Bike Helmets: Or How My Kid Didn’t End Up With a Head Injury…

Rarely do we get the chance to prove our children right.  Usually my cries of ‘look both ways!’ and ‘PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, put your seatbelt on, cause we’re not leaving this driveway til you do and we’re really late’ are begrudgingly heeded by the *BLT.

*Not the kind you eat.

Because, as my kids are quick to point out, they have neither been in a car accident or hit by anything while crossing the street.  BUT…

This past Sunday night, T Bub walked in from selling Boy Scout wreaths and said, ‘I’m really glad you make me wear this thing’, referring to his bike helmet.

While riding his bike home from selling Boy Scout Christmas Wreaths (yes, it’s that time of year again) he was flying down a hill and went to take a sharp turn when his wheels slid on some leaves and flung him into a tree.  Head first. 

The top of his helmet took the first and hardest hit, and the tree gouged out the hard plastic on top.  His face and leg were pretty scratched up, but it was clear that the helmet took the brunt of the impact. 

So I will use this opportunity to remind you all out in the Internets of the correct way to wear a bicycle helmet.  I am constantly readjusting my kids helmet, because for some reason, kids seem to think that a bike helmet should fit like a hockey helmet:

{source}

Yeah… I get it.  They don’t like the chin strap (my kids, as well as hockey players).  However, at no time should my kids need to quickly flip off their helmet in order beat the daylights out of another person, so I really must insist they keep the chin strap tightened.

Realistically, the chin strap is only half the problem.  Incorrect positioning of the helmet can also be an issue.  This chart shows how the helmet should sit on your head:

{source}

Clearly, the helmet in the top left ‘wrong’ picture is going to fall down over her eyes and impede her vision.  Obviously, that’s dangerous.  But what I see most often is the lower left ‘wrong’ picture or what I call the ‘gangsta’ helmet position. 

Me: T Bub, why do you have your helmet slung back all gangsta-like? 

T Bub: What does that even mean? That doesn’t even make sense.

Me:  Whatever.  You’re exposing your frontal cortex, which is responsible for rational thought and emotions.  That stuff’s important.  Fix the helmet.

I have to fight with Bitty to get her to wear her helmet, and she hears my constant refrain of ‘no helmet on the head, no butt on the bike’.  Truthfully, she only bikes in our yard, and can’t go any faster than a snails pace.  But I want the habit of wearing a helmet to be firmly engrained in her head for when she does take to the streets someday.

And now, here is a not-so-fun fact from the Allina Bike Team:

• Head injury is the leading cause of death in bicycle crashes. Statistics show that anywhere from 45 to 88 per cent of cyclists' traumatic brain injuries can be prevented by a helmet.

*Stepping off soapbox*

In other news, this might have been the longest title I’ve ever given a post on my blog. 

Parenting Moments #2…

{I wrote this on T Bub’s birthday last week}

 

Here I am… sitting at the Water Park of America, watching my {newly} thirteen year old son. He wouldn’t be happy to know that I’m writing about him, to be sure. But this is the first time one of my kids has hit the teens, and I have to admit to being a little freaked out by that.

 

Okay… more than a little freaked out.

Why?

I just realized I’m past the halfway point. You know, the half way point of how long I get to keep him…

 

{Twenty-four hours old}

 

Although he’s already started making decisions for himself, he’s still mine until he turns eighteen. And if I had known how fast this time would fly, maybe I would have held on a little tighter…

 

{Five years old}

 

But I realize that my whole goal as a parent has been to teach him how to be an adult. MC and I have been teaching him to be responsible, thoughtful, caring… and a productive member of adult society. Together, we’re giving him the tools to be on his own one day.

 

{Nine years old}

Here’s where my heart screams: But that’s technically only five years away… And I’m not ready!

But my head knows how far he’s come: from a kindergartener that didn’t like to be touched, spent the day underneath his desk and couldn’t handle having his crayons out of order (or his Matchbox cars, or his trains), to a first grader with one loyal friend, to a nine year old who learned how to hug his grandparents (yes, learned how to hug. We worked on this for years…), to a thirteen year old that can converse with friends and not talk only about planes (or trucks or the Aerial Lift Bridge {long story}).

 

So here I am… sitting at the Water Park of America, and I can’t believe how lucky I am that I get to be this kid’s mom. And I’ll use this birthday as a reminder of how blessed I am to have been allowed on this journey with this awesome kid.

 

{Happy 13th Birthday, T Bub!}

 

Scrapbooking Fun…

I will admit, I haven’t been the most diligent on keeping up with my scrapbooking. 

Both T Bub and Lovely L have a ‘first year’ scrapbook.  But poor Bitty B?  I’m pretty sure I might have completed a ‘first day of life’ page for her scrapbook.  Yep, that’s it.  The girl gets one page in her scrapbook.  I’m thinking that that’s just what happens when you’re the third kid, though…

The truth is that I am way too much of a perfectionist.  That, coupled with the cost of all the bits, pieces and paper that I wanted, made scrapbooking an almost impossible task for me. 

An example?

Here was my process:  Go to scrap store.  Spend 20 bucks on various stickers and paper.  Spend 12 hours on one page meticulously placing pictures and stickers on page. 

Anal retentive does not even begin to describe my scrapbooking…

In the end, I’d usually be left with some paper, and a bunch of expensive stickers.  On the bright side, my two daughters love the fact that they now have hundreds of stickers at their disposal…

Here’s where I show you my newest scrapbooking venture:

Cute, right? 

For serious, I made that on my computer! 

That’s not even the best part:  This took about 20 minutes total to learn the software and then put the whole page together. 

And guess what?  You will have a chance to win this same software, called the My Memories Suite, next week!  I know, I know… awesome…

Until I post the giveaway, you can go check out more super awesomeness on the My Memories website.  You’ll find tons of cute layouts and scrapbooking kits and even some premade layouts like the one I used to make Bitty’s page.

Her expression in the middle picture is killing me ; ) 

The Blink Of An Eye…

It doesn’t seem possible that my tiny little Tiger Cub is now an honest-to-goodness Boy Scout. 

    

{Left: In Webelos the year we moved into our new house.  He’s wearing MC’s old Boy Scout shirt ; )  Right:  In full Boy Scout gear before heading to Camp this summer}