My teenage son has taken up a new sport. His good friend introduced him to the world of skateboarding. He has come home with many bruises over the past few weeks. A few days ago the doorbell rang and there was my son standing with the neighbor from up the street. All I could see at first was a big scrape near his eye. I looked further to see a large cut on his knee and elbow. He also had a good size raised mark on his arm from skidding it across the pavement.
He was trying to stop for our neighbor’s little dog. I’m glad he was concerned about the dog. I was concerned about his head and other body parts. I keep telling him I want him to wear a helmet. Unfortunately none of his friends are made to wear helmets. At thirteen it is harder to watch his every move.
He is all about appearance right now. He said he will look dumb in a helmet. I told him he’ll look a lot worse with a smashed in head. In a way I was kind of glad he got scraped up because I thought it would help me get my point across. I thought he wouldn’t be as resistant to the idea of wearing a helmet. I was wrong.
He wants a new skateboard. I think we need to lay down some serious ground rules about safety first. I may be in the minority, but I feel very strongly about this. Any thoughts on this from my readers? If you do make your child wear a helmet is it a struggle?
It’s going to be a long summer!!
Here is Part 1 if you missed it.
Oh man, this is a hard one. I dread the day my son {who is 3 now} asks us for a skateboard! I really don’t know what I’d do. Hopefully now that he got pretty scraped up, he will see the value of safety gear, but that’s a rough age to convince them that safety is more important than looks. Maybe you can restrict his boarding to a more controlled environment like a skate park? Best of luck!
Thanks for visiting my blog, I hope you can drop by again soon.
~ Ferly
Gifts We Use {to grow, love and serve}
I went through this with my son too. He sustained many injuries over the years skateboarding and because helmets are not “cool”, he refused to wear them. Every time he grabbed his skateboard I was praying as hard as I can, it is so scary to watch your kid do something that can potentially hurt him real bad. Good luck with trying to make him wear a helmet… maybe he’ll consider some knee pads at least?
All the best!
I wish I had advice for you. I fight a 3 year old, and I can’t imagine what she’ll be like at 13. I’m trying to lay the helmet groundwork now. When we talk about bikes, we talk about helmets too. Maybe if he picked out his own “cool” helmet, and you could try to spin him as a trend setter? Good luck! Visiting from SITS, and I love your site design. 🙂
Thanks for all the great advice. I will let you know how it goes!