We got our lad a scooter for his Christmas pressie when he was 2 years and 8 months old. He took to it carefully and rightly demanded to wear his crash helmet at any opportunity (even when not on his scooter). Nowadays he scoots past with one leg in the air at speed but he still wears his helmet.
Now the wee lass at two years and 3 months has had her dream come true, her own scooter, and is probably right at this moment bombing it around somewhere, inducing feelings of mild terror in her mummy.
I don’t think our kids are alone in being able to achieve terrifying speeds on their scooters but in our area they seem pretty unique in actually having a safety helmet on whilst doing it. When I was just finishing my education, our school wouldn’t let you cycle in without a helmet and it’s still the case nowadays. But nobody seems to apply the same thing to scooters. If the front wheels hit a crack in the pavement, a twig or any other obstruction, the forward momentum of the scooter stops, and the child doesn’t, but goes head first over the handles. To start with, the kids are higher off the ground than they are on a bike, so we thought a helmet was a no brainer really.We’ve had one serious high speed dirt incident with the boy, and it’s only his helmet that stopped him planting his face full speed on the tarmac. As it was I had to carry him home with a split lip.