You are hereForums / General Discussion / NoBMoB Chat / Letting kids ride to school doesn't make you a bad parent
Letting kids ride to school doesn't make you a bad parent
A few here might be interested in this:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-cultur...
...Forty years ago 80 per cent of Australian children walked or rode a bike to school, and felt comfortable doing it... today it is thought that less than 20 per cent of children get to school under their own steam.
That's a sad statistic, eh? 
Ride to School Day is tomorrow (March 16).
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Tags
Indeed.
I can't remember ever being taken to school. I'm sure it happened but from very early on I was riding my bike. The journey to and from school was mischievous and fun but kids aren't allowed to experience that anymore
Parents now days are over protective (+ the bikes kids have are a little more up market then my $50 BMX so there's the fear it will be stolen.)
My Eldest just started high school and it's only now they are waling themselves to and from school. My better half felt guilty about not running them around and so forth.. The kids? They're loving their new found freedom and responsibility.
Let the kids ride!
Schools only a 10 minute walk it would take longer to drive.
But I must be a very bad parent though because we ride all the time in the skatepark the dirt track / jumps in the park down the road at the BMX track in Homebush and around the bay its 8km and my 4 and 6 year olds just eats cant get enough of it.
Other parents and kids are always amazed by what my youngest can do and has been doing on a bike since he was three but thats what you get if you take the training wheels of the day you give them a bike and leave them to there own devices.
I absolutely loved riding to school when I was in primary school as it was only a 10 minutes ride and a lot faster than the bus and there were at least 3 other kids in my year that rode everyday and sometimes a bit more than 5. I was wanting to ride to primary school since year 3 ish but could only start in year 5 because of school rules. I would love to ride to high school today to improve my fitness even more but it is from Belrose to Milsons Point which is about a 20km ride that is too dangerous, too time consuming (for the journey and getting changed), I would have to figure out a way to store my bike and I would have no way of carrying all my school and sports gear.
My school also isn't too keen on people riding to school as I heard in year 7 (now in year 11).
I was also never too good at drawing bikes.
Rollin' with my posse tomorrow. We're gonna own the streets...then have a bacon and egg roll at the school. How good's that?
The link below is an article written last year by Boris Johnson that appeared in the SMH along a similar theme. We are now ruled by paranoia, a lack of common sense and laziness, all perpetuated by risk averse layers of govt. We need more Boris's, (Mayor of London if you are not familair)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-cultur...
I didn't see a single kid on my commute to Crows Nest this morning, however the Mosman Tractors were still out in force.
Sad
Happily I had no where to park my bike when biking with the kids. Usually not the case, there was definitely about double the number of bikes and scooters.
It was an interesting ride though, the little one (just turned 6) and has absolutely no clues about the road/cars etc and has decided she can't ride a bike even though she has been riding without training wheels for over 2 years extremely confidently. More time on road with Dad I think, can only get better. I guess it's the best time to ride too as folks are aware kids are going to school on foot/bike/scooter.
Flynny, I lived in that town for a year and it was a bit safer riding to school there than in Sydney. I actually walked to school cause I lived so close (Maple Cres). But yeah, I used to ride my $50 BMX out the back of the High School each arvo on the tracks with the moto riders and ride it all around town. Gee that's 25 years ago. Does anybody there remember Ziggy's on Main St, he had arcade machines. I used to ride there to play them, my bike would sit out the front, nobody ever touched it. Girls in that town were easy (when I was 16).
So get this... I was discussing this with a fellow rider earlier.
He said that he knows an LBS that asked a local school why they didn't have any bike storage for kids who want to ride. The answer came back that the school didn't want the liability. Seems that by providing bike storage, the school is encouraging kids to ride, which makes it the school's fault when the kid get's injured on the way there. WTF!
The school my kids are at have bike racks, not many kids normally ride though.
Great turn out today, too. Must have been half the school turn up on bikes and the rest on scooters. The school had even set up a scoot area with A-lines and B-lines, jumps, bench etc.
Rad!
sounds like your kidz go to a very cool scool Mr cakes !