PPE for a balance bike?

Children bounce, it's quite amazing.

My little boy wears a helmet because sending your child out without a bike helmet is often interpreted by school teachers as a desire to have your children taken into care. He doesn't wear any other pads and he's quite happy with that even after wiping out spectacularly on ice last winter*. I do prefer it if he wears gloves because I _always_ scratch up my hands when I come off.

So - let them ride free! Just like we did.

*don't worry, I was fine because I was following him and stopped before I hit the ice

Don't forget that you need to get socks that are UCI legal - you can't go balancing your bike wearing illegal socks, or worse still fall foul of the Velominati.

I bet he's not even a real fish.

Would you make them wear that stuff if they just jogged around?

No.

So just f**king stop it.

Being on a balance bike is safer than running.

I gave American football a proper try-out, as an 18 year-old, at an all-day open day with a local team. I was a tidy rugby player, a better sprinter, a fan of American football on the TV, why not. Walter Payton is one of my all-time favourite sportsmen, so, when, during warm-up drills, the coach said I looked like a promising running back, an area the team was weak in, I was made up.

Then it came to kitting up. The drills and training match were 'ok' but the kit takes more than an afternoon of getting used to. My overriding memory is that I couldn't be arsed getting past the oversized, weighty, restrictive kit bullshit to find out whether I actually enjoyed the sport or not.

I'm pretty sure I went home at the end of the session with the same expression as that kid, if I'm reading his/her face properly, beyond the football mascot-sized helmet.

“It really hurts” would probably be sufficient.

My nine year old daughter knows to use oven gloves because... I taught her to. I didn’t need to wait for her to burn herself for the lesson to sink in.

I'm from the school of negligent parenting. I actively celebrated every scuffed knee and wipeout with my kids. When they did BMX they then understood why appropriate PPE was necessary. If they ever get motorbikes or mopeds I hope they will remember how painful gravel rash is and know they are not immortal.

Kids need to learn that things hurt: Knives, hot things, falling over. Sometimes PPE is the answer e.g using oven gloves, but until you actually burn yourself you cannot understand why. I'd far rather that children learn those lessons early in the somewhat controlled conditions of parental supervision, at low speeds with lower body mass, and less distance to fall while they are short.

That’s the kit you wear on a BMX track, gravelly wipeouts are regular occurrences. So whatever age, whatever bike, you dress up like a BMXer and have a blast.  For a kid getting the kit on is all part of the atmosphere.

And yes, BMX is dangerous, that’s part of the thrill. More dangerous for a noob like me than most of the kids, but fortunately I’m not allowed on the big ramp. 

Well swerved.

Why not ask the little 'un their opinion? They are old enough to make up their own minds, surely?

Or let them get confident while wearing PPE (what a shite expression), then let them decide when they've more worldly experience, or been better informed by their parents (assuming they can articulate it).

Go to the NCC and tell them that you won't wear a helmet or gloves for one of their track sessions and see how far that gets you.

Is that the sound of knees I hear jerking?