4 wheeling toddlers?

[samssugarmomma]

Ok - please tell me that I am not alone.

One of our neighbors has a 4 wheeler thing and every now and then he gets it out and gives the kids rides on it up and down the street, going really really slow. Its only happened a few times since we moved here and since I am usually home alone, I've managed to avoid being outside at the time. The other kids that ride are almost 5, 4 and 2. These are the same neighbors that we are friends with.

Over Labor Day, he got it out and was giving rides again. My DH, my parents, and my ILs think that I am insane because I wouldn't let our DD ride. Because "Everyone else got to". First off, Seriously?? Are you kidding me??? She's 2. She doesn't need to be running up and down the street on a 4 wheeler. What's next? A motorcycle? They would see NOTHING wrong with that either, by the way. My ILs are huge motorcycle fans and have already gotten DD a leather motocycle jacket thing and talk about putting her on FILs motorcycle and taking pictures of her. Umm....No!

And secondly, "just because everyone else does" isn't a good enough reason for me to do anything, especially make a decision about my parenting.

Tell me, am I seriously a kill joy? Is my DD going to be scarred for life because she never gets to ride a 4 wheeler or a motorcycle?

My first thought is -- please tell me those kids are wearing helmets.

I grew up riding motorcycles a little bit. I haven't found myself in that situation, but I don't think I would let my kids ride unless it was a short ride with my dad driving and with a helmet.

I don't think you are being a killjoy. It's not unreasonable and this isn't the only time that other kids are doing things you don't want your daughter to do.

As I'm typing this...I'm thinking about the "cow train" I took my kids on at a pumpkin patch. It was a bunch of 50 gallon barrels with wheels attached and pulled by a tractor. But I still wouldn't let them ride an ATV with a neighbor. But the cow train -- that's another matter!

[SuzySunshine]

My first thought is -- please tell me those kids are wearing helmets.

My first thought also, I realize they're riding with an adult but PUT ON A HELMET! No matter how old the kid is.

I don't think you're being a killjoy at all - the stories DH comes home with about kids injured on ATVs with or without an adult are horrible and IMO a 2-year old won't know well enough where to hold or how tight.

Not a killjoy. And I agree on the helmet front. And - 4 wheelers aren't supposed to be driven on streets -- apparently there is a higher risk of losing control or something?

My dad has a 4 wheeler, and I have taken the boys on it while on his land -- very slowly and on terrain I know very well. A grass runway, in fact, that my dad had flattened so he could land his small plane next to his house. I've been riding that 4 wheeler for years, and once I became a parent I was CRAZED at the fact that no one ever suggested or thought we should wear helmets on it!! My dad thought I was nuts when I brought the kids bike helmets with me and insisted they wear them.

[DCJenn]

Nope- not a paranoid mom at all. I wouldn't let Nikolai ride at all, even with a helment!

Jenn

[diggitydot]

As someone with loads of experience with these types of vehicles, I'm in 100% agreement with you. There's no reason for a 2 y/o to be riding in one...EVER.

My husband has a motorcycle and religiously wears his helmet, but I won't even let my almost-12 year old ride it with him. Not that I don't trust DH's driving abilities, but people do NOT look for motorcycles/dune buggies/ATV's on the street.

The vast majority of accidents with these types of vehicles on roads are not from the driver doing something stupid, but rather from people in cars/trucks/SUV's not paying close enough attention and not seeing them. And when it's an open-air vehicle versus a car/truck/SUV we all know who comes out on the short end of that situation. I've had a couple friends who've been in nasty crashes because someone in a car or truck simply wasn't paying attention. One of them ended up skidding on his back and helmet for 75 feet. We later saw his helmet. It was cracked down the middle and completely flat on one side. But he was able to walk away from it with only some road rash on his elbow and shoulder. Talk about lucky.

I grew up in an area very close to a national motocross track. Many of my friends were or are amateur and professional MX'ers. I trust their skills and would let them teach any of my kids how to ride motocross...on dirt tracks. But I'd never let one of my kids onto a street with any ATV/motorcycle/4-wheeler/dune buggy/whatever. And sure as hell not as a TODDLER.

