the news and featured in Obscure Store, with all the comments blaming me for my lack of parenting skills. "Where was this kid's parent? Why wasn't the parent watching this kid? Don't have kids if you're not prepared to watch them!"
I can't win...
Posted by: | Sep 5, 2006 9:09:33 AM
I wear a helmet and look just like my kids: dorky.
But I can understand the idea of forgetting where we came from. When my parent's divorce was final, it rained. My mom told us to come out in our swimsuits--we danced around in the pouring down rain until the lawn looked like a mudbath, and then she hosed us off and we drove off soaking wet for ice cream.
I found myself as a parent years later, "don't do that, don't do this..." At a reunion down south by a lake, it started raining, so I told my kids to get out of the water. A country cousin pointed out that they were already wet, so I let them stay in until I saw lightning. It was like a revelation.
Except for helmets and going inside other people's homes, I've changed a lot of my over-protective habits.
Posted by: Soo | Sep 5, 2006 9:10:09 AM
I loved David's post. My sister and I used to do the same type of stuff. We rode our bikes with no hands, rode in the back of my dad's pickup, and spent our summers outside making up games and playing baseball. My sister still has a scar on her leg from trying to turn a complete circle with no hands.
My son didn't ride around in the back of his dad's pickup and he always wore a helmet when he rode his bike, but otherwise I tried hard not to make him over-anxious about hurting himself. I bit my tongue when he fell out of the neighbor's tree house and cut his leg and I did a pretty good job about not fainting when he caught his first snake.
Kids need to be KIDS. They definitely need to be supervised, but I don't protecting them from every little bad thing in the world is healthy.
BTW, I'm an avid rider and I always wear my helmet. I look like an idiot, but at least they won't have to scrape up what's left of my brain off the road if I ever get hit by a car. :-)
Posted by: pnwgal | Sep 5, 2006 9:24:57 AM
It's not just kids who cannot put things in perspective. Adults don't know the relative risks of things either. There are lots of things more hazardous than what we fear most, and bicycles are not usually at the top of people's lists. Many people who would not let their kids ski without a helmet will let them ride a bike without one and not think twice.
If you fall on the snow, you are not likely to hurt your head. If you crash into a tree, you can kill yourself. But considering the number of hours in each activity, depending on the overall conditions, bike riding is usually riskier.
You can wear a helmet and look like a dork, just like the top athletes who ride bikes. Or you can get a really cool looking helmet, just like the top athletes who ride bikes.
It's a matter of weighing the cost against the benefit. The initial financial cost of a helmet is relatively low. The cost while riding is an additional negligible amount of weight, and a built in sun visor on the cool models. The benefit will probably be none. Unless you are in a serious accident, in which case it might be the difference between life and death.
It's like Princess Diana, who might have gotten off with a broken leg had she worn her seat belts. But instead, nobody talks about that. Instead, we discuss land mines, which were her favored charity. Don't get me wrong. Land mines are terrible. They maim and kill many people. But if the same effort were made to get people to wear seat belts, so they don't die like Diana, lots more lives would be saved. It's a lot easier to blame photographers than to recognize that the unsafe nature of the road pillar construction and the lack of seat belt usage were the true causes of her death.
Posted by: H | Sep 5, 2006 9:35:44 AM
What is the deal with everyone thinking helmets look uncool. There are some ugly helmets out there, but for less than $40, you can get a helmet that makes you look like a serious cyclist. Doesn't seem like an idiot to me. On the other hand, I see cyclists weaving through traffic, no helmet, and my first response is "Idiot".
Or as I heard my step father once yell out the window when a kid scared him to death doing something stupid: "You'd look real cool dead"
Posted by: JWT | Sep 5, 2006 9:42:20 AM
I don't doubt that statistics show a drop in head injuries following mandatory bicycle helmet laws, but wouldn't we see an even greater drop in those injuries after a law requiring mandatory helmets for car drivers and passengers?
Adults who wear helmets for casual cycling are kind of dippy.
Posted by: oxhead | Sep 5, 2006 9:49:38 AM
This isn't the same world we grew up in. Hell, we used to do jumps off big ol dirt mounds and let the bike go in midair ;-) My wife says I have more scars than anyone she's ever seen. That being said, we have to watch out for our kids today to make sure the sick perverts don't get them and stuff like that, but we can still let them be kids. I don't have a problem with bike helmets, but ya gotta let em fall down sometimes. Scars build character, at least that's what my Dad always said LOL!
Posted by: JD | Sep 5, 2006 9:51:06 AM
I have often wondered how my brother and I have lived to the ripe old ages of 40 and 45. We had no helmets, played in ditches full of water, lit our own fireworks.
(Yes, explosives!) We drank water from the garden hose, stepped in dog crap, climbed trees without safefy ropes or nets! We picked up lizards and frogs, bugs and other vermin. We played under the house, in the dirt with metal cars that probably had a high level of lead.
We ate fruit off of trees without having it irradiated, (if that's the right word) and threw dirt clods and pine cones at each other.
We didn't have helmets, (like I mentioned) knee pads, shin guards and more often than not we rode bikes without our shoes. We played baseball in a vacant lot, (I live in a house on that lot today) full of ant hills, briars nskaes and a barbed wire fence. The ditch was the foul line and if you hit it across the road it was a home run.
My goodness...we're lucky to be alive!
Posted by: Rusty | Sep 5, 2006 10:36:57 AM
Hey folks... you can still fall down and build character while wearing a helmet. As a triathlete and mountain biker, I wear a helmet any time that my bike is in motion - in a race, on the road, or on the trail.
