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Some advice dadtalkers please
My 13 year old has announced that he doesn't want to wear his cycle helmet when out locally as his friends say it is uncool. We want him to go out on his bike as the exercise is good but don't want him to get hurt.
He feels he is old enough to make his own decisions to a degree, and we want to encourage him in deciding on some things. As such we have agreed to allow this for now.
What do you think?
Mario
My daughter is 11 and is showing signs of saying the same, but not yet.
You can only go so far to protect him, and when I was young, cycle helmets were unheard of and I cycled everywhere. The difference now, I would say, is that the traffic is more dangerous - perhaps you could come to a compromise with your son - you allow him to go without a helmet as long as he stays away from the traffic and doesn't do any stupid stunts on his bike.
The alternative might be that he wears his helmet as he leaves the house and discards it once out of sight, so coming to an acceptable compromise is better than that.
I think trying to tell a 13 year old how to behave when he is out with his mates is probably a battle you can't win and as actd says, if he agrees to take it out (reluctantly) it will likely come off as soon as he's out of site. Do you know any of his friends' parents and, if so, what's their take on it?
My approach would probably be along the lines of: "Look, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable when you're out with your mates. Fitting in is a part of growing up; I get that. But when you take on grown up decisions, you also inherit grown up responsibilities. You don't have a helmet on ...don't do anything stupid!" And I'd probably try to back that up with a bit of 'cycling with dad' time at the weekends: 10 or 20 miles to the next village, a quick pint and a game of pool and back again (with helmets on) ...in a vain attempt to imply that both dads and cycling helmets can be employed in cool activities.
My oldest is nearly 9. I'm still in the denial phase and pretending that there is no such thing as teenage years.
My oldest is nearly 9. I'm still in the denial phase and pretending that there is no such thing as teenage years.
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