No one ever does something like this with the intention that something bad will happen. That's why they're called "accidents".

Good for you for sticking to your guns!

[GrayMatterWife]

My first thought is -- please tell me those kids are wearing helmets.

My first thought also, I realize they're riding with an adult but PUT ON A HELMET! No matter how old the kid is.

I don't think you're being a killjoy at all - the stories DH comes home with about kids injured on ATVs with or without an adult are horrible and IMO a 2-year old won't know well enough where to hold or how tight.

My DH has some absolutely horrific stories about idiots who allow their children to ride on ATVs. Labor Day weekend, two years ago, he saw 16 ATV injuries while working all-weekend call at Childrens. One accident included a 16-month old who'd been sent through a barbed wire fence when the ATV flipped and ejected the dad and the kid. The child has his entire face ripped wide open, from ear-to-ear. There were a couple of severe head traumas, too. And one kid actually got trapped under the ATV and was crushed under the wheel.

[Momo]

Kate ...your 100% normal on this one...no waaay would I let my kids do it!

You are not alone with this. While we live far away from family at the moment, my in-laws -- most of whom are pretty smart, level-headed people the rest of the time -- like to get together in the middle of nowhere on the Fourth of July and have a big bash. They and all the kids ride four-wheelers all day and then blow up the biggest, most illegal fireworks known to man. They've been doing it for three or four years now and it's amazing no one has been seriously injured. My wife and I have both pledged that even though we will look like big party poopers, we will never attend this event.

[Vanquisher]

A couple years ago, DS went on a plane to visit ILs by himself.

The fight about his visit was all about ATVs and guns. Seriously. It was the family meltdown of the century because FIL didn't know who DH was anymore, and he's "changed." He didn't know if he knew him anymore, and he was on "thin ice" with them.

No ATVs ever. Period. Not on our watch. When he's 18 he can destroy his brain and body all he wants. DH sees a dead kid a week from one of these.

Guns. DH is more tolerant of these than I am, but he also sees many dead kids from these. I just fail to see the need.

Oh, and I already am considered an overprotective nightmare because I require my kids to be in car seats for any length of trip at all times. My son, who is 9, didn't come out of his booster seat until last year, and only because he is tall.

[houseelf]

My dad used to race motorcycles on the semi-professional circuit. As he aged, he became very anti-motorcycles because he had too many friends killed.

One of the award winning papers at the American Academy of Pediatrics conference in SF a few years back was entitled "ATVs: Unsafe at any Age". That was enough evidence for me.

And this comes from a liberal mom who lets her kids tube and ski off the back of a boat. I'm not one of those crazy, over-protective types.

Kelly

[samssugarmomma]

I'm totally printing this out!


Nellie - the cow train sounds fun! Can adults ride it?

Kelly - are you calling me crazy and over-protective? Me? The mom that makes her DD wear a helmet on her tricycle? (in my defense - our driveway is a big hill that goes down to a concrete retaining wall and a bricked garage. And DD loves to race down the hill as fast as she can....)

I made mine wear helmets on their tricycle so that they'd just be in the habit of wearing a helmet whenever they're on a bike.

[peggyfromwastate]

Yeah- If DD forgets to where a helmet, she gets grounded from riding her bike for 1 year. The one time she was about to forget, I said KATE and she got all flushed and sprinted to put on that thing.

(That was a close one, she said)

Her friends don't ride helmets half the time. It drives me nuts.

But ATVs? For 2 year olds???? For kids at all?

[houseelf]

Kelly - are you calling me crazy and over-protective? Me? The mom that makes her DD wear a helmet on her tricycle? (in my defense - our driveway is a big hill that goes down to a concrete retaining wall and a bricked garage. And DD loves to race down the hill as fast as she can....)

Oh my goodness no!!!! However, you should know that I"m freaky about my kids in other ways that are probably not entirely healthy.

Kelly