Helmetless and a parent?

[Bicycle]

I sit uncomfortably on the fence as far as cycling helmets are concerned.

I wear one, but not often. My wife wears one whenever she rides and my children are divided:

18yo No. Never. Makes her scalp itch.
16yo Always. Is very methodical and thinks it makes sense.
12yo Rarely. Pals don't, so he doesn't. (although for some reason I'd like him to).

Lots of folk I know are mellow about me bonging my own head, but horrified that I don't mind my children being exposed to... I'm not really sure what. But it's cool. They're my friends and they can think what they like. It's not the sort of issue I get hot under the collar about.

So here's the question: Are you a non-helmet-wearing cyclist with school-age children who are also free to go helmetless?

I ask because I know many riders who (like me) are casual about helmets... but none of them have children who cycle on the highway. Their position on children going helmetless is entirely theoretical.

I know a few cyclists whose children also ride... and those children ALL wear helmets as a pre-condition set by Mama and Papa.

Am I the only parent who is happy to slam along A-Roads with an unhelmetted 12-year-old?

The answer "I don't have kids, but if I did I'd be fine with it" does not qualify. Something funny happens whan offspring are born and the conditional mood becomes the bullshit it always threatened to be.

Answers please if you can:

 

[ianrauk]

I ride sans helmet always. My (nearly) 2 year old rides his balance bikes & rides in his trailer helmet-less and I will not be buying him a helmet as he grows up and moves on up the bike scale.

 

[growingvegetables]

4 children. Never wear a helmet myself.

When they were really small and on a bike trailer, I used to put a helmet on them. Once they had their own bikes and were going out "self-propelled" for rides, their mother wanted them to have and wear helmets - but it would only last a day or two (and she gave up once they were 11-12).

But I used to insist for son #2 to helmet up when he was doing "real" off-road stuff (more than just pootling); still the only time he wears one.

We do have one "family helmet" - which any of them wear when they sign up for one of these charity rides that require wearing one!

 

[Theseus]

I don't wear a helmet and I do not require my 2 girls (9 & 12) to wear one either.

When they first started to ride we put them on, but it is not something insisted on now that they are older and better riders. Mrs T is not particularly happy about it, but she doesn't ride at all and accepts that it would be wrong for us to insist when I don't wear one.

 

[jugglingphil]

I do wear a helmet (most of the time), and insist my kids (12 & 10) wear one too (most of the time!).

 

[Red Light]

I don't wear one and my children choose not to wear one.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

off-road, helmet at all times
on-road, helmet when riding in a group with people I don't trust
children, were encouraged to wear theirs but I would not insist.

I got my brain damage when not wearing a helmet. (on a rugby pitch)

 

[User169]

6yr old – chooses not to wear a helmet and cycles to school most days.
4yr old – wears a helmet for the time being. When she’s more competent, she can make up her own mind.
1yr old – doesn’t wear one on the child seat

 

[Bicycle]

That's interesting and makes me feel better about not insisting on helmets. I recognise my own responses and decisions in much of what's been written.

Mrs Bicycle really doesn't like to see them ride bareheaded, but I'm too cowardly to argue the point. I just sort of mumble and think of something else to talk about.

I imagine that some of the more vociferously and inflexibly anti-helmet folk on CC don't have cycling children, or hav yet to post on this thread.

I thought all the responses to date were rational, reasoned and thoughtful - so thanks for making me feel slightly less uncomfortable on the fence.

 

[summerdays]

I am a helmet wearer most of the time, but rather strangely I often don't on the school run when my youngest (10) does. The middle one (14) does when riding a bike but then they are more clumsy, and a bit of a rule follower. The eldest (16) hasn't worn one for the last couple of years.

I did make mine wear them when they were little, but then as they have grown older I have let them choose.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

I sit uncomfortably on the fence as far as cycling helmets are concerned.

I wear one, but not often. My wife wears one whenever she rides and my children are divided:

18yo No. Never. Makes her scalp itch.
16yo Always. Is very methodical and thinks it makes sense.
12yo Rarely. Pals don't, so he doesn't. (although for some reason I'd like him to).