I've had a number of crashes where I've been VERY glad to be wearing a helmet, cause it hurt badly enough with it on! The helmet doesn't lessen the impact... it just lessens the resulting damage! Plus, there is the WOW factor if you crash hard enough to break your helmet, but you can tell people about it afterward.
I definitely agree that kids should be allowed to play, get dirty, learn from mistakes, and get hurt from time to time, but helmets are a must. Most injuries to the rest of the body heal well (and scars do build character), but you just don't mess with head injuries.
Posted by: KC | Sep 5, 2006 10:49:51 AM
Uhh, I didn't want to look like a serious cyclist. I wanted to look like a snot-nosed kid using his bike to get around because he couldn't drive yet.
And even the coolest looking helmet means sweat is a lot more annoying. AND you have to carry it around when you are at your destination.
But again, the helmet issue is a small one. Compared to smashing stuff on the railroad tracks, playing by a pond of uncertain depth, walking on cracking ice, climbing trees, throwing rocks at wasp nests, jumping off of swings at their highest height, sticking shit in electic sockets, playing with fire (or fireworks) etc etc, not wearing a helmet does not seem so dangerous.
But hey, if you guys think having your kids die from obesity or depression is better than letting them take some childhood risks, more power to you!
Posted by: SwarthyTroll | Sep 5, 2006 10:51:04 AM
I get Troll's point...before everyone wore bike helmets, it was just another way for your folks to make you a target if you wore a helmet and the other kids didn't.
My son at 22 takes alot more risks now than he did when he was 12. He snowboards during the winter and waterskis during the summer. He and his friends have just recently taken up rock-climbing, which scares the bejeezus out of me. I'd like to think he feels confident enough to take risks now because I didn't make him afraid of everything when he was a kid.
Posted by: pnwgal | Sep 5, 2006 11:01:15 AM
I happen to agree with Dave on this---my brothers and I did much of the same things growing up as he did even so far as setting up bike ramos with plywood and cinder blocks then getting our mom and dad to watch us jump them (more often than not failing as the higher the ramp got the more likely the blocks fell over) but we never ended up the worse for wear and learned lessons about gravity and the human body that were invaluable to us. Today I live in New Zealand where it is mandatory to wear bike helmets no matter what age--the fine is stiff for not wearing one--and as a result I don't ride anymore--something I enjoyed doing a whole lot when I lived in the States. But helmets aside,being over-protective of your children hinders their sense of exploration of the world around them--sure there are things that will hurt you out there--ask anyone who has gotten stuck by a fish hook--but should you keep them from learning how to fish because they might get injured by it? I would not trade any of the bumps,bruises,dislocations or sore tummies (from those just past green berries)that I got growing up just to feel a little safer---I was a kid and I enjoyed being a kid and all the things that I did or that happened to me as a kid as I explored the world around me and my own limits--maybe it's different in the inner cities but I grew up in the mid-west and mother nature and all of her wonders and all of her pitfalls were our playground and I am damn glad of that.
Posted by: stormbringer | Sep 5, 2006 12:10:51 PM
Actually, don't professional bicyclists where helmets because of the incredible rate of speed they travel and for aerodynamics?
I never wore a helmet. I jumped dirt ramps, racked myself on the bar, fell over the front, and any other misc stupid thing kids do (or rather did) on bikes.
I almost never wore bug spray or sunscreen. I'd leave the house at 8am and return at dark. By 9 years old I knew just about every street in town (pop. 50,000). I'd play in the creek and swim whereever I could find somewhere deep enough.
And I watch my 2 and half year old daughter with such anxiety as she plays on playground equipment.
It's a crazy, messed up world we've made.
Posted by: SuperJames | Sep 5, 2006 12:18:30 PM
My son was in a bike accident a couple of years ago. If he hadn't worn a helmet, he'd have suffered a head injury and might even have died. The helmet was a lot cheaper than a funeral or a long hospital stay and rehab.
Posted by: Phranqlin | Sep 5, 2006 12:28:10 PM
There have been some studies into risky behaviour, and there's a theory of 'risk homeostasis' -- that people tend to take the same overall level of risks -- so by forcing someone to wear a helmet, they feel they're protected, and engage in more risky behaviour. (but the overall risk is near constant, when balanced by the helmet).
So basically, forcing helmets on people may result in increased dumbass actions, as they don't have to fear injury to themselves.
Posted by: Joe | Sep 5, 2006 12:35:52 PM
I think some of you are kind of missing an essential element of your "war stories", to wit: you are still here to tell them. There are many kids who weren't as lucky.
You can't deny that many of the activities you talk about carry risk, to a greater or lesser degree -- just because you happened to beat the odds doesn't make them safe. To take an adult example: just because you managed to get home hammered without killing anyone doesn't mean that it's ok, or safe, or that the same result is guaranteed next time.
It's a difficult line to draw. Some parents overprotect (as has been true from the dawn of time) some don't protect enough (ditto.) But to me telling a kid to wear a helmet is on par with advising a teen or adult to avoid unprotected sex. Life is full of dangers we can't avoid, why not do what we can?
As far as all the lotions and bug sprays we have to slather kids with...I had Lyme Disease and had to watch my mom suffer encephilitis, which it's thought might have been West Nile-related. I wouldn't wish either on anyone, in particular a child. Just because we didn't do it as kids, doesn't mean it doesn't make sense now.
Posted by: Acedia | Sep 5, 2006 1:32:45 PM
Okay! I give up! I'm putting my hekmet on right now!
Posted by: Rusty | Sep 5, 2006 1:49:05 PM