Lots of folk I know are mellow about me bonging my own head, but horrified that I don't mind my children being exposed to... I'm not really sure what. But it's cool. They're my friends and they can think what they like. It's not the sort of issue I get hot under the collar about.

So here's the question: Are you a non-helmet-wearing cyclist with school-age children who are also free to go helmetless?

I ask because I know many riders who (like me) are casual about helmets... but none of them have children who cycle on the highway. Their position on children going helmetless is entirely theoretical.

I know a few cyclists whose children also ride... and those children ALL wear helmets as a pre-condition set by Mama and Papa.

Am I the only parent who is happy to slam along A-Roads with an unhelmetted 12-year-old?

The answer "I don't have kids, but if I did I'd be fine with it" does not qualify. Something funny happens whan offspring are born and the conditional mood becomes the bullshit it always threatened to be.

Answers please if you can:

My son is now an adult but.

I searched high and low to find a good helmet for him when he was a toddler and in the bike seat. They were few and far between then and the majority were not to a good standard. Eventually I found one and he wore it whenever we were on the bike. He suffered a number of pinch injuries putting it on and came to hate it.

As he was older he wore one when cycling enfamilie , and didn't when out whit his mates. ( where the bike was a secondary activity)
When we went MBing he wore one ( as did I) , when out with the road club he did the same.
When we did the Dun Run last year ( him as an adult) he turned up with the brand new tesco helmet because he thought he needed one( and his GF thought he should wear one) and left it on the train when he found out he didn't

Today I'm running the Cyclist's Badge for the Scout distrcit, there will be 18 bikes there, at least 16 will be unroadworthy, but the only Scout Association rule about cycling will be followed slavishly , there will be 18+ helmets. Including my 20 year old one perched , possibly backwards , on my head.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

That's interesting and makes me feel better about not insisting on helmets. I recognise my own responses and decisions in much of what's been written.

Mrs Bicycle really doesn't like to see them ride bareheaded, but I'm too cowardly to argue the point. I just sort of mumble and think of something else to talk about.

I imagine that some of the more vociferously and inflexibly anti-helmet folk on CC don't have cycling children, or hav yet to post on this thread.

I thought all the responses to date were rational, reasoned and thoughtful - so thanks for making me feel slightly less uncomfortable on the fence.

I've never seen any "anti-helmet folk on CC"

 

[ufkacbln]

Of course you have!

Today I'm running the Cyclist's Badge for the Scout distrcit, there will be 18 bikes there, at least 16 will be unroadworthy, but the only Scout Association rule about cycling will be followed slavishly , there will be 18+ helmets. Including my 20 year old one perched , possibly backwards , on my head.

I stopped doing cycling activities with the Scouts as I was having to exclude many of the kids who would have benefitted most.

Equally I used to bring in about £800 per year with a sponsored cycle ride, but we ended up excluding parents and youngsters because they did not have helmets

 

[ufkacbln]

Interestingly there was a case on the CTC website where leaders were refusing to let Scouts cycle to or from meetings unless they wore a helmet!

Totally outside their jurisdiction!

 

[Bicycle]

I've never seen any "anti-helmet folk on CC"

I'm not talking here about rabid, foam-flecked crazies (the sort we see in the more extreme helmet-cam footage) - just people who rarely miss an opportunity to dismiss helmets. They do exist on this forum. It's not a crime. Their views are as valid as anyone's, but they are here. And I'm not confusing anti-helmet with anti-compulsion.

In an earlier thread on the benefits of helmets, an anti-helmet type posted that helmets 'increase the weight of the head by 10%' as one of many reasons for not wearing a helmet. The maths is incorrect, but the poster may have felt the need to have the maximum number of reasons why helmets are a bad thing. I call that attitude many things; one of them is 'anti-helmet'.

My broader point was that the bulk of responses to my query were from people who were on or close to the same fence I occupy: Not really for; not really against.

What does tickle me is that one contributor mentioned a helmet for a toddler on a seat. Ooops! 15 years ago when I was zipping arond with my turquoise Hamax seat and a giggling toddler, it never even occured to me that either of us might need a helmet. How times change!

Similarly, I was showing one of my sons a YouTube of Abdu's big crash in Paris. Lo and behold.... no hats in the peloton! How quickly one forgets that once we only worried about road rash.